THEY THINK THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING

Goodbye, my child

• by: TRENT DALTON
• From: The Australian
• March 23, 2013 12:00AM

 IF Gabrielle would just stop buzzing around the house then her mother could hold her in her arms forever and every muscle in her body could relax and the universe could pause for eternity because it knows Louise Upton's love for her daughter is a force far greater than something as intangible and uncertain as a child's destiny. 

....

This morning, Gabrielle can't wait to go to boarding school. She has already neatly transferred into her diary all of the events of her first semester at The Glennie School, a 105-year-old private Anglican allgirls primary and secondary school 580km away in Toowoomba, in south-east Queensland's lush Darling Downs, where Gabrielle will spend the next five years of her life sharing accommodation with 170 other boarders from towns and properties in western and northern Queensland and northern NSW. The 832 students of Glennie represent almost a quarter of the population of her home town.

....

Jon Doust was sent off at age 11, in 1961, to spend five years away from house and home. 

He did all right, kept notes, wrote a book, but his mother told him just before she died: "I cried every day for five weeks after each one of you boys went back to school."

Betty Doust had four boys. That's a lot of crying.

Two weeks before she died she said to Jon: "I wasn't much of a mother, was I."

To read the full story in The Weekend Australian, click here.

And to read the follow up letters to the editor, click here.

About the new book: To the Highlands

You remember Jack Muir? Well, To the Highlands details all the grubbiness of Jack's life after school. It's the next stage of his trip to manhood.

Jack Muir, the son of disappointed parents, and reluctant employee of The Colonial Bank of Australia, is dispatched to the capital of a regional outpost, in an unnamed island somewhere to the north of Australia. Like the capital itself, the country’s highlands – to which Jack is subsequently demoted in further disgrace – have a familiar feel to them. One suspects, very strongly, that this place might be Papua New Guinea.

In 1968, the greater world is full of upheaval and protest, warring and lovemaking. Its events are a million miles away from Jack’s sleepy and complacent Perth. But on the island, Jack falls into his own kind of revolution as he is lured by the irresistible promises of a sometimes brutal hedonism: on the island Jack comes to lose (at last!) his virginity and many of his inhibitions.

But if Jack and his compatriots are there for sport, there are locals for whom the precipice of independence is a serious matter indeed. So Jack meets the beautiful, talented, and unattainable Margaret Baker, being groomed to assume her rightful place amongst the classes of educated and elite, and he meets George Kanluna, powerful and impressive, watching and waiting for the moment his country will seize independence.

To the Highlands is a book set in a time and a place where a clear-sighted interrogation of colonialism could scarcely be expected of the white people who worked within its system. Jack Muir comes to the island with no more insight than many of his contemporaries, but his growing discomfort in a murky moral terrain becomes a mirror for the relationship between two countries poised (though to varying degrees) on the verge of maturation.

This novel is more than the story of one boy’s journey to man: it is an unflinching metaphor for a less than salutary chapter in Australia’s colonial history, laying bare, as it does, uncomfortable aspects our own national identity.

Available on kindle!

if you would like to read an excerpt:

https://booki.sh/titles/9781921696183

then there's amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=boy+on+a+wire

Dark themes dominate Franklin awards | The Australian

Dark themes dominate Franklin awards | The Australian

Amazon.com: Boy on a Wire (9781921361456): Jon Doust: Books

Amazon.com: Boy on a Wire (9781921361456): Jon Doust: Books

GREAT SOUTHERN (WA) FOLK CHECK THIS OUT

COURSE INFORMATION

If you have ever wanted to use your creative instincts then this evening course is perfect for you! Join us for a short but deep journey into word-smithing. Release your ‘inner author’ and learn how to tell your story in a relaxed, supportive environment. Numerous writing vehicles will be explored including blogs, journals and novels. Spaces are limited so don’t hesitate to enrol.

YOUR PRESENTER

Jon Doust has had diverse careers. He was born in Bridgetown into a farming/retailing family and worked in both until he was old enough to know better. Since then he has been asked to leave jobs in banking, the media, retailing (again), farming (again) and comedy. These days he is best known as a writer, professional speaker, big ideas inspirer and community projects facilitator. He has co-written two children’s books and both have almost received awards. Some years ago he asked himself the question: Why are people the way they are? That lead him to study Jungian philosophy and to becoming an accredited Myers Briggs Practitioner. None of this has dampened his sense of humour. Incidentally, he is also author of the critically acclaimed,

Boy on a Wire!

WHERE

Great Southern Institute of Technology

Albany Campus

DM 6 & Computer Lab B1

(see map on back page)

WHEN

3 Tuesday Evenings

8th,15th and 29th March 2011

TIME

6.00pm to 8.00pm

LECTURER

Jon Doust

COST

$210.00

Please note: This course is subject to minimum enrolments. To ensure this course runs, please don’t delay, enrol today – your enrolment could ensure the class continues.

COURSE CONTENT

A creative class with guidance from Jon Doust. In this course you will cover the following:

Writing, reading and rhythm Keeping a journal Courage and conviction Secrets What to do when you are done

Three Great Coming-of-age Novels Set in Western Australia

19, 2010 Vicki Sly

Three coming-of-age novels that introduce readers to West Australia are Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, Boy on a Wire by Jon Doust and Breath by Tim Winton.

The transition from childhood to adulthood has long been a popular subject tackled in the pages of literature throughout the world.

Set against the backdrop of the harsh Western Australian landscape, these three rites-of-passage stories tackle not only the complexities of growing up but of doing so in small and isolated communities where the elements are as harsh as the realities of life.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

Craig Silvey wrote Jasper Jones out of his passion for the southern gothic fiction of Mark Twain, Harper Lee and Truman Capote. He describes it as “a coming-of-age regional mystery novel, stuffed inside a nervous little love story, garnished with family drama and adolescent escapism and anguish.”

Jasper Jones is set in a fictional Western Australian town called Corrigan in the mid-sixties against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. It is a great example of what small-town life in rural Australia was like at the time.

The narrator is Charlie Bucktin, a nerdy, intelligent, sensitive, book-loving and somewhat unpopular 13-year-old boy. Certain aspects of Charlie are autobiographical as Silvey was also raised in a similar world and he too had to hide his love of books.

Jasper Jones is an older Aboriginal boy who is portrayed as the town’s bad egg and is the scapegoat. He is stereotyped and misunderstood. The reason why the two characters come together in the opening pages of the book locks them into a secret pact and from then on we take their side against the so-called honourable citizens of the town.

The book has now won a bag of national and international awards and is a great insider’s look at growing up in a small Australia country town.

• Jasper Jones (Allen and Unwin, 2009, ISBN: 9781742372624, 368 pages).

Boy on a Wire by Jon Doust

Boy on a Wire is a coming-of-age memoir set in 1960s Western Australia that looks at growing up in a boys’ boarding school.

Jon Doust has dedicated this fictionalised autobiographical work to all those boys who experienced bullying and harsh schooling days and have carried their scars into manhood. It draws on Doust’s experience of being sent, in his early teens, from a small country town to a city boarding school.

The main protagonist is Jack Muir (Doust); hot-headed, smart-mouthed and totally loveable. We follow him on his journey through the perils of school life as he grapples with what is good and evil in the world, takes on the bullies, both children and adults, and lives in constant fear of everyone, including God, his superhero.

• Boy on a Wire (Fremantle Press, 2009, ISBN 9781921361456, 236 pages.)

Breath by Tim Winton

Tim Winton’s fabulous novel Breath is the story of two surfer boys growing up in a remote coastal region in Western Australia forever chasing the perfect wave in lieu of going to school.

Winton is a master at depicting Australian life so this novel is a great place to start with if you are new to Australian literature. Other recommended favourites include Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and The Turning.

In Breath, Pikelet and Loonie eat, sleep and breathe surfing. So too does Sando, the older hippie they meet who encourages them to overcome their fears and live for the adrenaline and thrill that comes with high risk-taking and battling the big surf breaks.

There is much more to Winton’s story than surfing. This economical novel covers some of the big themes like addiction to danger, life experiences in youth, the passing of time and ultimately, death.

• Breath (Penguin, 2009, ISBN-13:9780143009580, 268 pages.)