Jasper Jones (original 2009; edition 2009)

Another book of young men coming to age in Australia - seems to be a bit of a theme I am following at the moment. A great story of racial judgement, living outside your fears and comradeship. The characters are all lovable and there are moments when you want to laugh out loud as well as moments where your heart is hurting. ( )

Gripping first-person account of a 13-year-old boy in Australia (Perth?) in 1966? 1967? and his growing knowledge about himself, his family, and his community. Class differences, racial prejudice (against Vietnamese and Aborigines), suicide, secrets, violence, incest..... Loyalty.... Friendship.... Love.... Life... Dreams and ambitions.... A mystery about a girl's disappearance drives the events... ( )

NB: Contains mild potential spoiler-ish material (not really, but if you're worried stop reading after the 3rd paragraph.)

I was nervous about reading this. I really *wanted* to like it and was scared that I'd be a bit disappointed. Hell, Craig's a nice guy and it's set in Western Australia! I enjoyed Rhubarb--I worked on an adaptation of it for primary school kids during the Festival of Perth when it was the One Book, so know it very well--but really hated the lack of punctuation and found the writing patchy and confused at times. A quick glance told me that Craig has used quotation marks around dialogue in Jasper Jones! Hurrah!

Still, the first chapter wasn't terribly encouraging. It was all a bit fragmented. Now, I don't mind the odd use of fragmented sentences to indicate tension and rushing thoughts, but there are limits and I feared the whole book was going to be the same. Another worry was Charlie's habit of prefacing every utterance with "What?", which became increasingly irritating.

Thankfully things improved, a lot. Craig's writing has become more assured. There's still the odd bit of patchiness, but in general the plot hangs together very well and the balance between beautiful writing, full of intelligence and pathos, and laugh-out-loud humour is very enjoyable. I read the cricket match scene while I was supposed to be winding down for sleep and it fired me up no end. Absolutely brilliant, gripping, moving, nerve-wracking, sweet, romantic, it had me whooping and shouting "YES!" as though I had been a spectator at the match myself.

There were, I have to admit, times when I thought I was only going to be able to give this book 3 stars. When Charlie started "What?"-ing again and [POSSIBLE SPOILER] when I realised how closely the plot was shadowing Twin Peaks (Laura? Really? And she sort of kept a diary? And... Well, she wasn't wrapped in plastic, at least!) I felt a bit disheartened. In the end, however, the overall enjoyment I got out of the really good sections of writing--the humour and sensitivity--overrode those negative aspects.

I'm really, really happy to be witness to the beginning of Craig's writing career. He is getting better and better and I look forward very much to his next literary outing. With the rate of improvement I've seen between Rhubarb and Jasper Jones, I'm hoping the next is a blinder on a par with Jeffrey Lu's innings. ( )

I'm conflicted about this one, which means this review will be long, unfocused and rambling. Basically I found some characters interesting and complex and others grating and obnoxious. Not that I think the reader should like every character, I just really didn't appreciate the characterization of some, particularly the female characters. Yes this is told from Charlie, an 13 year old narrator but all the sympathetic characters are guys. It bugged me.
Maybe this is just one of those books that I need some distance from. ( )

Some of the conversations between Jeffery and Charlie made me laugh out loud. I thoroughly enjoyed them. I was saddened when the truth was discovered, but I had an inkling that's the way it would go. Very good writing. I highly recommend this novel. ( )