Next Meeting: 14th July at 6:30pm to discuss The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck.
The Name of the Sister – a novel by Gail Jones.
Gail Jones is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. She is the author of two short-story collections and eleven novels, and she has received numerous literary awards. She is renowned for fiction of rare elegance and intellectual depth.
Salonika Burning; The death of Noah Glass; One Another; and Our Shadow; these novels have shaped my appreciation of her skills of storytelling and mastery of language.
First Impressions
The novel is set in Australia. I ask myself who the audience is. My impression is that she is talking to an Australian audience. This audience would have the strongest connection and recognition of place, people, language and culture of the novel.
This novel may appear to be Gail Jones’ foray into Australian (rural) Noir. The format/formula is similar to some extent – crime/murder mystery in the outback. However, the “incident” in this novel is not the overarching theme.
Profound loss, disaster, despair. Lost girls and women. Lives changed as a consequence of loss are underlying themes in this novel.
Protagonist
The protagonist in this novel is Angie, a journalist who has changed from short form to freelance journalism, preferring the long form of exploring and writing the underlying story.
Angie is looking for meaning in her writing and her life.
She is in a long-term relationship with Sam, no children. They own a terrace house in Glebe, Sydney. They are experiencing financial stress because of Angie’s decision to change her work type.The relationship appears to be under stress and at an impasse. I sense a need for change and new meaning and purpose in her life.
Her character description includes: “Constitutional seriousness” with a capacity for reflection.
She looks for theory and explanation.
Catalyst for change
- Nightly news article – a bomb disaster in the middle east – camera zooms in to a man devastated by the loss of his wife and family – an image of total despair.
- A woman is found late at night on an isolated road out back of Broken Hill. She has no identification and no one knows what has happened to her. She has been very abused and does not talk. The police are looking for her identification. The police investigation spokesperson is a good friend of Angie – Detective Inspector Beverly Calder (Bev). Many people contact the police to claim Jane, the unknown woman. They have all lost someone.
Jane – “Unknown Woman: Information Wanted”
Jane was found wandering at night on a highway, thirty or so kilometres north-east of Broken Hill. To assist in her identification, the police staged a broadcast event showing Jane in hospital. As she watched the newsreel, Angie saw “how little protection there was for the woman in so rude an exposure”.
“Jane was the urban brick wall that begs to be tagged or sprayed.”
Who found Jane – Terry Williams ( Tezza)
“He was a carrot-top aussie in shorts and t-shirt, no nonsense, jokey, with half an ear chewed away and blazing scars on his nose from removal of incipient skin cancer. A BUSHMAN A BLOKE.”
The Proposed Story
Angie is looking for a story to write. She doesn’t want to write about the crime itself.
She plans a back story about all the wannabees who claim to know Jane. She asks Bev if she can have contact with the people who have contacted the police to claim Jane but were unsuccessful.
The wanabees – lost causes
1) Herb – looking for his old girlfriend.
2) Vesna – looking for her lost sister.
3) Marie – looking for lost daughter Sal.
4) Lisa – looking for her sister Emily – missing from Broken Hill one year ago.
5) Jake – girl friend
6) Filomena Donata – daughter Christine
Detective Bob Fitzgerald (retired) – keeps tabs on the missing children.
Case solved! Jane is identified – DNA identification.
An anti-climax for the journos. By chapter 11 we know Jane is Hannah Block, 30 years old, sister of Rachael, from Berlin, travelling solo in OZ, missing for 2 years. Her parents are contacted and she is returned home.
What happened to Hannah Block – the case is not closed. There are no answers. The story had fizzled – NO RESULTS.
Angie askes herself should/could she still resurrect a story from the disappointed claimants.
Detective Inspector Beverly Calder is posted to Broken Hill to investigate the incident.
Angie sees another story here and she plans to visit Bev in Broken Hill.
Anatomy of a Marriage on the Rocks: Time away from Sam may be what she needs. Sam is having a crisis in his world. A student of his (Hamlet in his play) has committed suicide and Sam takes it all very badly.
Broken Hill adventure – Mad Max Movie Set town
BH is a mining town – silver, lead and zinc.
Angie takes the train to Broken Hill – stays at a cut-rate motel. Catches up with Bev.
BH police station
Angie meets the team at the station – Jackie, Senior Sargent Frank Childers, Kylie, Mickie (tech lead), Merle (indigenous liaison officer and a group of young men (police officers). Clearly identified that Angie is not being part of the investigation team.
Angie feels out of place in this setting. She doesn’t want to be part of the investigation.
The search to date has focused on unused mining shafts around BH. Merle – “In a landscape so flat, the only place for a white fella to hide was underground”.
Angie explores the area around BH – goes to Silverton, an old mining town and visits the museum where she learns about:
- Old mining map
- Pilgrim mine
- HARRY
- Walter Pilgrim and his son Billy (who disappeared a few years ago).
The search
Angie, Merle and Tezza head out to locate the abandoned Pilgrim mine. They find the mine, but disaster prevails – Tezza and Billy, the perpetrator, are fatally shot. Angie has shot Billy. Bev and Lisa are found. Bev is wounded.
Another lost and unknown woman is found in the mine. She is Em from Queensland, sister of Lisa and daughter of Sal.
Afterwards
Angie is quarantined from the investigation, no debriefing. A coverup of her part in the incident and investigation.
A gruff voice, a man learning forward, his thick arms on the desk – “like you were never there, smoke and mirrors. Nothing more to bother about”.
She feels- hollow inside, inarticulate, embarrassment, garbled emotions, stretched like a carcass, inability to adjust to her part in the event and killing.
Angie returns to Sydney. Sam is still abroad. Angie wants time alone. She wants to be in her own place to gather in slow motion her centrifugal self. She felt only a magnification of her sense of being lost. She wept at small provocations and was emotionally erratic. Angie travels to Berlin to find Hannah’s sister Rachael.
The story of what happened to Hannah and Em is left untold. You are left with a sense of loss – loss for the insight of what happened to Hannah and Em.
Also, a sense of loss for Angie – the back story not formulated, and the loss of her marriage.
Overall comments: Some sections of the story are well written but lacking in a clear purpose or resolution. The Noir aspect in the novel lacks plausibility. This is not a strong point for Gail Jones. The literary aspects were well written. The characters she developed were generally very plausible. However, the reader is left at a loss to understand the outcomes and the purpose. Like Angie, the reader is at a loss.
Ratings: Pauline 2, Janet 2.5, Dianne 2.5, Xxenne 2, Cheryl 2.5, Lesley 3, Kim 2.5, Lynda 2.5, Hetta 3, Veronica 2.5
We look forward to seeing you again at our next meeting at 6.30pm, Tuesday 14th of July
to discuss The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck.
About Us
We are a group that gets together once a month to discuss good books. Each of us gets to choose a book on a rotational basis, preferably one outside our personal comfort zone – we try to keep the trash to ourselves. After the discussion, we comment on other books we read that month. Most of the time we remain friends after the meeting.
We normally meet at Room 2.1 of the Robina Community Centre’s Boadroom. This building is located opposite the Auditorium entrance of the Robina Library on the second Tuesday of every month from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
A small contribution is required towards the rent of the room, but not if you are a first timer. The amount depends on the number of people attending.
One book title is chosen each month and we all read that book. There is a ‘host’ who introduces and co-ordinates the discussion. The role of host is rotated around the group so that each member has the opportunity to nominate their book (it could also be an author, theme or genre). The host also acts as chairperson for that meeting.
Although we are not a social club (we are readers), we occasionally attend literary events, relevant movies or plays here at the Gold Coast, Brisbane or Byron Bay. We conform to basic meeting practices, and everyone has an equal opportunity to express their opinion. Everyone’s interpretation is valid, as long as it’s expressed respectfully.
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