Jasper Jones in Aussie Readers

Dec 13, 2011 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-authors, library-bookclub-reads, own-read, 10-aussie-books-to-read-before-you

What a wonderfully touching coming of age novel this is! I loved it, the tension, the nervous flush of young love, the injustice of the times....

It was hot, summer in Australia is like that, and December 1965 was no exception. The heat was cloying, there was no getting away from it, and the nights were the hardest...not much sleep for anyone. Late one night 13 year old Charlie Bucktin was lying on his bed in his sleep-out, reading...his absolute favourite past-time. Since his father had given hi What a wonderfully touching coming of age novel this is! I loved it, the tension, the nervous flush of young love, the injustice of the times....

It was hot, summer in Australia is like that, and December 1965 was no exception. The heat was cloying, there was no getting away from it, and the nights were the hardest...not much sleep for anyone. Late one night 13 year old Charlie Bucktin was lying on his bed in his sleep-out, reading...his absolute favourite past-time. Since his father had given him access to his library of wonderful books, he’d never been happier. Mark Twain was an especial favourite...

Suddenly there was a knock on his window. Jasper Jones stood outside and he wanted Charlie to go with him...Jasper was a social outcast in the town, he was mixed-race, rebellious and everyone said he was trouble. You definitely COULD NOT be seen with Jasper! So of course Charlie wanted to impress, and when Jasper seemed desperate for Charlie’s help, how could he refuse? He was terrified, but determined to stand by Jasper....

Following Jasper as they wound their way through the back streets of Corrigan, then through the bush to places Charlie didn’t even know existed was exhilarating, yet terrifying...Charlie had an awful fear of all creepy crawlies, and his imagination was going into overdrive. But when they arrived at their destination, all things faded into insignificance, as Charlie saw why Jasper had brought him here, to Jasper’s secret glade, his home away from home. His horror was absolute!

And so, Charlie’s life as he’d always known it, changed forever. With a secret this big, and his fear so great, with only Jasper and Charlie aware of what was happening, and the town’s suspicions and fears gaining momentum, Charlie couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep...he tried to keep up appearances, but everything was changing. His best friend, Jeffrey Lu, was the only person he could talk to, but he couldn’t tell him the secret, so his friendship was doubly precious. Cricket was Jeffrey’s love, so Charlie bowled to him, day after day, hour after hour; they listened to the Test Match on the wireless...with Charlie all the while trying the keep his thoughts in focus.

The absolute intensity of this novel as it covers things like injustice, hypocrisy, young love, racism and inhumanity make this story incredibly distinctive, at times I laughed out loud, at other times I was heart-broken.

Jasper Jones is an amazing tale by brilliant new Australian author, Craig Silvey. Highly recommended!
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Jan 06, 2012 Lauredhel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: a2z

I've been mulling over this one for a few days - one sign of a good book, I think. Poking around the web, this appears to be a chacun à son goût novel - some people just plain hated it, some are whining about it winning an award because it's not Real Literature(tm), and so on.

Me? I loved it when I closed the last page, and I still love it now. It's I guess a 'coming of age' novel; it involves a mid-teens male main character, multiple friendships between male teens, cricket, a touch of romance - I've been mulling over this one for a few days - one sign of a good book, I think. Poking around the web, this appears to be a chacun à son goût novel - some people just plain hated it, some are whining about it winning an award because it's not Real Literature(tm), and so on.

Me? I loved it when I closed the last page, and I still love it now. It's I guess a 'coming of age' novel; it involves a mid-teens male main character, multiple friendships between male teens, cricket, a touch of romance - teen romance which actually feels authentic, with awkward stutterings and wish-the-world-would-swallow-me-up moments, and a mysterious death. There are small-town racial tensions, long-held prejudices, and - be warned - child abuse and bullying and ableism and racist bashings.

You can happily read it just in a plotty way, but I've been left mulling it over as an all-angles musing on the nature of "Sorry". Nowhere is the book explicitly framed as examining "Sorry" in Australian racial reconciliation terms, but the connections are all there.

This passage is really the heart of it, I think. And it resonates, forward and backward, throughout the novel.

"Sorry means you leave yourself open, to embrace or to ridicule or revenge. Sorry is a question that begs forgiveness, because the metronome of a good heart won’t settle until things are set right and true. Sorry doesn’t take things back, but it pushes things forward. It bridges the gap. Sorry is sacrament. It’s an offering. A gift. [...]

Sorry means you feel the pulse of other people’s pain, as well as your own, and saying it means you take a share of it. And so it binds us together, makes us as trodden and sodden as one another. Sorry is a lot of things. It’s a hole refilled. A debt repaid. Sorry is the wake of misdeed. It’s the crippling ripple of consequence. Sorry is sadness, just as knowing is sadness. Sorry is sometimes self-pity. But Sorry, really, is not about you. It’s theirs to take or leave. [...]

Maybe Sorry isn’t as simple as I think it is. Or as honourable or romantic or grand. Maybe it’s just the refuge of the weak. Maybe it’s just the calming balm of the bad and the ruthless. Maybe it’s little or no reward for those in receipt. Maybe it’s just an empty promise, the gift of a hollow box. Maybe it’s self-serving and loveless. Maybe it takes what it needs and gives nothing back." ...more

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Jul 26, 2013 Jacinta Hoare rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-book, 2013, murder-mystery

I really enjoyed listening to this audio book. Both the story and performance were excellent and I caught myself sitting in the car and listening well beyond when I should have been in the office.

The writing is beautiful and captures Charlie's story with grace. I felt Charlie's discomfort, his joy at small victories, and felt the heat of the Australian Summer and enjoyed time spent with Jeffrey Lu.

My only issue with this story is the juxtaposition of the young protagonists (aged 13 and 14) with ...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Gerda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A very good book I can recommend. I did not think it was än Australian to kill a mockingbird". It had some of the elements: heat, race relations and children (albeit a bit older than Scout)but the story is very different. It's very Australian in flavour. It has sadness and humour, light and shade as all good works of art should have. ...more

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