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Adult Books - Fiction - Historical Fiction
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True History of the Kelly Gang.
Carey, Peter (author).
Jan. 2001. 352p. Knopf, hardcover, $25 (0-375-41084-8).
REVIEW.
First published November 15, 2000 (Booklist).
Australian novelist Carey’s imagination is tuned to the nineteenth century, the time frame for the Booker Prize-winning Oscar and Lucinda (1988), the Dickensian improvisation Jack Maggs (1998), and now this rough-and-tumble yet deeply humanistic and beautifully worked tale of a good-hearted man doomed to live a life he abhors. The historically based story of outlaw Ned Kelly and his contentious Irish clan reads like a western in spite of the fact that its frontier is Australia and its bad guys are servants of the queen of England. Carey, a superb yarn spinner with a lot to say about the perversity of human nature, has Ned write his life story for the daughter he will never meet. Ned’s voice is pure country and his punctuation minimal, but his decorum is great (he replaces every profanity with the word “adjectival”) and his compassion stupendous. Twelve when his father dies, he tries to be the man of the house for his large and destitute family, dreaming of homesteading and horse-breeding, but his tough and pragmatic mother has her own ideas, and Ned is forced into a life of crime as the unwilling apprentice of Harry Power, an infamous highwayman. This is the first of many shocking betrayals, but stalwart Ned remains loyal to his people, acutely aware of the fact that because the Irish were “considered a notch beneath cattle,” there was no justice in their lives. The land is vast and wild, but there is no place to hide; Ned endures one absurd and horrific showdown after another, and yet love flourishes. And heroes are not forgotten. — Donna Seaman
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Features That Discuss This Work:
1. Notable Books : 2002
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