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edward ned kelly Despite the overcast and humid weather that plagued most of today, I managed to sit outside and read a good one hundred pages or so of Peter Carey's book True History of the Kelly Gang. Now since I am not an expert on Australian history by any means, I have no idea as to what is truth and what is fiction in the book, but that does nothing to diminish my liking of it. Once one becomes accustomed to the voice of the narrator who speaks in a slang that in my opinion adds an air of authenticity to the story, the book is a great read. Australians have always had a way of expressing themselves that is unique so I shouldn't expect anything less from one of their folk heroes. Plus just hearing what life was like in Australia back then is very interesting to me. From the perspective of today, one would probably say that Ned was someone raised in a very dysfunctional family environment, but that doesn't due justice to him as a person. That just reduces him to damaged person or someone that elicits pity from those in better situations. From what I have read of the book, I find him to be an extremely sympathetic character that wanted more from life than what was given to him. From a very early point in his life, he knows that his family has been cast in an unfavorable light, but that doesn't stop him from trying to do the best that he can for them. I doubt that I would have fared any better than he did under the same miserable conditions and I admire his courage. Ned has only reached the age of fifteen in the book, so I am curious to see what changes take place in his life both internally and externally, as he grows older. Part of me wonders if he knew that he was going to die young. An encounter with a banshee early in the book definitely adds some foreshadowing to his story and I accept it as being more than a literary device. Why shouldn't such a traditional element of Irish life be transplanted to Australia? Even though people may travel hundreds or thousands of miles from where they were born, they do not fully abandon what guided them in their old life. |