Tomorrow I'm going to meet an author. His name is Craig Silvey, and he wrote a book called "Jasper Jones". Hyberbolic reviewers have tagged it "the Australian version of To Kill a Mockingbird", and the author "the next Tim Winton". This uber-praise puts a lot of pressure on a book (and its author) and misrepresents the book to potential readers.
Anyhow ... Jasper Jones is a terrific book. It's about young people dealing with life in a stifling small town atmosphere, trying to "get a life" (so glad that expression has died down somewhat!). The book has great physical presence, set in a boring country town in 1965 (many of us have lived there). It could equally be set in the present - small towns = small minds wherever they live. The young people in the story must figure out what to do in an extreme situation that (thankfully) most of us do not have to face. An abundance of references to Mark Twain has made me go back and find "Huckleberry Finn" (a multiply banned book in the USA for various reasons) and because of the Tim Winton comparison, "Breath". Find out more about Jasper Jones from the publishers
(including Craig Silvey talking) here.
Once I had finished with Jasper Jones, I suddenly remembered being introduced to another young Australian writer, Adrian Stirling, whose first novel "Broken Glass" was featured at the Reading Matters conference in Melbourne this year. Equally compelling, and similarly about the prospects for young people in a small country town in Australia, this book is arguably more shocking. As in "Jasper Jones" there's a manipulative relationship between teenage friends, physical violence, and a decision to be made about the future. Both books will shock, but if you can stand the emotional rollercoaster, give them both a try. I'm glad I read them together. [Perhaps for Mature Audiences Only!]
