True History of the Kelly Gang

Joining a book club means that I get to read completely different books, ones I would never chose, like this one. But luckily  I really enjoyed this and got into it. 

This is the 'true' story of Ned Kelly, the infamous outlaw/ highwayman/ bushranger from 1880s Australia. I never knew anything about him  so I came to this story with no knowledge but now I have a vivid picture of him, his lifestyle and the harsh, yet beautiful land of NE Victoria. I also feel I have seen the realities of starting up farms , or selections, as they were called, when you are first generation, poor Australians. These were young kids in their late teens with mothers and fathers who were often seriously physically and mentally scared from their years as  convicts in Van Diemans Land, Tasmania, given scraggy bits of land to build their farms.  Life is tough, very tough, and often the local police and high ranking officials are just out to lock up these ' scoundrels' and rid the land of these free ranging, villainous vermin.

Ned's life is tough. His Irish father is totally scarred from his awful treatment in prison( and ends up being locked up again for a crime he never commit.) his Ma is a bright, wild, Irish woman who runs illegal pubs in the back of their shack. Kids keep being born and different men take over the father role but at the age of 11 Ned leaves school.( I love the description of his primary years at school, he saves a boy from drowning and really enjoys being the ink well monitor at school. In a different world he might have grown up to pass exams and become educated.  Anyway, his mother sells her older son to Harry Power and he starts to lead the life of a bushranger. Ned's mum wants her older son out of the way.  Ned's desire to protect his Mum is getting on her nerves. She wants to marry a guy who Ned doesn't like and needs him out of the way. 

Now, Harry Power is much older but Ned is the brains, he can kill, skin and cook any animal which crosses his path and can build temporary shacks quickly, whereas  Harry seems lazy and a bit stupid. But he successfully grooms Ned and turns him into the talented outlaw he becomes. Infact the underlying theme of this book is how adults have the power to shape kids into what they become in the future. 

I love all the stories the guys tell each other and the jokes they share and the bare knuckle fighting. ( I love descriptions of boxing. What the hell is wrong with me?!) The descriptions are so good I really felt I had been transported to the outback. Infact secretly I wanted to be with them, living their crazy, mental lives. These guys are all nuts and hard as nails but they are nothing more than a product of their harsh environment. Tarred with the brush of the crimes of their parents their loyalty to each other is amazing. And through Peter Carry's ability to put us under the spell of Ned' s true history from his own hand ,you really believe everything he says. This is a story that Ned must tell to his newly born daughter. He wants her to know the truth of his life and Carey writes in a style which is very honest but also lacks any commas and is more like a brain splurge on a page. This style obviously makes the story even more realistic because you feel you are right inside Ned's head. He  explains the reasons behind everything he has done and everything makes sense. NOTHING is his fault. He is just urgently putting his life down on paper so that he can tell the story of his life, in his words. ( a bit like a Clockwork Orange.)  the style is unique, but yes, I liked it.  I liked that the roughness of their characters came across strongly, as well as Ned's desire to clear the name of his Mother . The way Ned put his Mum on a pedestal was rather irritating for me. This woman was no saint and I had a strong feeling that the unquestioning love Ned had for her was not reciprocated. Anyway, great read. Much more fun than I thought it would be. I always think Booker winners will be a bit dry or worthy but this was just clever, fun and a great story. Plus I am a bit of a sucker for a bad man and it's far safer for me that they stay safely within the pages of a book! 

Empire of the Sun

C

I read this in 5 days because I suddenly decided to go to a book club yesterday evening. After 3 years of waffling on alone on this blog I decided it might be good to discuss a book with a group. Last  week I found out about this Meet Up, signed up and bought the book.

Luckily I enjoyed reading it, but the evening was totally ruined by my eating a totally rank mussel chowder at the Jam Factory before the club started. I knew the soup was awful as I was eating it, but I stupidly carried on. My god, I was ill last night. Luckily now, about 18 hours later I feel a bit better. DO NOT EAT at the Jam Factory. Infact don't drink there either. Everything is over priced and rubbish. I have always disliked the Jam Factory, but now it's personal, the bastards poisoned me. 

Anyway, this book was great. I really enjoyed it. Jim is a priveliged 11 year old boy who lives a comfortable life with his English family in Shanghai. Suddenly , when the Japanese take over Shanghai in 1942, Jim's life is turned upside down. He is thrown into a world gone mad. He loses his parents, watches the Japaneese brutally kill most of the locals and he is left to roam around Shanghai under his own devices. He lives in various houses, living off cocktail biscuits and soda water and riding his bike through the big houses. He seems to have been totally forgotten about. I loved this opening third of the book. A weird, yet kind of fun, abandoned apocalyptic, playground for Jim. He has no idea what is going on. All he knows is that he is in awe of the Japanese and their lack of fear. Infact he wants to join the Japanese army and also thinks he is personally responsible for starting the war. 

Jim is then finally 'seen' and taken off to an internment camp. The book becomes highly strange and disconnected. You think Jim has travelled for days but the camp is just up the road .  He seems a brave little urchin ,whereas the adults around him are obviously totally disturbed by the war experience. Jim is the only person in the group brave enough to ask the Japanese guards for water. The Internment section is disturbing, this book is all about what people will do to survive and how Jim begins to view death and mutilation as normal. He is addicted to the planes and trucks, these machines are his only real friends. He does ask an old woman about when souls leave the body and he suddenly believes that he can bring dead people's souls back to them. This belief gives him great comfort. This section was very beautiful and so well written. This talk of souls was like a shining diamond in a pretty rough, relentless story.  

It all sounds pretty grim and to be honest it is, but Jim's positivity and desire to see only the good, (as only an innocent young lad can) is what keeps this book going.  People are treated so badly,especially the Chinese, and by the end of the book you understand that the Chinese were treated so appallingly by both the British overlords and then by the Japanese. They were treated as nothing more than dogs. 

 The death marches are again rather surreal, but I think that is because Jim is starving and he can't clearly see or interpret anything. The moments when one or two adults suddenly appear to care for Jim  are really moving because these times are so infrequent.  Every adult seems totally wrapped up in themselves. This book is totally devoid of sentimentality and even though the subject is grim,by the end you feel totally in awe of the human desire to stay alive.  (especially such a vulnerable lad) 

Ballard wrote this book from his own memories as a teenager in a Prisoner  of war camp in Shanghai. But this book is more fiction than truth because Ballard was interned with his family throughout and never became a feral child , living off his wits.

This 'made up 'section didn't bother me but many people at the book club were annoyed that Ballard had cheated the readers by making a ' Boy's Own adventure' out of events. I kind of agreed but hey, it's a novel and Ballard wanted to get across the isolation. Plus seeing all this destruction from the perspective of a naive , 11 year old abandoned child makes the war events even more chilling.

Now I need to watch the movie. I've heard it's far, far, less hard hitting than the book .  I will see! 

Case Histories

I loved Kate Atkinson's first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, but this one was just OK. I read most of it on the plane home, so it was like a good solid page turner.  But to be honest I didn't like any of the characters apart from Theo ( the fat guy) and even he was just desperately sad. Infact all I got from this book was quite a lot of sadness imvolving not living your life to your full potential because of the unsolved murder of someone you loved. 

 There were three murders in different decades and Jackson Brodie is the sad, lonely ( book theme) investigator bought in to solve these crimes years later. The beginning of the book was great as all murders were described and for the first 100 pages I was totally hooked. Then I lost  momentum as the style of writing and the depressing characters took over.   Each crime was cleverly looped in on each other within the book and from the point of view of writing style,  social commentary and structure this book was great. But from the point of view of plot and entertainment value it was a bit sluggish and in the end just a bit disappointing. The crime solutions just didn't work for me at all apart from the axe murder of the husband. 

I found out last week that this book also has been a mini series on BBC 1. I have to move away from reading these British mini- series kind of books, they ultimately annoy me. Maybe because all these books are all too close to home. I shouldn't read about modern British problems when I see them all around me every day!  What the hell shall I choose next?!  I know, something from a different country and a different time period!