Earth is the second in an intimate quartet of novels examining modern trauma, from Irish novelist John Boyne (still best known for the Holocaust parable The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). It puts toxic masculinity and the law of sexual assault on trial. Evan Keogh leaves Ireland and works as a male escort – which he finds a demeaning experience – before becoming a professional footballer. When Evan films a fellow player in bed with a woman, the two players end up in the dock at a rape trial, where Evan must confront his sexuality … and his complicity in a terrible act of violence against a woman. Unlike the first novel in the quartet, Water, which was buoyed by complex psychological currents and the power of suggestion, Earth is a stolid novel that moves inexorably towards an obvious, if gruelling, conclusion, and doesn’t dig deep enough to fulfil the promise of this elemental suite of fiction.
Gus and the Missing Boy
Troy Hunter, Wakefield Press, $24.99
Gus gets his chance to sleuth in the most unlikely of ways.
Gus Green is overweight, gay, and primary carer for his injured mum. He’s plagued by anxiety, finding relief by indulging his passion for true crime – and vague fantasies of becoming a real-life detective. Gus gets his chance to sleuth in the most personal and unlikely of ways. He finds a digitally aged photograph of a child who was kidnapped long ago and never found. That photo looks suspiciously like him. Together with his only friends Kane and Shell, Gus must investigate a mystery that threatens to unravel life as he knows it. It’s an inspired premise for a novel, and Gus is an endearing and vulnerable character, though the plot gathers too many convenient implausibilities and the supporting cast isn’t as fleshed out as it could be.
NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys, Genesis Publications, $99.99
Most of the story is told by the band.
Somebody once said that when The Beatles arrived, they made The Beach Boys look like golf caddies. All the same, it didn’t stop them making some of the great pop songs of our time. This sumptuously illustrated group portrait charts their story from suburban California to the world stage. Most of it is told by the band, but there’s also a long list of contributors. Their music comes across as a collective, largely family effort, but it’s Brian Wilson who is the central figure. It’s amazing that he was only 23 when they recorded Good Vibrations, and the band recollections of the four-month recording period (Brian wrote out each musician’s part) is intriguing. But it’s not all good vibrations, there’s sadness in the early death of two Wilson brothers, as well Brian Wilson’s nervous breakdown in 1964, which led him to quit touring.
The princes emerge as a mix of the resigned and down at the heel.
Dethroned
John Zubrzycki, Hurst, $34.99
The British Raj only took in about half of India, the rest consisted of hundreds of princely states propped up by the British. But, by 1947, with independence, they were absorbed into the nations of India and Pakistan. This is an intriguing account (Zubrzycki worked in India as correspondent and diplomat) of how it was done – with persuasion, promises that couldn’t be kept and force. But his main focus is on what became of the states after partition. He gives cameo portraits of some of the 562 princely state rulers, many of whom were decadently self-serving, while others were progressive and fair, as well as the major political players: Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Mountbatten. The princes, post-partition, emerge as a mix of the resigned and down at the heel, in this lively portrait of an extraordinarily complex moment.
Girt by Sea
Rebecca Strating & Joanne Wallis, La Trobe University Press, $36.99
This is a work for students and specialists.
These two academics specialising in national defence argue the time has come for Australia to reimagine just what constitutes the sovereign state of Australia. Among other things, they say, this requires incorporating pre-European history: “The historical legacies of imperialism continue to shape Australia’s attitudes to its neighbours, and their attitudes to us.” A key term running through the argument is our “maritime domain” – most Pacific regions – the point being that for too long we have looked solely towards great and powerful friends outside it. They also argue – nothing new – that defence thinking has consistently over-emphasised military policy at the expense of more nuanced policy such as regional interaction and diplomacy. This is timely, detailed work, but definitely one for students and specialists.
Vivian Bullwinkel survived an extraordinary wartime ordeal.
Sister Viv
Grantlee Kieza, ABC Books $34.99
In February 1942, Japanese soldiers marched a group of Australian nurses, who had been evacuated out of Singapore, only to be bombed and shipwrecked, into the water at Radji beach on Bangka Island, machinegunned them, then bayoneted the still living. Amazingly, Vivian Bullwinkel survived. Grantlee Kieza, a veteran chronicler of notable Australians, charts her life from a Presbyterian childhood in Broken Hill to living through the depression in the shadow of Japanese atrocities in China and the coming war. She joined up, was shipped to Singapore and wound up on that bloody beach. Incorporating wider, historical narratives, Kieza also details her celebrated post-war life. With a mixture of drama and melodrama, he creates a portrait of an extraordinary woman, while also creating a picture of chilling war crimes.
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