She couldn’t see Ken busting her up today.’ The family, immediate and extended become important to Kerry as the secrets of past and present unfold to give her new understanding of them and herself. Yet there is also menace and an undercurrent from Kenny, her older brother ‘who had long held the monopoly on anger in the Salter family. The characters are well drawn and just their nicknames will make you smile, from Pretty Mary, Kerry’s mother, Black Superman, her younger brother, Dr No, one of her nephews. There are words which will throw you but after a while you’ll get their meaning as you immerse yourself into the book. This is a very well written book where the language is evocative describing the landscape, the heat and the mood of a fictional Australian country town. The language is at times brutal, yet powerful as it can be in dialogue with her family. When he recognised Kerry, Elvis leaped off the veranda and beat his half-a-tail wildly in greeting, all the while conspiring to get past her and piss on the bike’s front wheel.‘ A small cunning mutt of no discernible heritage, he raged at the bike from the top of the stairs, finding it a worthy adversary. ‘The noise of the Harley didn’t worry Elvis one bit. And the animals in the story are their own characters. The scene around the imagined discussion by the crows is hilarious. The story is sad, and tragic while poking fun in a good-natured way and that’s the talent of the writing by Lucashenko. It might seem that it’s heavy handed but it’s not.
The author puts us deep into Kerry’s family, the dynamics, the struggles and we see clearly what intergenerational trauma can do. The trauma of living as an indigenous woman is not sugar coated and the commentary of what the consequences of white settlement in Australia have been for indigenous families covers many things including racism, land rights, the stolen generation and corruption. Old wounds burst open and when a developer tries to take their river, she’s drawn into the fight. She soon finds that her family and sense of country aren’t easy to escape. On her stolen Harley, she heads home because her Pa is dying and she figures all she needs is twenty-four hours and then she can leave. Kerry Salter is a mouthy woman living on the edge avoiding prison and her family. This is an incredible book written with confidence, opening up many confronting themes for the reader to think about and to be challenged by.
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