Factotum, the third book in Australian author D.M.Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo series cements it as a fantasy classic.
Yes, it's shelved in the young adult section, but, to avoid the quagmire of genres, readership and commerce, this is a book that adults will love. Make sure to bring your dictionary. Not only does Cornish extend on all his already voluminous fantasy vocabulary (a glossary, or "explicarium" is located in the back of each of the trilogy) he mines the English harder than anyone you're likely to find in the kids section. What child would be familiar with the word "etiolate"? Perhaps one, but would you really want to meet the perspicacious little snot?
In plot and theme the book is more adult than most you'll find. It is a complicated, dense and slowly building world. I'll spare you the synopsis, since pull one thread and you pull them all, but the overall idea is this: man vs. monster - who's the real monster? I know I know, it reads simplistically, but it's handling is anything but. Cornish creates a world that's as lush in detail - equal parts Dickensian and Final Fantasy - as it is in intrigue. Everyone has blood on their hands, whether it be monster's or not. Factotum is messy, sprawling, violent, dark and whimsical and part of a series which deserves as much acclaim as anything in the so-called "children's section" .
To compare, Jasper Jones seems a trite simple. Not that that's a bad thing, since this much-loved novel by Craig Silvey is a very different story. It follows Charlie Bucktin as he attempts to clear the name of one Jasper Jones, a half-caste and outcast in a country town circa 1965. It's okay to make comparisons to Nancy Drew, Charlie makes the same comparison early on. In fact, literary critics aside, this novel could fit just as neatly into the young adult section as Monster Blood Tattoo.
The Monthly's claim of it being an Australian To Kill a Mockingbird isn't exactly an incisive one; the book is laden with references to the novel, with the erudite Charlie often measuring himself against the famously level-headed Atticus Finch. Anyone who remembers that novel (and I just had a horrendous flash-forward of a remake starring Tom Hanks. DEAR LORD NO) will be able to pick a number of the plots developments before they happen. Whether this is clever allusion or lazy imitation is up to you. Unlike Lee, Silvey has absolutely nothing new or provocative to say about racial prejudice, preferring to rest on repeated inter textual references - Superman, Hemingway, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Faulkner, to imbue much of the novels moments with meaning. Charlie Bucktin is a likeable character, but the authorial wish-fulfillment is hard to ignore. And does anyone else find writers writing characters who are writers and writing to be just incredibly lazy?
But that's all overflow from my previous post visa vis endless intertext. When he's not cherry picking the cannon, Silvey is an impressive wordsmith. His creation of time and place is fantastic. His description of the landscape and the moods and tempers of the adolescent Charlie are also something to behold. His dialogue is also commendable, albeit a little overused in the case of Charlies endless gabbings with his Vietnamese classmate Jeffrey. Jasper Jones makes for satisfying Summer reading, if not the social import it points to.
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