The Eyeball End

by Ali Mc

'I lit another cigarette and murmured m'rock'm m'roll.' So begins a decade-long descent into worlds far removed from the comfort of middle-class Australia. Beginning with an acid-fuelled night in the Kimberley, the first decade of the 21st century sees Ali MC travelling the globe in an attempt to understand the forgotten corners of the world. Although he is beaten and shot at along the way, Ali encounters some of the most enduring stories the so-called Third World can produce. The Eyeball End steps away from the safety net of well-worn travel guides, taking the reader on a unique and challenging journey into the human condition. The cover of The Eyeball End features the iconic image of a Biafran soldier taken in 1968 by legendary British photojournalist Don McCullin. Ali MC is a Melbourne-based writer, photographer and frontman/producer of New Dub City. Currently studying a Master of Laws, Ali MC has travelled through over thirty countries, and has lived, worked and toured across much of Australia, including the remote Ngaanyatjarra Lands of the Western Desert. He has also held a photographic exhibition titled Burma Faces. The Eyeball End marks his literary debut.

254 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2014

About the author

Ali MC is a Melbourne-based musician, writer and photographer who grew up in both Australia and New Zealand and has traveled through over 30 countries.

As well as working in Indigenous history and legal services, Ali is currently studying a Master of Laws. Ali has also worked in remote Aboriginal communities in the Western Desert and fronts the dub-hiphop group New Dub City (www.newdubcity.com).

His writing has appeared in the Weekend Australian Travel Guide, Momondo Travel website and GQ Magazine, and he has held an exhibition of photographs titled Burma Faces.

The Eyeball End is his first full-length book.

Reviews

[Marina Angeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to react to this book as much as I did. Scenes described in Rwanda were particularly hard-hitting and haunting. Although the story does not hang together tightly nor develop neatly as one cohesive 'journey', there is a pervasive theme of global inequality, poverty, survival and social (in)justice that runs deep and true. I'm sure I'll be dipping back into this, or re-reading the whole thing, in the near future.

[EC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the self-published edition of The Eyeball End, before it was picked up by Xuom (?), so maybe some of my issues with it were resolved through proper editing. There was evidence of the typical pit falls of self-publishing - the typesetting was a little rough around the edges, infrequent typos, words used with the wrong meaning, and some issues with past and present tense. Looking beyond these fairly superficial flaws, The Eyeball End was interesting, and led the reader through unfamiliar worlds, but overall it read more like a travel blog that had been stapled together to look like a book.

In his presentation at the Emerging Writers Festival in 2015, the author claimed that no publisher had picked up his manuscript because of bad timing - there's a section on Myanmar, apparently politically incorrect to admit to travelling in with the tourism boycott. I suspect that either this is the author's own conjecture, or the polite email of a publisher who is actually more so uninterested in an episodic 'this and this and this' style of storytelling.

What The Eyeball End lacks is a coherent, over-arching storyline. We are led on by the narrator, but he never lets us into his world beyond the surface-level senses. There is considerable amount of 'telling', and while the author hints at his own self-awareness as a privileged white man travelling in third world countries, he still comes across as someone more interested in superficial perception than meaningful action. Third world communities do not exist for first world self-declared exiles to exploit for 'art' - wherever you take, you must give back, and there is little sense here of an exchange between the author and the countries he has visited, leaving him unsympathetic as a narrator.

[JJ Aitken · Rating 3 out of 5]

As soon as I saw this I knew it was going to be something very different. The fact that it starts with an acid trip in the Kimberley region of our landscape was, a huge draw-card. I was left feeling that this author approached his subject with the best of intentions right the way through this project. Unlike many other attempts that sadly become self glorifying pieces of gorilla journalism. This comes from a genuine need to understand and somehow connect to, what are some of the toughest and most neglected parts of our inhabited planet. Eleven stories that each had me completely captivated. A great dry sense of humor and really good writer.

[Writerful Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Eyeball End begins with a head-wrecking acid trip somewhere in the Kimberley which sets the stage for a decade long trip to some of the most impoverished and war-torn places around the world. Ali MC’s journey kicks off in Asia where he wastes no time in immersing himself in the local culture and getting down with the natives. His ability to make friends quickly and street-smarts not only allows him to venture into the seedier sides of town where tourists rarely venture into but also saves his ass on more than one occasion.

Read the full review here

Xoum Publishing kindly gave me a copy of the book to review.