Review: True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
Tia
- posted on
- No Comment
Outlaw life in colonial Australia.
It’s gritty. It’s dense. It’s so atmospheric you can smell the camp fire smoke.
You’re building lean-tos out of bark, shooting at wombats, cutting trees, fighting police, stealing horses. There is no time to rest in this book.
The character of Ned Kelly is alive, with a voice that is honest and intimate. You can see his calloused, dusty hand in candle light as he scribbles his words on to paper.
True History of the Kelly Gang ticks a lot of boxes for me. I found it so absorbing.
At its heart this is an adventure story through the bush, packed with vivid language invoking Australian nature and the harshness of colonial life.
It was such a meaty book and I wanted to devour it all so greedily. It was like eating a hearty, delicious meal and becoming so full, but then gorging even more. I felt like a snake swallowing a wallaby whole.
True History of the Kelly Gang certainly deserves its status as an Australian classic.
It is a fictional account of the life of Ned Kelly, who was a real person. He lived in the 1800s in colonial Australia. He was a bushranger, which is an outlaw. He famously wore an iron armour during a shoot out with police, and is often portrayed as a folk hero who rebelled against authority, in a similar vein as Robin Hood.
You could call it an Australian ‘Western’ or frontier story. The main themes are class conflict, injustice, and rural colonial life.
I give it 5 out of 5 stolen gold watches.
Tip: If you don’t like to have any spoilers, do not read the ‘Parcel descriptions’ at the beginning of each part. They aren’t necessary for you to understand the story.
Peter Carey’s novel was inspired by this historical letter:
