Minutes September Book - Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

Jasper Jones

by Craig Silvey

chosen by LC





This was LC's inaugural bookclub book choice. She admitted she chose the book before she read it (we assured her that is quite normal...heck, some Ladies have even been known to make the choice and then not read it before the meeting...).She selected it as she wanted to find something modern/contemporary. The sales assistant in Readings recommended this and said it would 'have lots to talk about'.

Craig Silvey grew up on an orchard in Dwellingup in Western Australia. He now lives in Fremantle where at the age of 19, he wrote his first novel, Rhubarb. It was published in 2004. In 2005, Silvey won a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Award. In 2007, Silvey released The World According To Warren, a picture book starring the guide-dog from Rhubarb. In early 2008, he completed his second novel, Jasper Jones. Silvey is also the singer/songwriter for the band The Nancy Sikes!



(General biographical details from publisher's website)



What the publisher says about the book:

Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu. And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

What we discussed about the book:

• Who is the central character - Charlie or Jasper?
• Why did Charlie help Jasper? What motivated him?
• Why did Jasper choose Charlie?
• The idea of the 'outsider' - how many of the characters were outsiders? What does it take to become an 'insider'?
• Was Jeffrey Lu an outsider? What was different about his approach to life?
• Was Charlie's voice that of a 13 year old, or an adult reflecting back on 13?
• Is the author Charlie? Is this the town he grew up in? Or is it an extrapolation/ exaggeration of his own experiences?
• How did the townsfolk reconcile their differences in attitude towards Jasper on and off the football field?
• Why was it set in 1965? What was it about that era that impacts on the story (e.g. race relations during the 1960s, the Vietnam War, women's roles in society)
• Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in this town? Is it possible to divide on such lines?
• Was it believable that Charlie could keep the secret? Did he realise that growing up was about keeping secrets?
• Did Eliza intend for her father to be in the house when it burnt down?
• The combination of comic elements and intense drama...is this a reflection of human resilience - humour in the face of tragedy?

And then we were side-tracked into:

• The role of sport in the social structure of a country town.
• The role of other institutions such as schools/churches in a country town.
• What would Jasper's life have been like if he had stayed in that town?
• What causes outsiders to bond together - shared experiences? shared secrets?
• Do insider/outsider groups exist in large cities? How are they identified?
• Did the slow and leisurely pace of the book reflect the pace of life in a country town?

In other news:

• We discussed the resurgence of old skills and hobbies. Some people are starting mother/daughter groups to do some of these activities.
• How you know when you have possums and rats in your roof.
• Misinterpretation of hand symbols between cultures - the raised thumb as a sign of greeting, the Greek outstretched hand...
• Polygamist marriages...who saw the Oprah show about them?
• We discussed appropriate book choices to suggest to our blog friend Dee from Fort Wayne, Indiana and thought maybe The Secret River by Kate Grenville (an Australian author, but the book can be obtained through amazon.com or bookdepository.co.uk)
• Domestic Goddess held our incredulous attention as she described her cataloguing procedure for pairs of pantyhose (into zip lock labelled plastic bags): excellent, medium, ones for skirts or boots, unusuals, only to be worn under jeans....
• ...which led to a discussion about the 101 uses for an old pair of pantyhose: packaging jigsaw puzzles, cleaning wood panelling, cleaning flyscreens, tying up tomato plants...

Ratings:

Ratings range: 4 to 9

Ratings average: 7.66

Next Book: Breath by Tim Winton (Chosen by CH)