3 minute read
Review
TOP 4 BOOKS TO READ THIS MONTH
BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME By Jacqueline Bublitz Alice was a plucky teenager looking to start a new life in New York. Now she’s ‘Jane Doe’, an unidentified body at City Morgue having been found by lonely Australian woman Ruby.
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THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET By Catriona Ward ‘I haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl’ says Stephen King. This is the story of a murderer. A stolen child. This is the story of Ted, who lives with his daughter and cat in an ordinary house on an ordinary street.
THE KINDNESS REVOLUTION By Hugh Mackay Absorbing, wise and inspiring, a distillation of Hugh Mackay’s life’s work. Written for our time, this truly remarkable book shows how crises and catastrophes often turn out to be the making of us.
HOW STELLA LEARNED TO TALK By Christina Hunger An incredible, revolutionary true story and surprisingly simple guide to teaching your dog to talk from speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger, who has taught her dog, Stella, to communicate using simple paw-sized buttons associated with different words.
A BOOK LOVER’S REVIEW BY JACQUI SERAFIM
Honeybee
by Craig Silvey
Sam Watson, Silvey’s 14-year-old narrator is a sensitive, intelligent and loving transgender adolescent who has had a traumatic life. Raised by a young single mother who turns to alcohol and men to escape from her life, Sam is emotionally and physically neglected, lives a lonely life in unkempt flats with little support and is bullied at school. She is resilient and imaginative and looks after herself and her mother. But at 14, her body is changing in ways that are distressing for her. As her male body begins to develop, the gap between the body of her birth and her gender begins to widen. At the same time, her new stepfather intensifies the pressure for her to be a man. His bullying and violence are terrifying and her situation becomes intolerable.
Late one night, a distraught and battered Sam climbs over the railing on an isolated bridge determined to silence her misery and confusion forever. Noticing an old man having a cigarette down at the other end of the overpass, Sam waits patiently for him to leave, unwilling to traumatise an innocent witness. But Vic, at the overpass for the same reason, is also waiting for Sam to leave. That night, each decides to save the other and a journey of love and redemption begins. Vic takes Sam home and his gentle care and acceptance is a balm to Sam’s battered body and soul. Sam reciprocates with cooking appetising meals and looking after Vic. Each tries to help the other to heal and their friendship grows into a sense of a family. Sam is young and naïve and many of her well-intentioned plans result in trouble for herself and Vic. But his calm forgiveness and understanding help her to forgive herself and commence the arduous journey of self-acceptance.
Through the unconventional friendship with Vic, Sam meets an array of people who come to love and accept her and help her find peace with herself. The well-drawn characters of the persistent but gentle nurse Peter, the patient and understanding counsellor Diane and the bubbly, warm and enthusiastic Aggie all play important roles in Sam’s journey.
There is inevitable controversy about Silvey’s decision to write about an experience which is not his own. But Silvey is clear that not all stories come from an author’s experience and he argues that they must be judged on the execution. Silvey undertook rigorous research before embarking on Sam’s story and consulted widely with the transgender community. His hope is that the novel provides an opportunity for readers to empathise with the challenges faced by gender diverse people and that young transgender people can feel represented.
Readers who loved Silvey’s Jasper Jones will not be disappointed by his new novel. This is a tender novel filled with pain but also hope. Honeybee is about the redemptive power of love and friendship in its many forms written with sensitivity and respect. https://rtrfm.com.au/story/craig-silvey-on-his-new-novel-honeybee/
