Pobby and Dingan.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Pobby and Dingan

"Her face was puffy and pale and fuzzed-over. She just came in and said: "Ashmol, Pobby and Dingan are maybe-dead." That's how she said it."

Rice's' first novella is an enormously touching exploration of innocence lost and regained. Pobby and Dingan are the title of the book and the names of the main characters as well. They are imaginary creatures, created by the magically imaginative or emotionally troubled young girl, who began to stir up a large amount of trouble in the small outback where their creator and her family make their home. The story is narrated by Ashmol Williamson the brother of the young girl Kellyanne. His down-to-earth, quirky narration adds an extremely believable quality to the novella. He is very often funny and his observations about the town and its inhabitants are near perfect.

Set in contemporary Australia it is a timeless sort of tale form the outback. The family live in the small mining town of Lightning Ridge. Rex Williamson, a well-meaning drunk in search of fortune relocates his family there in order to mine for opals. Kellyanne's belief in her imaginary friends parallels the Williamsons' dire faith in finding the