Mick Davidson: Words & Pictures
  • Home
  • Captain's Blog
  • It's All About Inspiration
    • It's All About You Guidelines
  • Writing
    • Poetry
    • Reviews
    • Stories
    • Travel
    • Twitter Verse
  • Photography
    • Travel >
      • Australia >
        • Melbourne, 2012/13
        • Melbourne, 2013/14
      • France
      • Latin America
      • Luxembourg
      • Netherland >
        • Groningen
        • Limburg
        • Zeeland
      • Spain >
        • Alhambra
    • In Concert >
      • Celebr80s Party
      • Sultans of Slide
      • Tio Gringo
      • Blues Festival 2010
    • All Sorts of Treasures >
      • RuneFest 2103
  • Bio
  • Contact

The Fine Colour Of Rust - Review

9/23/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
The Fine Colour Of Rust
by P.A. O'Reilly
Published by Blue Door/HarperCollins
I was fortunate enough to recieve an autographed copy of this book as a gift from my Antipodean literary advisor. Despite having both a free book and a personal message from the author, I shan't let either cloud my opinion here. 

But if you're looking for a good read about a group of not-quite-ordinary people struggling to carve a life out of a small town half way between Melbourne and and a great big open space, then you'd do well to pick up a copy. 

On the other hand, if you're looking for something fast-paced and where the action explodes off the page, this isn't for you: this story moves at it own pace, it unfolds gradually and gives you the time to savour the grains and dust that make up so much of our lives.

The story revolves around Loretta Boskovic, a single mother among a sea of single mothers who daydreams of capturing the heart of a reliable and hopefully (though always imaginary) well-heeled man, whilst inspiring the rest of the town of Gunapan's population to do battle with big and small government. Her much dreamed of man also has to come with a pretty decent car because her own, as we explore in great detail, is always en-route to the scrapyard.

The town is, by and large, forgotten by everyone bar the locals and is thus ripe to be shafted by unscrupulous property dealers. Not only do they plan to nick the local water supply, they see the town as a sort of feeder factory of workers for the resort they plan to build (with help from some obliging members of the local council). That's battle No 2.

Battle No 1 involves dragging the Minister for Education, Elderly Care and Gaming into Gunapan to talk to the residents about their never-going-to-give-up battle to save their children's school from closure.

And if the minister's title brings a smile to your lips then you'll be happy to know that the book is laced with this kind of humour. It's not quite black, but for every situation Loretta and the town finds themselves in, there's nearly always a humorous lining. For me, one of the great lol moments was the hospital scene between Loretta, her sick mother and Loretta's children, which is both bizarre and sharply dark.

The characters, their lives and experiences are all well written and believeable - you warm to them all (except the scattering of baddies). If, like me, you read foreign literature to gain something of an insight into how other nations think and act, then you won't be disappointed, though it'd probably be wise not to imagine that the Gunapanians represent all of Oz. On the other hand, the issues being dealt with here are universal, the sort of things we read about wherever we are.

One of the things I like about reading books in non-British English is to discover how the langauge used differs to mine. So would I say that it is typically Ozzie in voice and circumstance?

I can't say I know enough about Australia and her people to comment, but it does reflect a certain gritiness, a willingness to get on with life without much moaning about what it's throwing at them. The language is undoubtedly Aussie, but given that Oz English is by and large British English, you only notice the difference in the details. In a way I'm a little disappointed by this: I know that if I read an American novel the English will be very different to British English. But this isn't a criticism of the book, it just shows how close Oz and British English still are.

My only real criticism is there is a long-ish build up to a fairly important event which we jump over, to land in the aftermath of an explanation of how it had unravelled and been dealt with. I felt slightly cheated because I wanted one or two of the baddies to get their come uppance, and I wanted the satisfaction of witnessing it.

On the other hand, O'Reilly twists and binds the ups and downs with so much humour and humanity that it's pretty easy to forgive her for not satisfying my expectations in that department.

It isn't a difficult book to read: the pages turn almost by themselves as O'Reilly's easy style of writing and the laughs keep you wanting more. Overall, I really enjoyed this snapshot of middle-of-nowhere Australia, a place populated with every-day people struggling to bring happines into some pretty tough lives, and not giving up on this despite the commercial and political skulduggery. Personally, I'd like to find out what happens next, but failing this, will settle for reading the rest of O'Reilly's back-catalogue.

You can order the book from Amazon, and while you're waiting, you can read the excellent interview with the author on her website.


2 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Mick Davidson is a full time technical writer and semi-full time fiction author. He also finds time for both guitar playing and photography. When not being creative, he is heavily involved in Staring Out The Window research.

    He is definitely in the market for publication and agent representation.

    The links in my blog are doors to adventures and other countries, they don't all land in the most obvious puddle.


    Fav Blogs + Websites
    Specter Magazine

    Zencherry
    Dave Palmer
    Libboo
    Peirene Press
    Rebecca Venn
    Bigo + Twigetti
    Wryd Climate

    Archives

    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011

    Categories

    All
    2012
    3d
    A. A. Milne
    Abstract
    Adelaide
    Amazon
    Art
    Artist
    Australia
    Author
    Authors
    Aylesbury
    Bach
    Barnes And Noble
    Bbc
    Blog
    Blue Door
    Blurb
    Book Covers
    Border Trilogy
    Borges
    Botton
    Boundaries
    Calligraphy
    Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    Cbd
    Censorship
    Character
    Charles A. Wustum
    Charles Dickens
    Charlotte Wood
    Choose
    Christina Cummings
    Comfort Zone
    Competitions
    Composer
    Cormac Mccarthy
    Creative
    Creativity
    Critique
    Cycling
    Cyclist
    Damocles
    Dbc Pierre
    Delusions
    Depression
    Design
    Dickens
    Distraction
    Dreams
    Ebook
    Editing
    Ego
    Escape
    Eurovision
    Experiments
    Facebook
    Fiction
    Flow
    Francis Bacon
    Free Book
    Friends
    Gayla Drummond
    Gormenghast
    Graffiti
    Great Ocean Road
    Guitar
    Harpercollins
    Hiccups
    Holiday
    Holland Park Press
    Hot
    Iaay
    Indie Author
    Indifference
    Inspiration
    Inspire
    Istc
    Jane Austin
    Jan Freidlin
    Jealousy
    Jeffrey Eugenides
    Js Bach
    Julian Barnes
    Julien Barnes
    Kenosha
    Kent Haruf
    Kentucky
    Latin America
    Laura Numeroff
    Lazy
    Lee
    Le Guin
    Lesson
    Lettering
    Libboo
    Life Problems
    Lincoln Brady
    Lionel Shriver
    London
    Lonely
    Loss De Plott
    Madness
    Magical Realism
    Marian Newell
    Marilyn French
    Marketing
    Masterpiece
    Maureen Hovermale
    Mccarthy
    Melbourne
    Mervyn Peake
    Middlesex
    Motorbike
    Myers
    Mystery
    Negative
    New Authors
    Novel
    Novels
    Opinion
    Optimism
    O'Reilly
    Owensboro
    Paddy O'Reilly
    P.A. O'Reilly
    Peirene Press
    Perspire
    Plan
    Pod
    Poetry
    Positive
    Pr
    Print On Demand
    Prometheus
    Publication
    Publishers
    Publishing
    Racine
    Reading
    Rebecca Venn
    Resistance
    Restrictions
    Review
    Reviewing
    Re-write
    Re-writing
    Roald Dahl
    Rules
    Russ King
    Self Help
    Self-help
    Sign Writer
    Simon Imagin
    Sleepless
    Songwriting
    Specter Collective
    Specter Magazine
    Stephan J Myers
    Success
    Suicide
    Suitcases
    Sun
    Sutcliff
    Tale Of Two Cities
    Tate
    Tate Modern
    Taxes
    The Hoopla
    The Mind
    The Sense Of An Ending
    Tonya Cannariato
    Train
    Travel
    Twitter
    Type
    Umberto Echo
    Usa
    Uw Parkside
    Vampire
    Vintage Press
    Water Color
    Water Colour
    Winnie-the-Pooh
    Wise Grey Owl
    Writers
    Writer's Block
    Writing
    Writing Problems

    RSS Feed


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.