When a book is set around a place you’ve lived in, the first page is approached with trepidation. When that place is Tamworth, the apprehension is whether there’ll be a focus on big hats and gee-tars. Thankfully, there’s not a hoedown in sight. This pathos-rich, deeply perceptive writing showcases an empathetic understanding of the trials facing rural towns.
Australiana is divided into five parts. ‘The Town’ features a relay of interlocking vignettes with a baton change of characters from one story to the next. Each subsequent protagonist has some connection with the one before. The imagery is spectacular (the leather couch stuck in the mud; the dummy set into a tree for target practice). ‘My Face Is Nameless’ is more rural, with stand-alone stories dealing with the despair of empty tanks and the very real prospect of farmer suicide. ‘The Blind Side’ deals with rumours besetting a member of a tiny community and his life’s descent from town’s ‘royalty’ to abject scorn. ‘Pillaga’ deals with the myth of a ghost haunting the highway through the Pillaga Scrub. Gothic fiction at its finest. ‘Thunderbolt’ tells of the bushranger, Thunderbolt, and his time pillaging Uralla and highlights Kassab’s deft poetic sensibility.
Kassab writes with consummate skill. Perhaps the greatest acclamation might come from these regional communities, when they see themselves rendered with such care and compassion.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She studied medical science and neuroscience at university. Her fiction has been listed for prizes including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and The Stella Prize.
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