Book Review

UWA Publishing 2019 Crawley, Western Australia

I had planned to take my time reading Leni Shilton’s second verse novel Malcolm. Her first, Walking with Camels1 I had savoured, not just because of the subject matter - the extraordinary life of Bertha Strehlow, and her travels in Central Australia in the 1930s and 40s - as much as the prose and imagery it evoked. I admit I wasn’t particularly looking forward to reading Malcolm, described as a “dark verse novel”, “set in Melbourne’s’ underbelly” about a young, homeless drug user. I had imagined perhaps reading a poem or two each night and taking my time. This was not to be and I read it in one sitting, unable to focus on anything other than his grinding world. If you didn’t know anything about the author, you would be excused from thinking the book is part autobiographical, such is the depth with which Shilton draws her characters. It is a verse novel drawn from the author’s experiences of working with men in prisons, and from working as a nurse in city hospitals. We are led into the world of Malcolm and the squat he shares in inner Melbourne, learning something about his family, others in his life, and how he sees himself.

There are so many of us now, we make the city ugly. I know when it happens, when I become ugly, because eyes slip over me and I am invisible. 2 Life on the streets is presented to us in such an understated way it is impossible to be simply a spectator casting judgement. There’s a sense that we know Malcolm, and others like him, albeit differently. Melbourne too is a familiar character, but presented gently in a different light.

The city yawns like a sleepy cat. At this hour, lights glow yellow and hazy On empty streets. 3

Shilton says in the author’s note that her work in the prison system, where she spent “years of listening”, is “the background, not the source of the story”. The complexity of the world she has created, and the lives within it, left me feeling that these characters had been quietly living within her for a long time, eventually demanding to be released so they could communicate directly with us. Although Malcolm’s life has tragedy and he and his friends are often unsafe, ultimately it is a hopeful book. Compassion can do that, and the verse novel is an ideal medium for this. You do not have to be a regular poetry reader to appreciate this novel. The poems are beautifully simple and convey both narrative and emotion with ease. The characters are believable, their stories can be understood.

1 Walking with Camels – The Story of Bertha Strehlow. 2018, UWA Publishing. If you’d like to learn more about Walking with Camels, there’s an excellent ABC radio interview on Sunday Extra with Hugh Riminton: https://www.abc.net. au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/the-newira/11043016

2 From “Ugly is the new black”, p.109 3 From the opening poem “Trams”, p.10