Fuck.Gotta love a book that starts with the word Fuck!
Actually it starts with 'Fuck grace' and already, in the first sentence, there is a mystery for me to solve - who or what is 'grace'? Why does 'grace' need to be fucked? By the time I find out who/what grace is, I agree entirely.
I spend hours reading through old newspapers from the 1800s, finding out about Melbourne in the early days, so BrownJudy captivated me from the start, with its period lingo and secret colonial business involving convicts, pioneer women, black servants and sheep stations.
and it answered questions that I sometimes pondered, but never looked for answers.
Why did aboriginal massacres always happen near water?
What was it like for the missus' of isolated homesteads, in a time when there were few women in Victoria?
Have all the mystical aboriginal beliefs from the past been lost forever?
I had to really 'read' BrownJudy and couldn't be lazy, speed reading or skimming. I had to concentrate to make sure I looked up all the unfamiliar words in the glossary (I didn't want to miss an opportunity to find out another name for a penis or vagina!). The narrator's habit of nick naming the people around him and his insistance on using these sometimes insulting names, is quietly hilarious and reminded me of our quirky Australian sense of humour. Aussies love nicknames (which can drive New Australians crazy - A Kiwi manager at my work, Garry-with-two-Rs-not-one, can't stand it when we shorten his name to Gazza).
The mundane details of daily life on the homestead, sprinkled with the odd bit of colonial entertainment - a wrestling match with naked men or a visit to the homestead by friend or foe strangers were cleverly used to reveal the secrets of whitefella history and blackfella knowledge.
Self published author of BrownJudy, Martin Davey, has the stall beside me when I am at Fed Square. I don't have a picture of him - Martin is secretive, suspicious and we suspect he is an ex spy or in a witness protection program.
BrownJudy is available from http://brownjudy.info/
