Dominic Amerena, I Want Everything

 

- Amerena's debut novel is written in punchy, lively, colourful prose, and has a delightful comic edge. It's absolutely captivating. 

- It's a brilliantly told story of literary liars. It's a damning critique of mothers and men. It's a story of love and devotion. It's a story of desperation and pain. 

- The unnamed narrator (what a cliche that is) tracks down an old woman he recognised at the local pool. He is certain she is Brenda Shales, a brilliant writer of only two highly controversial novels, who has not been seen for decades. She'd become a recluse. Both bestselling novels were a ‘controlled fury…resolutely against men, marriage and the family’. They were published in the early 1970's, at the same time as Germaine Greer's iconic The Female Eunuch.  

- He follows her to an aged care facility, and is mistakenly introduced to her by a nurse as her grandson. He submits to that lie, which becomes a central theme of the novel. 

- Over the course of a few weeks Brenda tells him her life story. She became pregnant when a high school student, and her very conservative parents - so typical of the time - forced her to put the baby up for adoption. She subsequently had numerous low paying jobs including one as a secretary for the Husbands Emancipation League, men who hated Gough Whitlam and his promise to introduce the No Fault Divorce legislation, which would enable women to divorce their abusive husbands without needing to submit to restrictive legal and court processes. Those meetings would inspire her second angry and ferocious novel which would become a worldwide bestseller. 

- There are many twists and turns in this novel, some surprising, but they all add a richness and depth to the tale. What is especially pleasing, and quite shocking really, is the ending. All the threads are brought together in a very surprising but satisfying way.

- This review by Bri Lee captures the book superbly:

This novel is that most exquisite rarity: a brilliant concept, brilliantly executed. Amerena has so precisely rendered and skewered Australian literary culture that I was shrieking with delight while I squirmed in recognition. The tease of a mystery plot had me turning the pages non-stop, but there were real gem-like sentences in here too. And on top of that, he can write women. And on top of that, he can write writing!