Tom Arden (1961–2015)

While I commend the author for the attempt at writing a 'strong' female character, I feel like 'Skip' as a protagonist is just a boy character painted to look like a girl.

There are several instances in the book that the author just skimmed over of what it's like to be a 12 year old girl. Then again, I did think this book was supposed to be a coming-of-age type of story....but considering the language and casual violence peppered throughout....maybe not.

There is also just something about the way the author describes the people in the book with complete ire....and nobody is safe, not even the protagonist themselves. Like, if the author doesn't care about these characters at all...why should I?



[Disclaimer: Copy received from Giveaway.]
… (más)

Another Aussie novel from the library. Two sisters are sent to stay with their aunt in a small town called Crater Lakes when their mother has a nervous breakdown (seems to be a theme!) 'Skip' is a twelve year old tomboy who hooks up with the lad next door to face up to a gang of school bullies, while her sixteen year old sister Marlo, with feminist ambitions, just wants to finish school. They get to know the locals and uncover a few long-buried secrets, including the scandal of Roger Dansie.

Getting into the story took me a while, I must admit, even though 'Skip' reminded me - in spirit if not in sympathy - of Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. I'm not sure why the author chose to make the main character a girl when the book obviously has an autobiographical slant, because 'Skip' is a pre-pubescent boy in all but (birth) name. Unless he thought that having a girl beat up the bully would be more entertaining (and he would be right). I got used to 'Skip' eventually, but the pointless scene where she starts her period at school and runs home covered in blood was a worthy successor to the scene in Stephen King's Carrie for male authors not understanding menstruation, and threw me back out of the moment.

The 'story in a story' of local golden boy turned pariah, Roger Dansie, was more interesting, but the 'commune' in the haunted house was a bit far-fetched, and the heavy-handed themes of the Ibsen play put on by the local am dram players reminded me of Mansfield Park.

A random but readable book, with a quirky if slightly cliched cast of characters.… (más)

I really enjoyed this, David Rain captures the spirit of twelve year old 'Skip', an adventurous tomboy, and sixteen year old Marlo, both desperately unhappy to find themselves living with their estranged aunt and uncle in Crater Lake. The cast is lively and interesting, from obese Auntie Noreen to Skip's on-and-off-again best friend, Honza, to the enigmatic Ghost of Dansie House. Rain vividly evokes some of the best and worst elements of Australian life in the 1970's and the claustrophobic oppression of a small country town.… (más)

Inspired by Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Luigi Illica's libretto, and other works on which it was based, David Rain has read into the story of Butterfly, expanded it and continued it towards the end of the C20th through the lives of Pinkerton's son Benjamin and Sharpless' son Woodley. Woodley and Ben, known as Trouble, first meet as young boys at Blaze Academy. Bookish Woodley is immediately drawn to the charismatic and extravagant Trouble, although it takes a while, and a turn of events, for the two to establish a relationship, a relationship that will repeatedly wax and wane over the years as the meet, part and meet up again.

Woodley does his best to look after his wayward friend, encouraged, or rather charged with the commission, by Kate Pinkerton, Trouble's step-mother and wife of the now influential Senator Pinkerton. They live it up in the 1920s, meet again in Japan just before the outbreak of WWII, later they find themselves working together on a secret project that will bring an end to hostilities between Japan and the US. But the fall-out could mean they will not see each other again.

This is a story that seems much bigger than its 270 plus pages, it covers so much with so many twists and turns. I found once or twice, if the story was ever in the possible danger of loosing my attention a new turn of events would rekindle my interest, and the more so on each occasion to the extent that the latter part I read in one sitting. It is much helped by the quality of the writing which alone makes the reading a pleasure.

Woodley, who narrates the account portrays himself as a rather lack-lustre character sometimes failing in his convictions, ponderous and limited by a childhood injury that leaves him crippled; but this only accentuates Trouble's wild, extrovert nature with his lithe, boyish physique. There is a third man in their relationship, Le Vol, a friend of Woodley's from Blaze, a friend who is not so taken with Trouble. Throughout there are rare hints of the real nature of the relationship between Woodley and Trouble, and Woodley and Le Vol, and we must wait until the last pages to find even a hint of a confirmation or otherwise; but then we never really doubted, did we?

This is a compelling story, with a cast of colourful and often powerful men and women; and we can feel very safe throughout in the hands of David Rain and his impeccable prose.… (más)