Who was Ned Kelly? Until I read this book I had never heard of Ned Kelly. The book jacket sounded interesting and so I picked the True History of the Kelly Gang to read.
Ned Kelly was the son of Irish immigrants or deportees to Australia. He was born in 1855 and lived at a time in Australian history when the small farmer or rancher was beaten down by the authorities and the big landowners, making life even more difficult and creating a lot of anger and resentment. The author believes that this resentment and mistreatment was a key role in the creation of the Kelly gang.
Kelly ran afoul of authority at an early age. According to the book, he and his family were singled out somewhat unfairly for police scrutiny. Kelly was imprisoned for three months hard labor for his involvement with the sending of a nasty letter to a woman and shortly after his release he was again imprisoned for holding a stolen horse, this time with a sentence of three years. After his release, in a confrontation with police, Kelly's mother was accused of assaulting a police officer and she was imprisoned for three years and Kelly and associates were on the run.
The cops were tracking Kelly down, when he surprised them. He ended up killing three of the four officers, but one escaped.
After this, Kelly entered whole-heartedly into the bushranger lifestyle as a thief and bank robber. In his last confrontation with the police, Kelly and his pals, dressed in homemade armor, tried to stand off the police but, since they forgot to make armor for their legs, they failed. Only Kelly survived and he was hanged for his crimes in 1880.
Peter Carey's book is a very sympathetic portrayal of Kelly. Personally, even while reading the novel, I had my doubts that Kelly was quite the fine fellow that Carey portrayed him to be. According to the author Kelly was a victim of his times and of the unfair treatment of the Irish and of the small farmer by those in power and Kelly was forced to become an outlaw. On the other hand, lots of young boys suffered similar treatment at the hands of authority and did not end up as rustlers, killers and bank robbers.
This novel won the Booker prize in 2001. Ned Kelly is a hero to a lot of Australians, kind of like Robin Hood. Carey does nothing to knock Kelly off his pedestal, if anything he reinforces Kelly's position as hero. I thought his portrayal a little one-sided, too much to the good guy, the mistreated victim of his times. The book is also written in the first person, using a colloquial style of language, short on punctuation and with lots of run-on sentences that are sometimes difficult to read and follow, as can be seen in the excerpts below. At times, I found the story rather boring and it sat for several days unread. Still, despite these problems, I am glad I read it. The part towards the end where Kelly and his gang decide to armor themselves was worth all the duller stuff that came before. So now I know who Ned Kelly was.
Review by Robert Edric for The Guardian.
New Words
Mopoke: A boobook, a small spotted Australian brown owl. "All the while we expected the doctor but there were no sound from outside not even a mopoke nothing save a steady rain on the bark roof and thumping of flotsam in the flooding waters of Hughes Creek."
Proddy: Slang for Protestant. "Them scholars was all proddies they knew nothing about us save Ned Kelly couldnt spell he had no boots Maggie Kelly had warts Annie Kelly's dress were darned and fretted over like an old man's sock."
Currawong: A bird. "Later I saw my uncle sitting on the front veranda it were that time of evening when my aunts would try a little poteen it were not quite dark and the currawongs was still crying in the mournful gloom."
Lairs and larrikins: A lair is a flashily dressed young man of brash or vulgar behavior. A larrikin is someone with an amused, irreverent, mocking attitude to authority and the norms of propriety. "I were sitting in the outhouse at Fifteen Mile Creek one August morning that is 4 mo. since Uncle James were sentenced I heard a rider spproaching at a gallop but I didnt think much of it for all the Quinns and Lloyds was flashy riders they was lairs and larrikins and they would put on a show or jump a fence as soon as blow their nose."
Battens: A batten is a thin strip of solid material (usually wood). Battens are used for various purposes in building construction, as well as other various fields. "Then we come along by the narrow little creek the blades of sunlight falling through the foliage and there were a hut surrounded by a stand of dead white ringbarked trees and I seen the slab wall and the rough battens and the steam rising off its damp bark roof and I could not know that this were the very site where you would one day be conceived."
Yabby: A small freshwater lobster/crayfish. "Annie should have been busy with her mother but instead called to me she found a yabby in the creek."
Bushranger: Bushrangers were outlaws in the early years of the European settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. "We all had witnessed the bushranger lay his carbine on the table it were a terrifying weapon its bore were almost one inch the stock 1/2 cut away the barrel severely shortened."
Skillion: A part of a building having a lower, especially sloping, roof; a lean-to. "But ma were not unhappy I could hear her dancing step as she come back from the skillion."
Bowyangs: A pair of strings or straps secured round each trouser leg below the knee, worn especially by sheep-shearers and other laborers. "Later I saw him walking towards the hut he had bowyangs tied around his bandy legs."
Waler: A saddle horse of mixed breed, bred in New South Wales, Australia. "Indicating a 3rd horse what they call a WALER he told me it were his and I should mount."
Mia mia: A hut. "He began to make himself a mia mia such as the blackfellows build from saplings and fallen bark but soon lost patience with it kicking it apart so it were left to me to go deep in the bush to peel a great green sheet of stringybark."
Nous: Common sense. "Shut your hole and listen if doubt the Devil then you've no more nous than James Whitty neither did he credit it at 1st."
Offsider: Assistant. "So I were still Harry's offsider when he robbed the Buckland Coach on the 22nd of May and I were that nameless person reported as Power's Mate who dropped the tree across the road I held the horses so Harry could go about his trade."
Skerrick: A very small amount or portion. "Hard days followed the butter money were all taken and not a skerrick of income generated by the alleged 60 bolts of cloth."
Mattock: a kind of pick that is used for digging, looks like a pickaxe. "I had an axe Jem a mattock and when we picked up these implements and made a circle round him he must of thought his end were come."
Rort: A wild party. "Maguire has seen our Bill and reports the man is having a great old rort him and his new sheila Brigit Cotter."
Donah: Woman. "He has a new donah and you know what he is saying about your own self."
Mullock: Rock refuse from which gold, other minerals or other valuable material, for example opal, has been extracted. "The white miners had quit these diggings years before but the celestials was sifting through the leftover mullock they would never rest not even fire could drive them from their labour."
Cobber and lag: Cobber means pal. Lag means to arrest, send to prison; to inform on; a stupid person. "They're looking for your cobber Tom Lloyd but will lag anyone who aggravates them."
Fizgig: A police informant. "But I aint a fizgig and I won't shop no one to you b----rs."
Kelpie: An Australian sheepdog. "That kelpie has a taste for eating horse droppings but I warrant he would prefer a fat policeman's arse."
Shicker: Drunk; a drunkard. "My daughter please understand I am displaying your great uncles in a bad light they was wild and often shicker they thieved and fought and abused me cruelly but you must also remember your ancestors would not kowtow to no one and this were a fine rare thing in a colony made specifically to have poor men bow down to their gaolers."
Shebeen: Illegal establishment which sold alcohol. "Were I a fat squatter with his children safe asleep in bed I would have the time to tell you sentimental stories of the Quinns by birth or marriage and it is true that Wild Pat the Dubliner played the accordion at my ma's shebeen that Uncle Jimmy had a beautiful voice it would make you cry to hear him sing the Shan Van Voght."
Stoush: A fight, brawl. "I went as ordered but didnt wish to miss the spectacle so I come out to the front veranda and I were witness to a mighty stoush."
Shank's pony: To use your own legs, to walk. "I were released out into Ford Street on a sunny March morning I took shanks' pony home to Eleven Mile Creek but I were bound by court order to present myself to the Greta police."
Begob: A mild curse, a euphemism for "by God". "I will begob and ye will be praying to the Virgin that you had relented of your penny."
Myall: Any of various Australian acacias. "Mother always liked a race and now I chased her across the plains into the myall where she veered off heading for the Warby Ranges."
Mufti: Civilian clothes. "At Eleven Mile Creek I were framing out the bedroom when Fitzpatrick arrived in mufti announcing he wished to spend his day off assisting me he had brung his own tools his chisels was worthy of a cabinet maker."
Warrigals: In Australia a wild horse or wild dog. "Strahan slowly lowered his gun so Joe & me moved back into the speargrass retreating quiet as warrigals towards Bullock Creek."
Billabong: Billabong is an Australian English word meaning a smallish lake, and specifically an oxbow lake, a stagnant pool of water attached to a waterway. "The Murray is a maze of swamps and billabongs but in flood you cannot know what can be crossed till you try & try we did for 3 weary days attempting one place then the next driving the police horses up into swamps and lagoons until the water grew too swift and deep."
Crupper: A strap from the back of a saddle passing under the horse's tail; prevents saddle from slipping forward. "I reined in my mare but there were a patch of loose shale & she propped and slid with the crupper hard around her tail as she steadied on the ledge below."
Poddy: hand fed; hand feed. "Harry always knew he must feed the poor he must poddy & flatter them he would be Rob Roy or Robin Hood he would retrieve the widow's cattle from the pound and if the poor selectors ever suffered harassment or threats on his behalf he would make it up with a sheep or barrel of grog or fistful of sovereigns."
Dinky di: The real thing, genuine. "A letter would be read Joe asked you think this Cameron's dinky di?"
Daggy and dag: Dags are clumps of matted wool and dung which hang around a sheep's rear end. "But then poor Jack discovered what it were to be slandered & perjured & he were handcuffed & herded on to Benalla railway station & shoved into a box car like he were nothing but a daggy sheep to be transported up the hill to Beechworth Gaol & held there on remand." "There was spies amongst them that we must accept even the best merino must have it dung & dags but I wd. be no more muzzled by spies than by cowards like Mr Gill."
Gormless: Stupid, dull. "Aaron stayed for 2 nights flattering me that I were of colossal strength and I should be the ruler of the colony etc. he had a gormless wheedling smile he were more annoying that the rats inside the walls I were v. pleased when he returned to his selection."
Palliasse: A mattress consisting of a thin pad filled with straw or sawdust. "Mother sat waiting for me on her crib her palliasse were folded as required."
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