True History of the Kelly Gang in Reading with Style

May 31, 2018 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, historical-fiction, booker-prize, 2018

This was a wonderful character- and voice-driven fictionalization of the Australian outlaw legend (and historical crush of many) Ned Kelly. I had watched a little web documentary about him last year, and some of the details of the story--like the bulletproof armor the gang smithed out of plow moldboards--struck me as so outrageous, I knew I had to get around to reading this book. I liked how the author imagined Ned Kelly's nature and motivations, drawing from the little that is known about him, ...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book traces Ned Kelly's life in his own words (imagined). Kelly is a member of an under-class in Australia--his parents were transported from Ireland as criminals. His parents struggle to make ends meet--not always legally and Ned's father, uncles, grandfather end up in jail at various times. His mother seems to be running an illegal still much of his childhood. They are under constant suspicion by the police. After Ned's father dies when Ned is 12, he tries to help his mother prove up thei ...more

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Dec 19, 2015 Rosemary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ned Kelly was a famous Australian outlaw who became a folk hero. This is his story, purportedly in his own words, written for an unborn child who is not known to have existed.

It's a fun and rollicking story, implying that Kelly's Irish convict ancestry and the loss of his father when he was 12 both contributed to his 'freedom fighter' style. His attitude is that he's defending himself and his family, and if he hadn't been demonized by the state because of his family's past history, and impoveri ...more

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Nov 12, 2008 Tien rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, australian-author

It's hard to read when you first picked it up as there is practically no punctuation being used. However, it reflects on the 'uneducated' state of Ned Kelly. I had to read a sentence a few times over & actually apply the punctuation in my head to understand but you get used to it after a while. As it is written in the first person view, it is completely acceptable.

The story itself is very interesting and a lot of the themes there feels very real. The main ones being the harshness of life in Aust ...more

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May 02, 2008 Rachel N. rated it liked it

I found the story of Ned Kelly's life to be interesting. The writing style, the book is written as if Kelly actually wrote it, was annoying and distracted from the story at times. The writing is full of run on sentences, no quotation marks, abbreviations and lots of adjectivials in place of swear words. ...more

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