Chloe Hooper, The Arsonist.

WARNING: DO NOT GOOGLE ‘BLACK SATURDAY’ BUSHFIRES UNTIL YOU’VE READ THIS BOOK. (You need to not know or remember how it ends).

- This was a must-read for me as I’m a great fan of Chloe Hooper’s work, particularly her fiction. 

- This is her first non-fiction book after the superb The Tall Man. From the get-go it is powerful stuff. Its description of the ferocity of the bush fire is compelling.

- The alleged arsonist, Brendon Sokaluk, is identified by the police arson squad early and easily, without drama (someone dobs him in). He’s an intellectually disabled local identity. In terms of story power it seems limp, but that’s before Hooper’s talent for painting the full picture becomes evident. 

- The townspeople are angry and cruel. There are many death threats. It’s ugly. Brendon has always been regarded as  a ‘vegie', a 'retard’, a ‘spastic’. A lot of people feel intimidated, even threatened, by ‘strange’ people’. He is later diagnosed as autistic.

- Hooper describes the towns and the La Trobe Valley coal region very sympathetically. The privatisations, the huge job losses - ‘The Valley became a human sink, a place people ended up...They lived beyond the sight of those with influence, amidst the symbols of the unloved past’. 

- Is Brendon now a scapegoat? His defence lawyers and teams are thorough in questioning the police case. 

- Part three of the narrative is the court proceedings. It reminded me of Helen Garner, but without Helen as a character. Hooper brings the drama alive with detail, subtlety and fairness. It builds to a conclusion without any hint as to how the jury will decide. Both the police prosecutors and the defence team are portrayed as highly professional. 

- Very intense indeed.