True History of the Kelly Gang

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant, brilliant book
Review: Peter Carey is truly amazing. What a wonderful, extraordinary novel this is. This is by far his best work. It leaves similar "Australian themed works" written by Thomas Kenneally in the dust.

I cannot remember a time in my life when I did not know about Ned Kelly and the pictures of him with his gun, protected by his iron armour, are an instrinsic part of Australian culture. He represents so many aspects of nineteenth century life for us - he was a child of convicts, he was a bushranger, he worked the land - and he refused to suffer in silence the injustices heaped upon him (and so many of his ilk) by the English squatterocracy. At the same time, he was a murderer and a robber...

Reading this novel is truly like being inside Ned Kelly's head. It is so vibrant and so real. I did not find the vernacular style of writing difficult at all - it is like Ned is speaking directly to you. It is incredibly eloquent in a weird way! Carey writes so evocatively, too - you can smell the bush, the sounds of a gunshot, the feel of a silk dress. It is at time very poignant. We get a real sense of the man - he felt things very deeply, he loved well, and he was intensely loyal.

My favourite part of the book was the final showdown at Glenrowan and the speech from Henry V. Incongrous? Absolutely. But does it work - oh my goodness, yes!!

Rating:
Summary: The "diary" of the outlaw Ned Kelly
Review: In this Booker Prize winning historical novel set in late nineteenth century Australia, the outlaw Ned Kelly is brought to life in his own words. Well, since it is fiction, I guess they are not actually his words, but Peter Carey writes with such heartbreak and desire to live free, that you feel like you are reading Kelly's words.

This is the story of Ned Kelly, the Australian bushranger (thief) who evaded the authorities for two years, during which he nearly sparked a revolt against the British Crown. Life was never pleasant for Ned Kelly. Constant problems with the law, mostly because he was of Irish descent, and extreme poverty led his mother to "sell" him to the famous outlaw Harry Power. It was his time with Power that Ned Kelly learned how to evade the authorities. Other events force Ned to leave is life behind and become an outlaw. Following a shootout with some constables who were searching for him, Ned becomes the most wanted man in Australia and so begins the two year manhunt for the Kelly Gang (Ned, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.) During this two year span, Ned's life inspires the poor farmers to defy the government and help Ned hide.

With the book's "authentic" prose style, fascinating characters, and a plot based on love and loyalty, "True History of the Kelly Gang" is one of the best books of the past decade.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: I found it extremely difficult to like this novel: I have an inherent suspicion of prize-winning novels, and I'm afraid "The Kelly Gang" only reinforced those suspicions.

The reader is presented with what are supposed to be the surviving remnants of the hastily-jotted thoughts (testament might be stretching things too far) of the nineteenth century Australian renegade Ned Kelly. These are presented in sections, and consist of what are essentially episodes from Kelly's, and Kelly's family's lives. Kelly is supposed to have sat and scribbled down his thoughts in those odd spare moments between planning and actually committing his crimes (!).

The first problem I encountered (and this continued throughout the book) was the style - it lacked punctuation and tended to ramble. Therefore, I found it took me some time to get into the flow of the novel. But the continued (and main) problem was maintaining a perspective on the events "Kelly" relates. I'm not averse to a challenging read, but as I ploughed on I reflected that if this was supposed to be written in the manner Kelly would have written it, then it wasn't working (even allowing for the necessary setting aside of disbelief inherent in reading any novel). "Kelly's" vocabulary is very wide given his lack of education (repeatedly alluded to in the book), and apart from the lack of punctuation and rambling mentioned above, the grammar is reasonably good. Was I missing something? Were these "extracts" supposed to have been edited? I flicked through the book again after finishing it and found no clues.

This was a shame, because writing in the vernacular can work (I enjoy Irvine Welsh and James Kelman for example, who can write - admittedly contemporary - Scottish vernacular).

Bits of the novel did make an impression on me: the violence in colonial Australia, reflective of the wider British-Irish/imperialist struggle; the grinding poverty; the desperately downtrodden place of women in society. But for goodness' sake, were so many Irish-Aussies transvestites? If so, some recasting of stereotypes is needed!

Disturbing too that whatever the oppression of the Irish in Australia (or anywhere for that matter) a criminal should become an icon - Carey to his credit states this in the novel. I don't think that many people would want to live anywhere near a family like the Kellys.

Rating:
Summary: Australian 19C class warfare
Review: Ned Kelly, in the end, was hung by the neck until dead. But what was his story, why and how did a gangster become a folk hero? In short, this "true history" gives the reader both insight and disbelief, could it really happen like that? A fantastically enthralling book, full of passion, history, meanings.

Rating:
Summary: Carey treats Australian myth well
Review: Not since Kit Denton wrote "The Breaker" has an Australian author so well tackled the Australian mythos as Carey does with this novel.

Not since Sidney Nolan hung up his paint brush has the Kelly myth been given such a marvelous treatment.

...Australia has a central myth that believes itself to be tied to the "bush" while almost all of us live within a two hour drive of the coast. We like to think of ourselves as "larrikins" and a bit of a convict while we maintain our typical lives. We revel in our convict background and those of us who can lay claim to a forebear from the Irish bogs are proud of it. Given half a chance we'll hate the English.

You can see it in our myths and heroes. We exalt Gallipolli, a courageous defeat. Glory in the tale of "The Man From Snowy River", a bit of an outsider but a great horseman. Then there's Ned Kelly. By all accounts the real man was both brutish and arrogant but Australians admire a man who can wrap himself in steel and walk out into a hail of gunfire. It doesn't hurt that he was hung on November 11, years later the same date would end World War I.

I think Carey had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he called this novel "The True History of the Kelly Gang". Instead of delivering us the truth he takes the myth and wraps it in a marvellous cloak of realism.

He starts with the language; simple, poorly punctuated and full of grammatical error. Then he shows us hardship and heroism in the young Ned Kelly to provide an excuse, extends it with a mother who thrusts him into the arms of a bushranger to serve an apprenticeship.

The rest of the novel keeps it up. Marvellous characterisation, superb use of language and a great plot. Peter Carey can write a brilliant novel and this one deserved the Booker Prize.

Rating:
Summary: Great personal defense of the "misunderstood" Ned Kelly.
Review: Not being Australian, I had never heard of the legendary outlaw Ned Kelly. It doesn't much matter however, since the narrative that Peter Carey set out is a comprehensive one. Written as though being narrated by Kelly himself, the effects of the old Australian bush English, the descriptions of the whorehouses, the saloons, the devastating poverty, and the disjointed Australian laws of the time, are impressive.

Carey comes up on the side of Kelly as his narrative begins in Kelly's meager childhood, shortly before his father dies and his mother (to keep the family fed) embarks on a series of unsuccessful and mean relationships with, among others, a bushranger who takes Kelly in as an 'apprentice' of sorts. The 13 chapters are set down as though they are a long letter written by Kelly to his infant daughter (who has escaped to the American West with her mother and Kelly's love, Mary). We are given the distinct impression that all the young Kelly wanted was to keep his mother safe (and out of prison), and be able to feed himself and his family. We are to believe that he never killed unless he was forced to and that this outlaw life had been trust upon him and was neither one of his liking nor taking. Frankly, the narrative works quite persuasively and once I finished with the book I had the feeling that perhaps Ned Kelly had indeed drawn the short stick in life and that he had done the best he could under the circumstances

Rating:
Summary: What to do before you read this book
Review: I had never heard of the Kelly Gang, that I remember, but I read this because I try to read all Booker Prize winners (I have read all but 16 as of now). I found the early part unappealing and I was mightily annoyed by the semi-literate usage (would you believe that the author used "were" when "was" was the normal usge and "was" when "were" was the normal usage? This impeded my reading for many pages, tho I finally got used to it.) It would have helped a lot if I had known how famous and controversial the Kelly Gang is in Australia. So, I think, you will appreciate the entire book more (if you don't know anything about the Kelly Gang) if you would put "Kelly Gang" into your browser and this will lead you to a very comprehensive site dealing with the subject. That way you may enjoy the entire book, instead of like me only the latter part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Neat device. Were it really written by Ned Kelly!
Review: This amazing book is a page-turner. I wonder if Ned Kelly indeed wrote these packages, he would have been a master in literature.

I highly suggest that readers make a comparative read of "True History of the Kelly Gang" and the "Cloudspitter". Two similar stories, one in Australia the other in America, both related by the main character, Ned Kelley and Owen Brown. Readers can compare the different styles and ways how two authors tried to make their fiction convincible.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not overwhelming novel
Review: I enjoyed the book very much because I loved the topic of Ned Kelly. Carey writes very well, but his prose is sometimes hard to follow. The lack of puncuation reminds me of Faulkner and Saramango, but it does not read as smoothly.
It won't win over an unwilling reader, but it is a good book for an interested mind

Rating:
Summary: "The past is not dead. It is not even past."
Review: This book is an effing masterpiece. Beautifully conceived, written from the point-of-view of Ned Kelly himself, it is a humanistic take on history. Especially valuable as a portrait of an aspect of the Irish diaspora. Quite simply, a work of art of the higest order.