During my trip to China I became engrossed with the paperback novel True History of the Kelly Gang. Without question it's the most gripping and intense book I've read since Yukio Mishima' Sea of Fertility
series and the most imaginative books since I read Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (until I found out that the book is at least partially grounded in a real 'Ned Kelly'. Regardless, the form of the book is still enormously creative)
In short, it's a fictional journal of Ned Kelly, an Irish-immigrant outlaw in southeastern Australia in the late 1800's. The whole 'journal' structure is executed very well. And hanging throughout is a terrible sense of foreboding, given the book's prologue, that becomes more and more intense the more you read about, and like Kelly.
I recommend it enthusiastically. But I don't want to discuss it too much because reading all the lame reviews in Salon and pretentious discussion on Amazon, I'd be afraid I'd just drive you away further. The book is really good, really gripping, and really unique. I'll leave it at that. (plus you can buy it in paperback, so it's cheap)
Posted by Nils Blutig at October 8, 2002 11:03 PM | TrackBack