- I was not a great fan of Tony Birch's previous novel The White Girl but this one is simply superb. It's an absorbing and fascinating story with multiple layers of richness.
- Joe Cluny is an eleven year old boy who attends a local Catholic school in a working class suburb of Melbourne in the mid-sixties. He's not too bright and is always getting into trouble. His thirteen year old sister Ruby on the other hand is dux of her class and well liked. Sister Mary Josephine and Father Edmond run the school and force all the kids to swallow the very traditional and silly Catholic beliefs and practices. It's profound ignorance dressed up as piety. It's also dangerous and abusive. The cane is always at hand.
- Marion is Joe and Ruby's mother, and Charlie is their grandfather. Charlie's shed is full of stuff that fascinates Joe, and his friend Ranji is a scrap metal dealer. They are mature and kindly men that epitomise what real men should be. They also tell stories and read books, which Joe and Ruby find inspiring.
- Oona is Marion’s younger sister. Oona is in a relationship with Ray, a local electric goods shopowner. He is a vicious abuser, as are so many of the shysters that are dotted throughout the community. But she keeps returning to him, believing her abuse won't happen again, and perhaps she was to blame anyway.
- The local priest has an opinion: ‘If she was a married woman, this would not have happened’.
- Of course the beatings continue, and get more vicious.
- The way Birch brings all the threads together at the end is immensely satisfying. There were a number of ways things could have gone, but he keeps the story grounded.
- Well worth a read.
No comments:
Post a Comment