Review by Corinna Christopher on show 2nd Sept 2010
Incredible coming-of-age story, set in small mining town in 1960’s Australia.
3 main characters, Charlie, Jeffrey and Jasper, who are teenage friends.
Narrated by a sensitive 13 year old, Charlie, it captures very well all the challenges and worries of this young lad. Jasper is wild and charismatic, with a terrible almost non-existent home life. One hot summer’s night he comes to the bedroom window of Charlie and persuades him to accompany him on a mission where he takes him to distant spot and shows Charlie something very shocking. This spectacle destroys his peace of mind completely.
In the excellent narrative that follows we read about bullying, racism, murder and child abuse. All these things upset Charlie when they portray a town full of cruel and small-minded people. His other good friend Jeffrey is the son of an immigrant family who are subject to derision and bullying by his schoolmates. Charlie and Jeffrey have an excellent bond and share many puerile jokes which involve much adolescent jousting –( I did find some of their dialogues overlong and could summon up no enthusiasm for the relative superiority of Batman or Superman)
During the book we also explore the feelings that Charlie has for Eliza a neighbouring schoolfriend whose life is also changed by a catastrophic event.
Without giving away the main plot the reader is aware that the terrible truth will come out. Jasper Jones makes his presence felt throughout the novel and elicits great sympathy from the reader. So far he has not had many good experiences in his life.
The setting and plot are well written and it is a delight to read. The author grew up on an orchard in Western Australia and at the age of 19 wrote his first novel “Rhubarb” which subsequently received an award for the Best Young Novelist by a Sydney journal.
review by Corinna
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment