Trent Dalton

Trent Dalton! Always a pleasure!

Lola in the mirror is controversial. Some say Dalton’s romanticising domestic abuse, others see it treading the recognition of the Tyrannosaurus Waltz, the dance between mothers and their monsters!
Some say Dalton’s looking down on the homeless (The girl with no name, the artist figures she’s not of that elk. She’s houseless. There’s a difference! She lives in Brisbane’s West end near the river, in a scrapyard, in a Toyota van without wheels.)
Her show more mother’s running away from a crime she committed. Hence her daughter without a name. Because no one can trace them. When the artist turns eighteen her mother’s going to turn herself in. That’s two months away. A lot can happen in that time.
The artist has dreams of becoming another Picasso, of hanging work in the MET!
Quirky, fascinating, bringing the underbelly of Brisbane’s forgotten to the fore, this is Dalton at his universal best.
Another gritty, magical tale from Dalton you’ll either love or hate. I loved it despite the attendant problems.

A Harper ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

Eli, 12 Jahre alt, lebt mit seinem ein Jahr älteren Bruder Gus bei der Mutter und deren Freund, den er wie einen Vater liebt. Die Beiden dealen mit Heroin, währenddessen Slim auf die Jungs aufpasst: ein ehemaliger Häftling, der wegen Mordes nach 30 Jahren vor kurzem aus dem Knast entlassen wurde. Doch trotz dieses nicht gerade kindgerechten Umfeldes ist Elis Leben geprägt von Liebe, Freundschaft und Zuwendung, selbst in den schwierigsten Momenten.

Obwohl die schrecklichsten Dinge show more geschehen, die selbst in Eli einen Todeswunsch auslösen, findet er immer wieder zurück zu seinem Vertrauen und dem Glauben an das Gute im Leben und im Menschen. Dabei helfen ihm nicht nur seine Familie und Freunde, sondern auch seine Phantasie, die ihn selbst in den übelsten Momenten nicht verlässt.

Eli ist der Ich-Erzähler dieser rund 550 Seiten und als Lesende begleiten wir ihn bis zu seinem 18. Lebensjahr. Er ist der geborene Geschichtenerzähler und hat einen Blick für die kleinsten Details:

Wahres Wissen besteht aus Einzelheiten, sagt Slim. Und Wissen ist Macht.
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Einigen mag dies zu ausufernd sein, doch Eli erzählt witzig und durchaus selbstironisch, wobei es für einen 12-, 13jährigen manchmal aber etwas sehr erwachsen klingt. Bedenkt man jedoch, unter welchen Umständen er lebt, mag es nicht weiter verwundern

Dad lächelt und nickt. Nächtliche Panikattacken. Suizidal-depressive Phasen. Dreitägiges Komasaufen. Von Fäusten aufgerissene Augenbrauen. Gallige Kotze. Dünnschiss. Braune Pisse. Das ist unsere Wirklichkeit.
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Einerseits ist es ein hartes, brutales Buch, in dem auch Kinder nicht von Gewalt verschont werden (wie auch, wenn sie in einem solchen Milieu aufwachsen); andererseits spürt man auf beinahe jeder Seite, mit wieviel Wärme und Zuneigung sich die Menschen um Eli und seinen Bruder kümmern (wollen), um ihnen ein besseres Leben und die Verwirklichung ihrer Träume zu ermöglichen.

Für den Autor Trent Dalton ist Eli eine Art alter Ego, denn auch er ist unter solchen Umständen aufgewachsen und sein bester Freund war zeitweise tatsächlich Slim, der Ausbrecherkönig. Durch Daltons beeindruckenden Schreibstil war ich fast das ganze Buch hindurch fest überzeugt, dass ihm all die schlimmen Dinge ebenso zugestoßen sind und machte mich auf die Suche, u.a. nach Zeigefingern show less

There’s no question that Trent Dalton is an extraordinarily talented writer.

The Australian novelist, whose 2018 debut novel Boy Swallows Universe won multiple awards and was turned into a seven part TV series that also won multiple awards, has produced in his latest novel Gravity Let Me Go another towering tour de force brimming with drama and emotion, the kind of book that truly deserves the title of “page-turner”.

Set in ultra-suburban Brisbane, it’s the story of crime writer Noah show more Cork, whose account of a murder sets off a series of events that not only disrupts the quiet lives of his neighbours but turns his own family life inside out, dragging out stories he’d hidden even from himself.

Somehow, Dalton manages to convey this in a vernacular tone filled with colloquialisms and wisecracks from our protagonist and even more so from his 15 and 12 year old daughters Erin and Clementine.

Set against this is Noah’s wife, Rita, whose personal drama is reflected in her going mute, even as her family starts to see her in an almost mystical light.

Gravity Let Me Go is written in the language of 21st century social media savvy Australia, where cynicism and scepticism swing wildly against love and commitment. Drug use, satanism, and mysterious birds are as likely to appear as garden gnomes, letterboxes, and testicular surgery.

If anything, Dalton has become even better at helping the reader visualise physical settings, while he also wrangles a complicated plot by having us follow it through a protagonist who’s never quite on top of things.

It would be fair to describe Gravity Let Me Go as a compelling whodunnit and a thriller but it is equally a deeply affecting portrait of an Australian family in “a circumstance of great peril”.

As with all of Dalton’s novels, the magic is in how he balances the mundane, the ordinary, and the banal with the exotic: serial killers, wild weather, damaged family histories, and dramatic conflict of the highest order.

There are lots of quirks, distractions, pop culture references, secondary themes, and compelling supporting characters, but what stands out is that Dalton is first and foremost a terrific story teller.

Oh, and I’d be very surprised if Gravity Let Me Go was also not turned into TV or a movie, it’s extremely cinematic. show less

I went into this book with minimal knowledge about what I was getting in to. I knew Dalton had got great reviews for previous work, that this was about the bombing of Darwin during WWII, and that was pretty much it. I picked it up in an op-shop, because I needed something to read on a plane, and it looked interesting.

Such a good choice. Despite the fact that there is a laundry list of content warnings (see below) and in the hands of another author this story might have been a psychological show more thriller, this is a beautifully written story about love and perseverance. There are no 'surprises' of the type I hate in thrillers, and the writing is poetic, veering in to magical realism.

While I'd like to write a nuanced and informative review, I got to the end of the book and went 'wow'. Fabulous characterisation, a careful mix of cultural groups, amazing visceral descriptions of landscape, a plot that meanders coherently and engagingly, beautiful writing. I can see this being a book that gets taught in schools, because there is so much to unpack, so much imagery and interesting parallels.

Content Warnings
* Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Racism, and War
* Moderate: Physical abuse
* Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

My notes while writing this read: death of parent, grave robbing, physical and emotional abuse of child, racism, period typical slurs, implications of sexual violence (not clear if rape), alcoholism, drug use, physical violence between adults, mentions of sex work, being on the ground in a bombing raid plus the aftermath (including dismembered bodies), abandonment of a minor, attempted murder, attempted rape, drowning, murder (graphic), eye damage and other dismemberment due to leprosy plus forced institutionalism of lepers, delirium tremens, infected wound (graphic description), mentions of suicide, show less