Golden Boys in Aussie Readers

Jun 20, 2014 Mish rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-authors

Golden Boys is a look at two neighbouring families, the Jensen’s and Kiley’s through the eyes of their children.

The Kiley’s is a large family of six children, not financially well off and cramped into a small suburban home - which 13-year-old Freya Kiley is starting to resent. She feels their confined space and the babies her mother continues to have is the cause of her fathers’ furious rampages. The atmosphere is tense and bleak, and the Kiley children find refuge roaming the streets. But when Golden Boys is a look at two neighbouring families, the Jensen’s and Kiley’s through the eyes of their children.

The Kiley’s is a large family of six children, not financially well off and cramped into a small suburban home - which 13-year-old Freya Kiley is starting to resent. She feels their confined space and the babies her mother continues to have is the cause of her fathers’ furious rampages. The atmosphere is tense and bleak, and the Kiley children find refuge roaming the streets. But when the new family arrives to their neighbourhood, the Jensen’s, it’s like a breath of fresh air for the Kiley children and their friends.

The Jensen is at the opposite ends of the spectrum to most of the neighbouring families. They are extremely wealthy, and Rex Jensen, father of Colt and Bastian, likes to lavish his boys with the ‘up to date’ and expensive toys. They have an abundance of food, a swimming pool and willing to share these luxuries with the neighbourhood children. The local kids really liked Rex to begin with; he is generous, attentive and they enjoyed how he fusses over them, - behaviour they’ve never seen or experienced at home by their own parents. But when we delve into 12-year-old Colt’s thoughts, and the pure hatred he feels for his father, we start to get this uneasy feeling that something is just not right.

Golden Boys is not a novel where the drama will hit you immediately head on. It’s a slow building plot, told by the point of view of 10, 12 and 13 year old children. Sonya Hartnett has an acute understanding of what it’s like to be a child in these strained situation. These children can sense something is a bit off or weird, when dealing with adult’s whose intention are deceitful or cunning. And in Golden Boys it’s a look at all the children of different walks of life, and how they deal with what they’re being confronted with.

Out of all the children in this book I found Colt predicament the most complicated one to comprehend immediately. He’s anxious, distress and on guard the whole time, yet through his thoughts he would provide the reader with random bits of detail, that were all over the place - of his home life and relationship with his father. With Colt it was a matter of patience, to piece together the information he provides you, to form a clearer picture - and the picture that develops in your mind is quite horrific then you initially predict.

Like the plot, there is a bit of unraveling of the year this book was set. It’s not told out front, but there’s a familiarity to it. I like the sense of freedom of this year, it reminded me of my own childhood playtime; where we were able to run free on our bikes with no adult supervision, go to our neighbour’s homes uninvited or just talk with friends on the nature strip. So I’m guessing it’s the late 70’s or early 80’s - as there’s no way I’ll let my daughter of today, roam around the street all alone.

I was about to give this a top rating but I didn’t like the abruptness of the ending – I felt slightly cheated. But nonetheless, the events leading up to the ending was magnificently told; the written words had a forbidden, hushed tone to it that felt like it was on the brink of breaking point. Terribly devastating and heartfelt novel, more importantly because innocent children were involved.

Read for #litexp14 - Literary Fiction
...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2014 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-authors, sent-by-publisher, 2014-release, contemporary-fiction, own-read, arc

Freya Kiley was twelve years old – she was the eldest of her siblings of which there were five. They all lived in a little cottage with their mother Elizabeth and father Joe, very poor, surviving one week to the next on the minimal of necessities. So when Freya met the new family in their area, the Jensons, after church one Sunday – father Rex and sons Bastian and Colt, she knew there was something different about them.

Declan and Syd, Freya’s younger brothers, were old enough to spend time away ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Jul 10, 2014 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-author, provided-by-publisher, netgalley-reviews, arc-are

When the affluent Jenson family move in to the neighborhood they quickly attract the attention of the local children. Colt and Bastian have a playroom full of toys, a swimming pool and a charismatic father, all of which they seem prepared to share. The Jenson home quickly becomes a haven for twelve year old Freya and the neighborhood boys, Avery, Garrick and brothers Syd and Declan, eager to escape their working class homes marred by violence, poverty and neglect, but before long the boys sense ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2014 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, literary, cultural, aww2014

Freya Kiley is the eldest of five in a household that is bursting at the seams and yet, the babies keep coming. She finds herself beginning to question why this is so when the family doesn’t have the space or money to really accommodate them. Her father Joe works at a printing press and her mother stays at home with the children. She can see no real affection between her parents either, just a tired resignation and on the days Joe drinks his pay away, not even that.

Then Colt Jenson and his young Freya Kiley is the eldest of five in a household that is bursting at the seams and yet, the babies keep coming. She finds herself beginning to question why this is so when the family doesn’t have the space or money to really accommodate them. Her father Joe works at a printing press and her mother stays at home with the children. She can see no real affection between her parents either, just a tired resignation and on the days Joe drinks his pay away, not even that.

Then Colt Jenson and his younger brother Bastian move into the neighbourhood. It’s clear right away that they are quite different. Their charismatic father Rex is a dentist and obviously they’re wealthier than the other families. Rex showers Colt and Bastian with gifts – BMX bikes, skateboards, slot car racing tracks, an above ground pool – making their house the place for all the other children to congregate. Freya’s two brothers Declan and Syd, local bully Garrick who comes from a notorious family and Avery, who lives with his grandparents and is often left to his own devices out on the streets all enjoy the perks at first – swimming in the pool, playing with the expensive new toys, being provided with never ending food and drink. But it seems that hanging out at the Jenson property just might come with a price.

Sonya Hartnett’s new novel is a rather understated but yet unflinching look at two families, different for very many reasons who are brought together when the Jenson family move into the Kiley family’s neighbourhood. The story is told through the eyes of their eldest children, Colt Jenson and Freya Kiley who are both about twelve. Both are old enough to know that their families have cracks appearing but probably still young enough not to really truly understand why. Freya in particular is beginning to question things, such as why her parents keep having children. She doesn’t know where they come from or how they really come into existence, just that her parents keep doing whatever it is that makes them arrive. There are seven in the family, squeezed into a small 3 bedroom house. Much of their house revolves around the moods of their father Joe and whether or not he has been drinking on payday.

Colt is confused about his family’s move to this suburb, this neighbourhood which they clearly don’t fit into. He harbours resentment for his father, a deep and dark simmering feeling that he keeps tightly locked down as Rex plays his games and showers them with their presents. As a reader you don’t quite understand in the beginning just what Colt’s resentment is really all about. The innocence of his younger brother Bastian is a stark contrast to Colt’s already cynical way of looking at his parents and their situation. He doesn’t want the toys, the shiny playthings. He finds his father embarrassing.

To Freya, Rex is something like a hero. He’s so much different to her own father, who tends to not really even register her presence most of the time. Rex listens, he seems to really care what she is talking about and he offers advice when Freya brings up personal situations. She won’t hear a bad word against him and wishes that her own father were more like Rex, who doesn’t drink to excess and always seems to provide well for his family. Rex is the person Freya turns to when she needs help and to her, it seems like he might be the only one that can stop what is happening.

Golden Boys isn’t a long novel but at the same time, it manages to have somewhat of a slow build up. It creates an atmosphere, showcasing the neighbourhood and the people within it for quite a long time before you get the inkling of what is going on behind closed doors, or something that could potentially be about to happen. This is set in a time of neighbourhood freedom, where kids spent from morning until dusk outside, roaming the streets, visiting each other’s houses. It’s an area that seems bordering on the edge of poverty (or tipping over into it) and so the affluence of the Jenson’s stands out as something to aspire to, especially for Syd, who covets the pool and the expensive toys and wants to buy a house when he grows up where there’s one room for each person. But for Colt, there’s something uncomfortable about it – the continual moving of houses and the shiny toys given to keep them quiet and happy. The attracting of all the local kids to their house as a focal point. I have to admit that after such a slow build, I did want a little bit more out of the ending. I dislike abrupt, ambiguous endings at the best of times but I feel as though there could’ve been a bit more here, given how complex the story became. I wanted more to unfold although perhaps the most disturbing thing is that I can probably guess for myself, how things go for several of the characters.

I think the most interesting thing about Golden Boys is that it speaks from the point of view of the children and Sonya Hartnett, who has written numerous novels for young adults, captures their interactions both with each other and with adults perfectly. She manages to hit just the right notes between sullen forced politeness, inquisitiveness, naivety and cynicism, depending on the child. It’s a snapshot of outer surburbia and the people within it. This is not a book that I loved, but it is a highly skilled novel, well crafted and written and it’s the sort of story that sneaks up on you and leaves you thinking about it long after you’ve completed it. ...more

Like · see review

Aug 04, 2014 Judy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, 2014, e-book

Rex Jenson is fun. He and his family are new to this working class suburb where families struggle to provide the basics. When the Jenson’s moved into the neighbourhood they had more than any of the local children could ever aspire to having.

He’s happy to have any and all of the local kids in his house. He will feed them treats that they never get in their own homes; he’ll let them borrow his sons’ new bikes and other toys; he’ll let them swim in the new swimming pool in the backyard; and he pay ...more

Like · see review

Jul 27, 2014 Michael Livingston rated it really liked it

Sonya Harnett is a brilliant writer - sentences and similes throughout this book pack punches and help create a mood of quiet menace. The plot moves slowly - a charming new family moves into a working class Australian suburb sometime during the 1970s and befriend the locals, before a gradual realisation that the seemingly perfect father is not what he appears. The characterisation is astonishing - Freya and Colt in particular are stunningly drawn - and the themes of class, family and the ways in ...more

Like · see review