True History of Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

‘I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.’

Edward 'Ned' Kelly, the notorious bush ranger, is given a new life by the master work of Peter Carey, for which we won the Booker Prize in 2001. Written in an autobiographical form for most of the part and few reports by the officials and articles by press and others, the eventful life, albeit short ( he was caught and killed when he was only 26) is brilliantly given light to by Carey. This is my first book of him and is highly impressed with his style and the way he managed to bring the fictional qualities of otherwise a biographical subject.

Ned Kelly, son of an Irish Settler ( sent to Australia as a convict from Ireland) in Australia was often considered as a folk hero or equivalent to the Robinhood of southern hemisphere. The early life of Irish settlement in Australia had been a constant struggle, against the ruling English big brothers. While this aspect of Irish-English conflict wasn't discussed in this book, one could sense the constant conflicts between the two. The lands and other belongings owned by Irishmen were often confiscated and they were sent to gaols for petty crimes. As we understand the story of Ned wasn't any different. At his young age, his father was arrested and sent to prison for fabricated reasons. Despite his attempt to lead a normal life, his father could not survive the hardship and died leaving a family of 7 children to the mother. In order to survive, His mother started taking suitors ( in order to survive) to the obvious displeasure of young Ned. Ned was thus sent to the apprenticeship under a infamous bushranger Harry Power.

The Kelly family, by now acquired a decent sized property to cultivate near eleven mile creek bordering Victoria, had moved to their new place. His closeness to his mother and siblings, made him desert the mighty Harry Power and come back to his mother. However, his assistance to Harry Power already caused him trouble with his name now being reported for stealing horses from McBean. By now he was declared an outlaw. Moving in and out of gaol, he is now become famous through out the country. One incident involving the murder of 3 policemen, caused the authorities to sent forces for his capture. Now, joined by his brother Dan and two of his friends, the "Kelly Gang" escape the police and authorities travelling by night from one safe place to other. In the meanwhile, his mother was arrested and put in gaol, his brother in law was caught and killed, his family was often subjected to difficulties, all of which makes him against the state. Despite his reputation, we do not see any atrocities he committed against the common man, nor any gruesome act ( apart from the bank robbery) described in the book. He continue to maintain his willingness to surrender and go with the States, if his mother was released and reinstated.

On the request of his wife( who moved to the safer shores of US), Ned Kelly writes his life story to his yet to be born daughter. One can see a loving father, a man who is clear in his conscience, who do not glorify his deeds nor is he upset on his actions. The language used by the writer is apt and true to the style and the voice one expect. Despite the tite "True History" , this is a fictional work, however without deviating from the dates and people. Very insightful account, vibrant, witty and very touching tale of one of the great resistance of the downtrodden. I am not sure if the historians view the storyo f Ned Kelly with an Irish settlers resistance, but Peter Carey wrote a great tale here, of a young boy from the poor background to become a legend. Interestingly, instead of spending his time and effort on his feats and adventure, Carey spent a lot of time on the person behind the 'hero'. His love of his mother, his need to get the facts right ( he tries to write a letter to the Member of the Parliament) wth his daughter, a considerate leader, a gentleman to the others who deal with him, a oedipal son who can not stand the sufferings of his mother ( two of his mother's lovers faces the consequences), a shy lover who jumps to joy and celebrate on the news of the birth of his daughter.

The language is of the 19th century Australian settlers. The use of "adjectival" on every sentence. Structured and styled as a reproduction of 'discovered manuscripts' ( describing the size and condition of the documents) , he tried to create authenticity of his tale. Interestingly, I understand, History of Kelly Gang was the first ever feature film, produced way back in 1906. To use his own style , this is an "adjectival" good book.

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True history of the Kelly Gang ( 2000)

Peter Carey

Faber & Faber

424 Pages
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Ransom - David Malouf

"I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before," he says. "I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son."

Taking a clue from Homer's epic, Illiud, David Malouf recreate the scene in a dramatic fashion to the readers. The risk of adaptation of themes from Epics ( you a whole lot in India from Mahabharat and Ramayan), it is already deep rooted in the minds of the reader. You can fail miserably if your take is not conforming with that of the reader. In this case, Malouf, as far as I am concerned pulls up a brilliant effort. Written as an encounter between the Trojan King Prium and Achilles, the tale goes from one side to the other through the twist and turns of the internal reflections and remorse of two of the giant figures of the great Greek tragedy.

Achilles had his revenge, killing Hector, fearless warrior and sun of Trojan King Priam in an epic battle. to avenge the killing of his close friend and associate Patroclus by the hands of Hector. His anger is at such that each day he return to the decapitated body of Hector and drag it through the war fields, bringing insult to the great warrior. It is the duty of Priam to retrieve the body of his son and give him proper burial befitting his stature. After evaluating various options, he decided to venture himself to meet Achilles, request his to return the body and bring back to his country. As expected, there was great rejection and turmoil in the court against such a step. However, his decision was firm and he trusted his ability to convince Achilles and bring back the body of his son. He set forth his journey , in simple white dress, removing all his royal insignia, and choose to ride a mule with a support. He was going as a father and not as a fellow King, negotiating terms. All he had was the 'ransom' he collected and loaded to please Achilles. The encounter itself was dramatic and he had to go through great humiliation and insult before good sene prevailed.

It is not the story that is interesting, but the way David Malouf tried to get into the scheme of things and under the skin of his chosen characters. For Priam, it is realisation of the vulnerability of his position. At the end, he is a father, he is also a fellow citizen, whose life he never encountered sitting in the palace. While he managed to retrieve the lifeless body of his son, he also manages to retrieve the pulse of his countrymen.

It is not the story that matters, but the aspect of story telling. David Malouf, going by this book, is a great story teller. His language and style is delicate and lyrical. I also, think that this is also written as a five act play for theatrical adaption. There is an overwhelming presence of the dramatist in the conversations and in the narration. This short novel is a good introduction for me to this good writer and I look forward to read a full length fiction soon.

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Ransom ( 2009 )

David Malouf

Vintage Books

224 Pages

Rs 399
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Other Reviews : The independent , Guardinan

The Spare Room - Helen Garner

'When a person dies',she said, ' little bit of them flies away from their body'
'Yes' , I said.'I've heard people say that.What a beautiful
idea'.
'It's called a soul'

Nicola comes to Melbourne from Sydney, to undergo a special treatment at Theodore Institute for Cancer. The treatment , mainly consists of Vitamin C injections on alternate days and Ozone therapy on the other. Helen, the narrator, an old time friend of Nicola, has to accommodate her for the period of treatment. The novel starts with Helen preparing her spare room for the visitor, with a quote from from the Australian novelist Elizabeth Jolley, : "It is a privilege to prepare the place where someone else will sleep."

Theodore Institute , practices alternate medicine and the initial interaction makes Helen doubtful of their intentions. The sick, however is in good spirit and believes ( to make others believe that she believe) in them and boast to recover in two weeks time. As the days progressed, it becomes difficult for Helen. She becomes restless, gets angry and helpless straining the sacred part time nursing job. All this does not stop her from nursing the sick, taking care of her, washing her clothes and cooking for her. Her personal life also goes out of gear, shutting door to her grand children living next door hardly able to sleep, unable to complete her other usual jobs.

You're angry and scared," Helen shouts at Nicola. "But you won't admit it. You want to keep up this masquerade.... I'm sick with it. I can't breathe."

Nicola on her part does not make it easy either. She is on a different war, mocking at the face of death, with her optimism. She can't loose hope and succumb to the pain, however unbearable the treatments are. Each day she returns back after the Vitamin C injections, barely able to stand, but insists on continuing until the end of three weeks. A single woman, with no family apart from a sister and her daughter as known relative, has to put up a brave front, for survival.

The relationship is becoming fragile for Helen as she is unable to continue, and fails to convince her friend on regular medicine or on a palliative care help. Unable to stand the suffering of her friend during the injection, she lodge an official complaint against the Theodore Institute, looses cool and shouts at the Doctor in the process. At one time, "I wanted to smash the car into a post, but for only her to die - I would leave the keys in the ignition, grab my backpack and run for my life."

At the end of three weeks, Nicole returns to Sydney, but this time to convinced to do the treatment at the regular institute, where they diagnosed the cancer affected her vertebrae , needing an emergency operation.

'I thought I was on the mountain top' she said in a voice that splintered. 'But I'm only in the foothills' .............'Death's at the end of this, isn't it'.

She continue to live for few more months, nursed by her relatives and friends , including Helen, before succumbs to the eventual death.

This is a book of love, friendship,compassion, despair, tiredness, frustration and suffering. It isn't easy to live with a terminally ill person. It calls for very strong character. Especially, if the person is not your blood relative and is not an easy person to handle.

Helen Garner writes the book from her own experience of nursing one of her friend ( Jenya Osborne ) when she was dying. While the general mood of the book is of pathos, the inner turmoil of anger, sympathy , helplessness etc are depicted honestly and convincingly. Nice, little book.
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The Spare Room
Helen Garner
Canongate Books
195 Pages
Rs 424
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Further Read : The Australian, NY Times , The Age

Gould's Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan

As I tried to pat out the book's flaring edge I noticed some of the words illuminated by the flames. I the firelight I read some sentences that made no sense whatsoever, ...................... Then the flame leapt up the page to my hand & the page, already loose, fell into the fire.... I then read what was now its beginning, a half torn page, the first legible words of which were:
"....for I am William Buelow Gould. sloe-souled, green-eyed, gap-toothed, shaggy haired & grizzle gutted, & I mean to paint pictures of fish & capture in them one more soul like mine.."

A fake painter and art dealer,Sid Hammet, living in present day Tasmania finds an old book written by a Tasmanian convict named William Buelow Gould. His interest in this was diminished as every one he approaches tells him this is fake and there is no such book. It is dubbed as another of those 'Australian literary fraud'. Fascinated by the book, he now starts rebuilding the story ( he claims it is from his memory as the book is lost) from the page 41 of the manuscript.

The story of Gould is based on the history of the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on the West Coast of Tasmania. Convicted and sent to the isolated penal colony for reason not apparent - he commits few petty crimes in England ( My real crime was seeing the world for what it is & painting it as fish. For that reason alone, I was happy to sign a confession of guilt.) and in and out of the prison ( after multiple failed attempts to escape) , Gould resorts to drawing the images of fishes in the Tasmanian sea , on the advise from the Doctor for the Royal Society for survival.

During the drawing of fishes ( 12 of them in total), Gould narrates the story of the island and the prison camp to as it appears to him. The commander , who took charge of the island on a clever manipulation by erasing the details of his own past , under a new name , rule the land at his whims and fancies. On receipt of letters from his imaginary sister from Europe, he set upon changing the face of the small Tasmanian Island to match to those described by the letters. He trades the resources with the Japanes and Chinese for income , sets up a railway station and a circular railway line. Build an auditorium , seen never before.

The life of the convicts are as bad as anyone could imagine. Torture, murder, illness and various forms of abuse are a way of life. Those who attempt unsuccessful escapade are treated cruelly and murdered brutally. People are put in solitary cells where the water levels increase to the level of their neck during tides. Gould describes the initial scenes of his arrival at the prison..

Even before alighting, even before we saw anything up close, our noses were assailed by the effluvium of death. Death was in that heightened smell of raddled bodies & chancre-encrusted souls. Death arose in a miasma from gangrenous limbs & bloody rags of consumptive lungs. Death hid in the rancorous odour of beatings, in the new buildings already falling apart with the insidious damp that invaded everything, was seeping out of sphincters rotting from repeated rapes. Death was rising in the overripe smell of mud fermenting, enmities petrifying, waiting in wet brick walls leaning, in the steam of flesh sloughing with the cat falling, so many fetid exhalations of unheard screams, murders, mixed with the brine of a certain wordless horror; collectively those scents of fearful sweat that sour clothes & impregnate whole places & which are said to be impervious to the passage of time, a perfume of spilling blood which no amount of washing or admission was ever to rid me. And perhaps because everywhere was death, life has perversely never seemed so sweet as what it did when I first came to Sarah Isaland.

Gould escape this routine with the help of the island doctor Lempriere , a fanatic for natural sciences, agreeing to draw him the scientific illustrations of various fish of the island. He also extends his relative freedom by taking up paintings for the great Mah-Jong hall for the commandant , and silly landscapes for the Constable Pobjoy.

The fate takes a decisive turn for Gould after the mysterious death of Dr.Lempriere , for which Gould is accused and put in solitary cell. His adventures leads him to the central library, where the Danish Record Keeper Juergen Juergenson maintain all the historical data of the place and the convicts. This adventure was also short lived after being caught by the Dane, and the incidents that followed caused the death of the Dane, and his yet another escape.

This time he is determined to find Matt Brady , an escaped convict, who run a parallel kingdom in the island, often threatening the officials with his attacks. The records that carried by him might find some real use to all those convicts there if he manages to send them to England and only Brady can do that for him. The long walk across the plain reunite him with the aboriginal lady with whom he suspect to have had a baby. But the journey was tiresome and suffering from clold, hunger and nakedness fighting hallucinations, he end up caught by the search team for the final time.
Gould's world is not what we have seen in the history books and in the official records. Hence it is necessary for the authorities to deny them as fraus. It is gruesome and cruel beyond our imagination. Flanagan let Gould to invent the story as it pleases to him and let the narrative take the course of its own. Going back and forth, a glimpse here and another there. There is rich creativity and imagery here.

I was a vile piece of cell-shit.I smelt the breath of my fellows. I tasted the sour stench of their rotten lives. I was the stinking cockroach I was the filthy lice that didn't stop itching. I was Australia. I was dying before I was born. I was a rat eating its young. I was Mary Magdalene. I was Jesus. I was sinner. I was saint. I was flesh& flesh's appetite & flesh's union& death &love were all equally rank & equally beautiful in my eyes.

He also structure his tale very interestingly, without detailing much into his personal deeds. He also make a great spectacle of events of torture and death.

Despite all the hardship, Gould is not loosing his hope on the world. "Why,"he says , "when all the evidence of my life tells me that the world smells worse than the old Dane's bobbing corpse, why is it that I still can't help believing that the world is good & that without love I am nothing?"
This is not an easy book to read.The language is on a harder side, I had to refer the dictionary often. The events are jumbled and often are with no chronologic order. It is hard to distinguish between the real and the hallucinations as many of the characters are fake and are introduced by the re-teller, some connections are also lost. The last 100 odd pages are superb and make up for the lack of concentration in the middle pages.

Flanagan uses a language and style befitting to the narration. The changes from the early pages ( present day) to the story of Gould of the early 19th century is remarkable. A very good novel by this Australian writer.

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Gould's Book of Fish - A Novel in 12 Fish
Richard Flanagan
Grove Press
404 Pages
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Further Read: Complete Review , Guardian