Rocks In The Belly in Aussie Readers

Dec 04, 2011 Marg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

I don't think it would be possible to read this book and not have some kind of reaction - whether it be tears, anger, disgust or whatever.

Unnamed, unlikeable narrator. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2011 Blue Eyed Vixen rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-author, audiobook-i-own, challenge-aussie-authors-with-a-twi

I listened to the audiobook of Rocks in the Belly, which was read by the author, and I must say that he weaves a compelling tale.

The POV swings between the 8 year old child of parents who forster an endless string of boys, to the 28 year old who has returned to care for his terminally ill mother with the hopes that he will vindicate himself of the years his mother treated him more like a second-class citizen while she lavishes the broken children with her affection.

His story was a rollercoaster ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 27, 2010 Danielle rated it it was amazing

From the back cover:
How far can you push a child? Rocks in the Belly is about a precocious eight-year-old boy and the volatile adult he becomes. During childhood his mother fosters boys, despite the jealous turmoil it arouses in her son. Jealousy that reaches unmanageable proportions when she fosters Robert, an amiable child she can't help bonding with. Until the bond triggers an event that profoundly changes everyone. Especially Robert. At twenty-eight the son returns to face his mother. He ha From the back cover:
How far can you push a child? Rocks in the Belly is about a precocious eight-year-old boy and the volatile adult he becomes. During childhood his mother fosters boys, despite the jealous turmoil it arouses in her son. Jealousy that reaches unmanageable proportions when she fosters Robert, an amiable child she can't help bonding with. Until the bond triggers an event that profoundly changes everyone. Especially Robert. At twenty-eight the son returns to face his mother. He hasn't forgiven her for what happened to Robert. But now she's the dependent one and he the dominant force, a power he can't help but abuse. Written in two startlingly original voices, Rocks in the Belly is about the destruction we wreak on one another in the pursuit of our own happiness; how we never escape our upbringing; and a stark reminder that the most dangerous place for a child is with the family.

Review:
It's going to be really hard to review this book without giving away spoilers - the sequence of the revelations of information is essential to the telling of this story, so I'm going to try to give it the best review I can without telling too much. This starts off as such an uncomfortable read, it was so dark and confronting. Rocks in the Belly is told from the son's two voices - the eight year old and the twenty-eight year old. The son never holds back in his narration, we hear every thought he has, openly and honestly with no attempts to soften the reality of the events. And the events are utterly unpalatable, and the kind of thing that we want to shy away from and ignore or re-tell differently trying to put a positive spin on them so they become more comfortable. I feel like I should be repulsed by the whole thing, and yet somehow, in writing with this honesty, Jon Bauer has created a series of moments that I couldn't help but feel deep heartache and compassion for the characters.

We never discover the name of the son, which is a really interesting juxtaposition in that the son tells and shows us who he is, completely, without shielding anything from the reader, and yet by not telling his name he keeps some essential part of himself secret. But also, and probably what makes this such an uncomfortable read, is that by not telling us his name, as a reader we identify with him and put ourselves in his narration instead.

The final scenes of the book, in which resolutions (of sorts) occur, are equally as powerful and are as heartrending as the dark events are gut-wrenching. In comparison to other brutally honest narration (such as The Slap) this one has so much more feeling to it, much more than just a snapshot or an examination of how damaged and damaging human beings can be. This is a story of how beautiful that damage is.
...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 24, 2010 Jenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010

Put simply, this is a masterpiece. If only this calibre of writing got published then I'd quit yesterday--happily.

This is the story of an un-named man who returns home to be with his mother in her dying days. This is also the story of that man as a child, growing up with somewhat occupied parents, and in particular a mother who is devoted to the point of obsession with fostering troubled boys. (I would describe this as Mother & Son where the son is the devil child, Damien.) But as repellent as t ...more

Like · see review

Aug 18, 2010 Paul rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2010, fiction, debut-fiction, australian

More of a review to come. What could have been a great book wasn't. Mainly due to the young narrartoe. I will explain further.

This could not be the book that reviewers and critic have been praising. ...more

Like · see review