Book Review of "Ned Kelly" by Robert Drewe

AUTHOR: Robert Drewe

ISBN: 978-0-14200-315-2

PUBLISHER: Penguin

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RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

BOOK BLURB:

The first novel written about the bushcountry gunslinger who was both the national hero and devil incarnate of Australia, Ned Kelly imagines the inner life of a figure described by historian Manning Clark as "a wild ass of a man, snarling, roaring and frothing like a ferocious beast when the tamer entered the cage." Written with brilliant clarity and impressionistic economy, Ned Kelly follows Kelly and his outlaw gang of "bushrangers" through the wild land of Australia as they declare war on the police, the bankers, the squatters, the teachers, the preachers, the railway, and the electric telegraph-carrying readers into a dream world of astonishing and violent revelation.

BOOK REVIEW:

Ned Kelly ~ Australia's Billy the Kid. I had hoped this book would be more -- I don't know, linear maybe? Like tell you what happened when, you know what I mean. Instead it was much more lyrical and literary (not that it's a bad thing to be literary) and not very straightforward. If I didn't know the story of the Kelly Gang going into reading this book, I probably would've been left disappointed.

Example: the story starts at the inn where the Kelly Gang had their final "showdown" with police. Then the bulk of Ned's story is told as he tells the prisoners of the inn what happened to drive him to an outlaw's life. The action fluctuates (without warning and usually without notice) between the present and his past, until the police arrive and the two stories mesh into the infamous shootout that left Ned the only one of the Gang alive.

Hope I didn't ruin it for you but seriously, if you want a definitive picture of the Kelly Gang, don't rely on this one book to give it to you. At least it mentions the pictures of Joe at the end of it all (I won't say more for those who don't know), which is what drew me to the story in the first place. The opening stanza of the song "Kate Kelly" by the Whitlams was enough to trigger in me an insatiable interest in Ned and his struggle against authority.

And given the cover of this edition, and the movie based on it (the movie is really fabulous, much better than the book at giving you the story, so definitely check it out if you want), can't you just picture Ned and Joe on cold Australian nights in the bush, snuggled up together to ward off the chill?

Yes, I'm a pervert. Anyway, the book did keep me reading, and would really appeal to those who know the story but want a closer look at the man beneath the myth. The author does a great job giving the reader the flavor of the average man's admiration for the Kellys, showing us how the citizens felt about their outlaw-hero who robbed banks and burned the mortgages of poor farmers, who were overly kind to the ladies, who bought drinks all around their final night at the inn and stopped a circus train for amusement. The police come off like Keystone Kops chasing after their own shadows, which only makes them angrier at Ned and his friends.

The final showdown is a sad scene indeed, though I truly wish the book had mentioned the body armor sooner (that being one of the big things about their stand). And Joe, of course. That bothers me most of all, the indignant way victors have of debasing and dehumanizing their enemies, despite supposedly being "civilized" in this day and age.

So yes, overall good book. Read it if you're a fan of Ned Kelly or just outlaws in general. But you may want to look for something to give you a more in-depth look at the facts surrounding the man so you can see for yourself just how a widow's son outlawed managed to catapult into such a symbol of independence and nonconformity in the face of the law.