![]() debut, focuses on the town's ugly underbelly, as well as the troubles in Charlie's family, the novel is gripping enough to overcome its weaknesses. The banter between Jeffrey and Charlie drives the novel's lighter scenes, but can distract, feeling more like Tarantinoesque pop culture asides than anything else. ![]() ![]() ![]() The town of Corrigan is rife with racism, which is directed mainly at the half-aboriginal Jasper and Charlie's Vietnamese best friend, Jeffrey. It is set during a hot summer in 1965 in a small West Australian town, Corrigan, and narrated by thirteen-year-old Charlie Bucktin. The boys, assuming that Jasper will be blamed, hide the body, and Laura's disappearance combines with the boys' guilt and lies to create an ongoing spiral of stress. Jasper Jones is Craig Silvey’s second novel. That secret turns out to be the dead body of Laura Wishart, Jasper's occasional paramour and the older sister of Charlie's own crush, Eliza. Charlie, 13, is woken up on a hot summer night by teenage outcast Jasper, who wants to show him something secret. Jasper Jones is really about how we have a lot of growing up to do, says Nescha Jelk. ![]() Australian author Silvey wears his influences (notably To Kill a Mockingbird) a little too obviously on his sleeve in a novel about crime, race, and growing up in a 1960s Australian mining town. It’s been 10 years since it was first published, but Craig Silvey’s novel Jasper Jones still has a lot to teach Australians about our relationship with racism. ![]()
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