True History of the Kelly Gang

Rating:
Summary: The Great Australian Novel.
Review: This is one of the few great "factional" works of literature. Most attempts in making novels of real life people tend to fail. Exceptions are Mailer's The Executioner's Song and Capote's In Cold Blood. Along with Kelly the central characters of these stories met their fate in the same way - executed by the state. And now in Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang we learn of Ned's inevitable march to the gallows. Through these tales we may understand what motivates society's criminals. In bringing Ned back to life Peter Carey has done this brilliantly.

In the True History Carey has looked anew at a timeless story. One which is just as relevant today. How much is one's environment responsible for the illegal actions of an otherwise decent man. Yet, despite all his disadvantages, Ned Kelly emerges as a man of much depth, compassion and intelligence. Ned cared much for his fellow Irish-Australians and the other dispossessed choking under the English yoke in the colony of Victoria in the nineteenth century.

What'smore I loved how Carey has truly captured Ned's voice. A voice that shows a lack of education but a great depth of insight and understanding of his times. And what exciting times they were.

A great book by a writer who has now reached the height of his powers. If one wants to understand what, hopefully, lies at the heart of the Australian character then this is, as Ned's mother would say, the effing book.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely add this to your "To Do" List
Review: What an incredible read! When I finished the book, I was left with that "What can I possibly read now that will hold my interest like True History of the Kelly Gang?" If each one of us looks deep within ourselves, we will find that commonality that binds us with Ned Kelly. This book explores the love for family, and to what length some will go to protect those relationships which are so damaged yet so important. If you don't laugh and cry when you read this book, you're impaired. Read it, but don't play Scrabble during/shortly after you finish!

Rating:
Summary: A passionate tale of hard-scrabble frontier life.
Review: This is a "western" which gallops to life, and the reader feels the grit, smells the dust, and agonizes with desperate characters as they are tossed every which way, not by their own deliberate decisions so much as by the unpredictability of their Australian frontier existence.

Ned Kelly, the Jesse James of Australia, becomes human here, not a monstrous blackguard so much as a man who is forced to make impossible choices. In this tale, which purports to be the hand-written autobiography he wants to leave for his baby daughter, we follow his childhood in poverty, his reluctant "apprenticeship" to the villainous Harry Powers, his cruel imprisonment by corrupt authorities, and his attempts to stay out of trouble upon his release. The judicial system's attack on his mother, however, becomes the catalyst for Ned's life in crime, a life which the reader understands could have been completely different, had authorities simply shown more compassion.

Carey is masterful in using small details to show contrasts and to make the big picture come alive. A new pair of soft boots achieves almost mystical significance--the ecstasy of their acquisition contrasting with the strength achieved through their sacrifice. "Fresh bread and jam...barley and mutton soup," served to Ned in jail, provide poignant contrast to the poorer, leaner fare on the farm. And a red silk dress becomes a symbol for corruption in one context and love in another.

This is a vigorous, exuberant, and uncompromising vision of wilderness life and death. It is the sensitive portrayal of a young man forced to make impossible decisions to save and protect his family. And it is a passionate love story told with a warmth and sympathy that is all the more poignant for its contrast with the murder and death which accompany it. Satisfying and rewarding on all levels.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderment!
Review: Only an adjectival fool would give this novel less than 5 stars. The comparison to Collected Works of Billy the Kid is apt. I would also compare it (favorably) to Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker and The Book of Ebenezer LePage, two other novels written totally in the main character's true language. Thank you Peter Carey for a novel I'll never forget.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent historical biography
Review: Though over a century has passed since the Australian authorities hanged him, Ned Kelly retains a mythical hold on the minds of individuals who romanticize a criminal with an honorable moral fiber. In 1879-1880, Kelly and his cohorts elude the police for about twenty months, desperately doing daring deeds that capture the soul of a nation. Yet in the end he fails to achieve his goal of winning the approval of his mother, but Ellen betrayed her family and Ned whenever it was convenient.

This is an exciting biographical fiction that brings to life a country and its people in the late nineteenth century. Although one-sided by turning Kelly into a glamorous heroic victim of society and his family, he retains all the allure that makes him an epic hero. The story line is well written and grips the reader from start to finish with the action adventure of a Zane Gray western tale. Award winning Peter Carey shows why he is one of the best authors with this uncanny novel that brings forth a legendary man.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A Unique Read
Review: There are too many faults with this book for it to be anything more than a curio. I knew little of Ned Kelly before I bought the book and feel as though I know little more due to this account. What is really necessary in this narrative is some form of historical note that gives the other side of the story so that a reader can weigh up in their own mind just how realistic this book is. Instead we have the unpunctuated thoughts of a man portrayed as caring, passionate, impulsive and not a little deluded. Carey has dispensed with correct English using the resulting narrative as an example of exactly how Kelly would speak. This is interesting, a nice touch, but ultimately annoying as the reader struggles to understand who is saying what and when. It makes the reading harder and less flowing than it might have been leading to concentration on the words rather than the meaning. Carey's decision to not have Kelly swearing in a manuscript to his daughter is both rather witty, and refreshing as well as realistic. It was a side of the novel that I never bored of. But Carey seems to slightly go off kilter at times, either forgetting his character, or more commonly, trying a little too obviously to make political comment through the words of Kelly. The time that Kelly first "lies" with Mary Hearn - the intended recipient's mother - is dummed down, Kelly advising his daughter to skip the next few lines, before going on in some detail as to the love. I find it hard to believe anyone would include such a passage in a script written specifically for their daughter. This sort of questionable passage often appears in the book. As do the frequent references to the rule of the British over the Irish, whether it be in Ireland or Australia. I do not doubt that the very nature of Australia - a land where convicts were deported - gives ground for the abuse of power, but I will not have it that it is as simple as the English once again being the root of all evil. The Easter uprising was over 30 years away, but Carey has Kelly already militant enough to wage war on the authorities. And to cap it all, I always had the thought at the back of my mind as to just how Kelly managed to compose this hefty manuscript whilst on the run from the law and how Carey would explain its sudden appearance in 2000. I know this is a very picky point, but it was one that, due to the nature of the script, had to be explained. Carey's attempt is poor. Having spent 3 years writing his memoirs up, Kelly passes them to a virtual stranger just before his final battle. Artistic licence is a necessary evil, but it must pass scrutiny and this account of events does not. Another complaint is the pace of the book which is not at all smooth, possibly because the author has tried to reciprocate the circumstances of the "memoir's" writing in the first place with Kelly being on the run. If this is the case then Carey has managed well. Unfortunately, however, the overall effect that it is just rushed at the end, whilst being rather plodding throughout the previous chapters, prevails. I finished the book thinking Carey had run out of things to say at a time when I wanted more, and specifically wanted a historical note to complete the novel. "True History of the Kelly Gang" does, however, possess some good points. Like the classic bad guy throughout history, Kelly enjoyed (by and large) the support and popularity of the rest of the community against the tyrannical authorities. Robin Hood even gets a mention late on. Some of the scenes are rather interesting, the boxing match with Wild Wright is very evocative. Other characters involved are suitably odious such as two-faced policemen and the scoundrel element in the poor communities that Carey admits existed. I would like to be able to agree with the other reviewers that place this book in the region of greatness, but I cannot. Obviously I would have rather read a book that I enjoyed greatly rather than one that I consider frustrating. I think Carey has undertaken a very difficult task and has reached a level of competence that he can be congratulated on. It is unfortunate that the subject matter has been tainted by just a few errors.

Rating:
Summary: Unique, but not really that good.
Review: Their are too many faults with this book for it to be anything more than a curio. I knew little of Ned Kelly before I bought the book and feel as though I know little more due to this account. What is really necessary in this narrative is some form of historical note that gives the other side of the story so that a reader can weigh up in their own mind just how realistic this book is.

Instead we have the unpunctuated thoughts of a man portrayed as caring, passionate, impulsive and not a little deluded. Carey has dispensed with correct English using the resulting narrative as an example of exactly how Kelly would speak. This is interesting, a nice touch, but ultimately annoying as the reader struggles to understand who is saying what and when. It makes the reading harder and less flowing than it might have been leading to concentration on the words rather than the meaning. Carey's decision to not have Kelly swearing in a manuscript to his daughter is both rather witty, and refreshing as well as realistic. It was a side of the novel that I never bored of.

But Carey seems to slightly go off kilter at times, either forgetting his character, or more commonly, trying a little too obviously to make political comment through the words of Kelly. The time that Kelly first "lies" with Mary Hearn - the intended recipient's mother - is dummed down, Kelly advising his daughter to skip the next few lines, before going on in some detail as to the love. I find it hard to believe anyone would include such a passage in a script written specifically for their daughter. This sort of questionable passage often appears in the book. As do the frequent references to the rule of the British over the Irish, whether it be in Ireland or Australia. I do not doubt that the very nature of Australia - a land where convicts were deported - gives ground for the abuse of power, but I will not have it that it is as simple as the English once again being the root of all evil. The Easter uprising was over 30 years away, but Carey has Kelly already militant enough to wage war on the authorities.

And to cap it all, I always had the thought at the back of my mind as to just how Kelly managed to compose this hefty manuscript whilst on the run from the law and how Carey would explain it sudden appearance in 2000. I know this is a very picky point, but it was one that, due to the nature of the script, had to be explained. Carey's attempt is poor. Having spent 3 years writing his memoirs up, Kelly passes them to a virtual stranger just before his final battle. Artistic licence is a necessary evil, but it must pass scrutiny and this account of events does not.

Another complaint is the pace of the book which is not at all smooth, possibly because the author has tried to recipricate the circumstances of the "memoir's" writing in the first place with Kelly being on the run. If this is the case then Carey has managed well. Unfortunately, however, the overall effect that it is just rushed at the end, whilst being rather plodding throughout the previous chapters, prevails. I finished the book thinking Carey had run out of things to say at a time when I wanted more, and specifically wanted a historical note to complete the novel.

"True History of the Kelly Gang" does, however, possess some good points. Like the classic bad guy throughout history, Kelly enjoyed (by and large) the support and popularity of the rest of the community against the tyrannical authorities. Robin Hood even gets a mention late on. Some of the scenes are rather interesting, the boxing match with Wild Wright is very evocative. Other characters involved are suitably odious such as two-faced policemen and the scoundrel element in the poor communities that Carey admits existed.

I would like to be able to agree with the other reviewers that place this book in the region of greatness, but I cannot. Obviously I would have rather read a book that I enjoyed greatly rather than one that I consider frustrating. I think Carey has undertaken a very difficult task and has reached a level of competence that he can be congratulated on. It is unfortunate that the subject matter has been tainted by just a few errors.

Rating:
Summary: An Adjectival Wonder
Review: History has always been written by the victors of wars, those adhering to the prevailing ideology of the day, or the survivors. In Peter Carey's new novel, the best this wonderful writer has yet produced, history gets told by Ned Kelly, the mythic Australian bush-ranger, who is none of those things. The result, Carey tells us, is a "true" history, told in the first-person voice of Kelly, a voice of Faulknerian sweep and rhythm written in a style based on real surviving letters in Kelly's own hand. And what a voice it is. Sentences run on, they lack punctuation or accurate grammar, they fold into themselves, or whip from emotion to emotion, subject to subject. Yet Carey is always in control of the sentence, using it to charm, inform,and manipulate.

The precise nature of Ned Kelly's lawlessness is central to Carey's book, for most of Kelly's crimes are seen as reactions against a cruel and unjust system being enacted against immigrants by the predominantly British system in Australia. For example, when Kelly is accused of stealing another horse, but when the case comes to trial the dates do not match up, the accused being out of the area when the theft was alleged to have taken place. The result of the trial is still a conviction. Kelly is found "guilty of receiving a horse not yet legally stolen." Finally, when Ned Kelly and his three companions are being hunted for the attempted murder of a policeman-something Kelly denies in his history-there is a shootout at Stringybark Creek resulting in the deaths of three constables. Kelly realizes that the only way to discourage the locals from turning them in is to pay them more than the reward money being offered by the authorities. After some audacious bank robberies to raise such funds the Kelly gang are cornered in Mrs. Jones' hotel in Glenrowan. Three are killed and Kelly is captured in his newly created(and now iconic) suit of armor. In 1880 he was tried and hanged. Kelly is a victim, like Jack Maggs in Carey's last novel, of a system that pulls him into a life of crime and judicial punishment. As Maggs is apprenticed to a house-breaker in Victorian London, so Kelly is apprenticed to a bush-ranger in this novel. They struggle, feeling that they can escape their lot in life, but the system pulls them down. Both men explain themselves--Maggs in the invisible writing he leaves for his errant adopted son, and Kelly in his "true history."

Carey's epigram in this book is taken from William Faulkner: "The past is not dead. It is not even past." This is his theme, for Carey is examining what it meant to be Australian in the last century and, by association, what it means today. Is it any different? Australia is still under the sovereign rule of Britain, the Republic still not realized. Carey's focus on post-colonialism and the struggle for Australian identity has clarified with every novel he has written, and it has never been clearer than here. The past is not dead, but it continues. Australia is still not free today, just as it was not free in Kelly's time. The sense of injustice in this book, and in this situation is prevalent.

But do not think this an overly serious or difficult book, because Carey has always been a wonderful story-teller and entertainer. There is abundant action and humor in this novel, and it comes at a great pace. The description of the Australian outback is vivid and sensual, bringing to life the harsh beauty of the country, the loud blackness of the bush night, and the roaring life of rivers in flood. Even the explanations of Kelly's difficult situation are couched in native terms that ring with truth and beauty. For example, when Kelly confesses that he can't imagine the forces stirred against him, he describes himself as "a plump witchetty grub beneath the bark not knowing that the kookaburra exists unable to imagine that fierce beak or the punishment in that wild and angry eye." Throughout the telling the voice of Kelly is dominant, Carey disappearing masterfully behind his narrator. Detail is immaculately and consistently observed. Kelly is obsessed it seems with numbers, for example. He gives ages and dimensions meticulously. Also, and effectively given the violence of the story and the reputation of Kelly himself, there is a winning sense of decorum in Kelly's refusal to report strong language. Instead we get b----r, and b----y, and most notably the replacement of all other swear words with the cover-all term "adjectival." Each chapter is a "found" document, Kelly's writings being made on any available paper stock tell his story, and pulled together after his capture and execution. Kelly's civil disobedience, while often violent in nature, is grounded in an sense of moral injustice that breeds a sturdy stoicism. Kelly is the hero we identify with and the forces of imperialism and societal intolerance that we read of in this book are the historical factors that forced him into being, in all his conflicted fatalism. In the "true" history of the Kelly gang it is made clear that this past is not dead but still with us. If Carey's novel is particularly Australian, his theme is universal.

Rating:
Summary: A flesh and blood myth
Review: Like many 19th century American outlaws have in this country, Ned Kelly has attained folkhero status in his native Australia. The impoverished, undereducated son of Irish immigrants, he ended his days at the end of a rope, a convicted thief and murderer. But many regard him as the persecuted victim of powerful English landlords and their agents, the police.

Carey (winner of the Booker Prize for "Oscar & Lucinda") gives Kelly a powerful voice in this stirring, eloquent novel. Presented as a series of parcels handscrawled on assorted stained and tattered paper, including stolen bank stationary, Kelly puts his story on paper for his baby daughter and promises, it "will contain no single lie may I burn in hell if I speak false."

Kelly's ungrammatical, heartfelt narrative contains not a single comma either but don't be alarmed. The writing is straightforward, conversational and impassioned. The wild Australian landscape comes alive. Events tumble after one another. Punctuation would only blunt the force of Kelly's voice.

At pains to justify his life and considerate of his reader, Kelly cleans up expletive-studded dialogue without changing a word. Besides the usual dashes between first and last letters (b-----d, b----r), Carey's charming and original solution is the word "adjectival." "His hair were wild his face smudged with charcoal it were adjectival this and adjectival that." The effect is endearing.

The eldest of a large brood, Kelly begins with his childhood and moves forward chronologically to reveal the events that led to his fugitive state and drove him to outlawry on a grand scale. The man that emerges is ambitious and protective of his family, if a trifle hotheaded. A would-be farmer, frustrated by poverty and the active contempt of those in power- the English - for those at the bottom - the Irish, crime is all but forced upon him and being framed to fit is his lot in life.

His first crime, at age 10, was the killing of a landowner's pampered cow to feed the desperate Kelly family. His father, who did terrible time for something in Ireland, is at pains to avoid the police, but, though Ned confesses, his father is hauled off to jail and it breaks him. At 12, Ned is the man of the family, his father dead.

Ned's mother, Ellen, eager to take advantage of new homesteading laws, packs up the family. But the land is poor and while Ned struggles to transform it into a farm, Ellen runs an illegal still and welcomes a lively succession of beaus.

One of Ellen's men is bushranger (Australian for bandit) Harry Power who, with Ellen's connivance, takes on young Ned as an apprentice. Ned's unprofitable adventures in the bush, holding up coaches and landlords and running from hideout to hideout, instill no love of the outlaw life. Its discomforts and humiliations only reinforce his bent for farming.

But, what with poor land, insufficient funds and the incessant hounding of the police, it's not to be. The Kelly family lurches from crisis to crisis, their existence precarious. Ned falls in love but even this joy is cut short when his mother is unjustly jailed and Ned and his brother take to the bush. Here Ned comes into his own, newly mindful of Harry Power's wisdom. The law may never deliver justice, but his own people can be swayed by his exploits or, failing that, bought.

It's only now we realize Ned's need to be understood extends beyond his baby daughter. He writes lengthy letters, even attempts to highjack a printer to publish a 58-page plea, but is never allowed a public voice. So, seeing the end come hurtling toward him, he writes for posterity.

Carey's Ned Kelly is a complicated, earnest man. Is he a hero? He certainly arouses the reader's sympathy and outrage. He makes us laugh and root for escape, although we already know it's hopeless. He makes poor choices, acts impulsively, suffers from pride. In Carey's hands, at least, he is the sort of man myths are made from.

Carey's bush, like our Wild West, is full of swaggering villains, cowards, blowhards and hotheads. Of Kelly's associates and family, the most vivid are the women. Ned may not understand them, but Carey does. Though Ellen Kelly comes across as a practical, fun-loving, broken-hearted and strong-willed woman, Ned can't see beyond her role as Mother. He is similarly near-sighted with his sisters and lover, while Carey's skills reveal them.

Carey has done a masterful job of portraying a hardscrabble time and place through the eyes of one singular man. With virtuoso writing, real characters and a landscape so rough you can taste the dust, Carey may have defined the Kelly legend.

Rating:
Summary: Something Worth Reading about Ned Kelly
Review: After studying in Melbourne, Australia for about 4 years, I had fallen across texts and historical accounts on the famous Australian bushranger Ned Kelly. Most of the time, they were quite bland and very vague - what they stressed most was that Ned Kelly was someone who was a mystery, a folk tale.

Another book that has dealt with trying to get into the real character of Ned Kelly was Our Sunshine. I feel that "True History of the Kelly Gang" gives us a more in depth feel into one view of what the true Ned Kelly was like. The characters in the book comes alive and at times, you forget that this was not written by Carey but by Ned himself (which is what Carey wants the reader to do). The grammatical errors and the lack of punctuation did become confusing at times but, trust me, you get used to it and it also makes the story come alive and makes it very, very believable. It is almost like the new phase of Reality TV but better.

The book deals with all the events that Ned Kelly went through and Carey weaves all these events with Kelly's personal life and an example of what he might have felt during different stages of his life. The layout of the "project" is given to the reader in a package form from his younger days to his early death. It is extremely detailed and it is obvious that a lot of painstaking research was poured into the book and it is evident that Carey actually became the Ned that he was painting in his mind.

This is a book that has everything - murder, love, family, loyalty, betrayal, action and most of all, it is able to draw the reader into the situation to feel what all the characters are feeling. It forces the reader to think about whether Kelly was in the right or in the wrong and it creates debate between knowledge that we all might have past before about this character.

It is hard for someone who had never heard of the Kelly story before to really get into this book and to truly appreciate it, some history has to be studied. This is what makes the book fascinating as it is remarkable to see how Carey has weaved the events to make it feel like a flowing river of events. Basically, these parcels/manuscripts that have been written are from Ned Kelly himself to his daughter so as to give evidence that he is not the man the newspapers portray him as. It is a touching and very emotional account of a man that has been wronged for most of his life. But we also have to pause and think whether what all he is saying is true or what he wants to be true.

As a teenager, I recommend it to all age groups (I mean, if it passes for teenagers, it should be able to pass for everyone) as it can be read on many levels - as a story or as a trip into real history.

This book serves its purpose of bringing Ned Kelly to life and I salute and thank Peter Carey for doing that for me.