This engrossing novel is only one of perhaps a dozen or so that in recent months I have read that deals with the issue of domestic violence and that is set in an Australian country town. There seems to be a plethora of talented women writers in this country who are putting the likes of Tim Winton to shame with their stories that both keep you turning the pages and that explore life in all its facets with a careful eye.
Viggers’ novel is focalised mainly through three characters. One is Leon, who works with the state government’s parks department looking after public facilities in a small town in southern Tasmania. Leon wants to fit in but logging is a big part of the economy in this part of the world so he is stymied in many ways by a number of townspeople. Another character the narrative is focalised through is Max, Leon’s neighbour, who is 10 years old and who has a problem with a bully at school named Jaden, who is the son of a local policeman. Leon adopts one of the puppies that Max’s family dog Rosie produces, and teaches Max how to play AFL. The other main character in this novel is Miki, the titular character. Miki lives behind a takeaway shop in town with her brother, Kurt, who is her legal guardian until she turns 18. Miki and Kurt had been brought up in a very religious household but the rest of the family had been killed in a fire that had been caused by a log leaving a fireplace while they slept.
There is one final character who is used to focalise the narrative, but this occurs only in one chapter. This man is Toby, who is a local forest worker who volunteers with the fire service and who plays AFL with Leon. His part in the story is fairly minor but is crucial at the end in order to tidy up the threads that Viggers deploys to tell her story of male stupidity. It seems that every second male in the story is a violent psychopath but in my mind the overwhelming emotion that animates it is pity.
This is a novel written in the old mode and it belongs spiritually to a time when novels were still imbued with a value that they have to a certain degree lost. Viggers’ confreres are people like Flaubert and Tolstoy and Charlotte Bronte. The kind of drama that Viggers uses in her book has echoes of the great novels of the 19th century, when people died violent deaths or madwomen were discovered living in the attic. There is something cathartic about reading a novel like this, but in some respects this strength is also a weakness as there are few opportunities to create poetry that do not link directly to the themes the novel retails in.
The problem of Jaden is the first thing that the author deals with. Max flees into the bush with Bonnie, Leon’s dog, as he tries to escape the fears that he has built up surrounding the figure of Jaden, who is older and stronger. But the problem of how to fix Miki’s dilemma is more difficult, and in order to achieve this, Viggers is inspired to again put life in danger. Kurt’s controlling nature erupts one day and he lashes out, hitting his sister in the face several times. Then he goes off in his ute with a gun, seeking revenge.
I found myself unable to tear myself away from the book past a certain point, although for my reading of it there were several days when I left it aside and put my mind to other things. It’s a real page-turner and has all the dramatic moment of a thriller. This aspect of the book is most noticeable toward the ending when a lot of different strands of the narrative are tied up together to form a nexus of emotional release for the reader that is consonant with the types of themes the book deals in.
Viggers takes a patient look at masculinity, and is not unaware of the biological imperatives that motivate many men in their daily lives to behave in various ways. It is this kind of appraisal of the realities of the world that makes her book eventually so sound at heart. Leon and Miki on one occasion help a wildlife ranger to find Tasmanian devils so that the breeding population can be maintained in order to safeguard the species from extinction threatened by a deadly facial tumour. The male devils are naturally combative just like human males are. This is something that is borrowed from life, just as is Max’s liking physical sports. The need for men to compete with each other physically is examined in several scenes in the book, as when Leon is playing AFL with his local team or when Shane, Max’s father, is shown making sculptures out of wood with a chainsaw at a forestry industry event. This aspect of male psychology is however contrasted with the need that women have, as emblematised by Geraldine, who runs the town’s tourist office, to read books and to share their love of fiction with female friends.
In addition to the main theme of male aggression there is a secondary, and possibly related, theme of the natural world and how best to care for it. I say “possibly” because there aren’t explicitly linked by the author but there is a feeling in the book that part of the problem we have with the environment is a generally male-driven need to exploit it for gain. Miki’s love of the bush is one index of this idea. The theme is touched on at several places in the story and serves to provide it with additional depth.
Viggers’ novel is focalised mainly through three characters. One is Leon, who works with the state government’s parks department looking after public facilities in a small town in southern Tasmania. Leon wants to fit in but logging is a big part of the economy in this part of the world so he is stymied in many ways by a number of townspeople. Another character the narrative is focalised through is Max, Leon’s neighbour, who is 10 years old and who has a problem with a bully at school named Jaden, who is the son of a local policeman. Leon adopts one of the puppies that Max’s family dog Rosie produces, and teaches Max how to play AFL. The other main character in this novel is Miki, the titular character. Miki lives behind a takeaway shop in town with her brother, Kurt, who is her legal guardian until she turns 18. Miki and Kurt had been brought up in a very religious household but the rest of the family had been killed in a fire that had been caused by a log leaving a fireplace while they slept.
There is one final character who is used to focalise the narrative, but this occurs only in one chapter. This man is Toby, who is a local forest worker who volunteers with the fire service and who plays AFL with Leon. His part in the story is fairly minor but is crucial at the end in order to tidy up the threads that Viggers deploys to tell her story of male stupidity. It seems that every second male in the story is a violent psychopath but in my mind the overwhelming emotion that animates it is pity.
This is a novel written in the old mode and it belongs spiritually to a time when novels were still imbued with a value that they have to a certain degree lost. Viggers’ confreres are people like Flaubert and Tolstoy and Charlotte Bronte. The kind of drama that Viggers uses in her book has echoes of the great novels of the 19th century, when people died violent deaths or madwomen were discovered living in the attic. There is something cathartic about reading a novel like this, but in some respects this strength is also a weakness as there are few opportunities to create poetry that do not link directly to the themes the novel retails in.
The problem of Jaden is the first thing that the author deals with. Max flees into the bush with Bonnie, Leon’s dog, as he tries to escape the fears that he has built up surrounding the figure of Jaden, who is older and stronger. But the problem of how to fix Miki’s dilemma is more difficult, and in order to achieve this, Viggers is inspired to again put life in danger. Kurt’s controlling nature erupts one day and he lashes out, hitting his sister in the face several times. Then he goes off in his ute with a gun, seeking revenge.
I found myself unable to tear myself away from the book past a certain point, although for my reading of it there were several days when I left it aside and put my mind to other things. It’s a real page-turner and has all the dramatic moment of a thriller. This aspect of the book is most noticeable toward the ending when a lot of different strands of the narrative are tied up together to form a nexus of emotional release for the reader that is consonant with the types of themes the book deals in.
Viggers takes a patient look at masculinity, and is not unaware of the biological imperatives that motivate many men in their daily lives to behave in various ways. It is this kind of appraisal of the realities of the world that makes her book eventually so sound at heart. Leon and Miki on one occasion help a wildlife ranger to find Tasmanian devils so that the breeding population can be maintained in order to safeguard the species from extinction threatened by a deadly facial tumour. The male devils are naturally combative just like human males are. This is something that is borrowed from life, just as is Max’s liking physical sports. The need for men to compete with each other physically is examined in several scenes in the book, as when Leon is playing AFL with his local team or when Shane, Max’s father, is shown making sculptures out of wood with a chainsaw at a forestry industry event. This aspect of male psychology is however contrasted with the need that women have, as emblematised by Geraldine, who runs the town’s tourist office, to read books and to share their love of fiction with female friends.
In addition to the main theme of male aggression there is a secondary, and possibly related, theme of the natural world and how best to care for it. I say “possibly” because there aren’t explicitly linked by the author but there is a feeling in the book that part of the problem we have with the environment is a generally male-driven need to exploit it for gain. Miki’s love of the bush is one index of this idea. The theme is touched on at several places in the story and serves to provide it with additional depth.
Thank you for this fabulous and thoughtful review Matthew. I appreciate you taking the time to read and consider my novel and the things I was trying to achieve in writing it.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I really enjoyed reading this novel, it was nuanced as well as engaging.
ReplyDelete