Interview of Craig Silvey, 2009
CRAIG SILVEY
I set out to write an Australian gothic mystery novel, but it soon became so much more than that once the characters developed and the story unfurled for me. And instead, it became a book about coming of age but it also… addressed themes of, uh, the nature of friendship and the nature of towns' secrets and myths and traditions and how they're allowed to flourish. It's also a, you know, very tentative little love story as well — Charlie falls in love for the first time, very nervously and very badly. It became so much more than I'd originally intended, and I'm so glad that it did. I was really just along for the ride with this book, you know. It really kind of took hold and almost wrote itself.
Jennifer Byrne and guests
JENNIFER BYRNE
OK, it's 1965 in a small mining town in WA, and Charlie Bucktin is visited one night by the town outcast — Jasper Jones. There's a body but it's not as grim as it might sound, is it, Jason?
JASON STEGER
Well, initially it is. But the book in itself is extremely funny, I think. But the discovery of the body is… terrifying for Charlie, and… Charlie has to help Jasper deal with this body. It's incredibly literary as well. There's an awful lot of literary references. Here is a 13-year-old boy who's reading the novels of William Faulkner, which I think is pretty remarkable, actually.
MARIEKE HARDY
Pretentious?
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
I think that's one of the nice themes of the book, actually, is that it's clearly a book that has a… It references overtly To Kill A Mocking Bird a few times and it clearly has similar… JENNIFER BYRNE: A few times?! ..similar concerns about race and small towns and prejudice and that kind of thing.
JASON STEGER
And the structure of it, the structure is very similar too. Yeah, it has a big debt to it, but what it does is it wears that debt on its sleeve, so Charlie's dad — Wes, is it? — Charlie's dad is steeped in literature rather than in the law, so he's not Atticus Finch but, instead, he's making available in his house the books of Faulkner, the book of Harper Lee, one-hit wonder, um… and so there's that really lovely thing. I remember I read a review of the Harry Potter books that was complaining that none of the kids in those books read other books, they don't belong to a literary tradition. The nice thing in Jasper Jones is… that tradition's there on the page.
Cover of Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey appears on screen
JENNIFER BYRNE
How did you find it?
JUDY NUNN
I found it absolutely charming. I read it when it was very first… hot off the press. I didn't know a thing about it. I'd read nothing about it. I find it absolutely delightful and I love the teenage boy's voice. Yeah. But every now and then… It didn't let up with its charm — I loved it, and with its humour. And I loved what it was saying. But every now and then, I'd suddenly go… It became just fractionally unreal. When I went from the absolute teenager into this far more sophisticated… I thought, 'Oh, we're jumping a couple of styles here.' It ultimately didn't bother me and I don't think I even mean it as a criticism but, on a couple of occasions, it jarred and I went, 'Oh, I'm not sure I quite believe that.'
JENNIFER BYRNE
I thought it was a deeply charming book.
JUDY NUNN
It is a charming book.
JENNIFER BYRNE
Utterly enchanted…
MARIEKE HARDY
I don't know what it's doing on this list! Top ten Australian books to read before you die, and everyone just described the plot of To Kill A Mockingbird. Why wouldn't you read that instead? Well, it's not Australian so it can't go on the list. I think the people of Australia have Stockholm syndrome, because this freaky book has been on so many bookshelves for so long in so many bookshops with different covers, they're just used to seeing it in the corner of their eye and they've become entranced by its cover, and they think it belongs in this list, which it does not.
JENNIFER BYRNE
But if you write one book about World War I, what — someone else can't write a book?
MARIEKE HARDY
No, they can write a better one. This is not a terrible book by any means… It's not! It has its moments of charm…
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
That's going to go on the cover of the next edition!
MARIEKE HARDY
But other people have done this in a far more superior way in a far more eloquent way and a far more clever way without borrowing in such a heavy-handed fashion from another writer, and I don't think just being obvious about it makes it OK!
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
You don't think that's sufficient?
MARIEKE HARDY
No, I don't.
JENNIFER BYRNE
I would give two defences. One — Jeffrey Lu's family are Vietnamese immigrants, and they run a market garden. There's no shade of that in To Kill A Mockingbird. Two — who is Atticus Finch, then? If it's such a deadset copy, who is Atticus Finch? Is Jasper Atticus Finch?
MARIEKE HARDY
No, you were saying the father is a literary instead of…
JENNIFER BYRNE
It could be Jasper.
MARIEKE HARDY
I think finding two small points is a bit of an Andrew Bolt way of arguing, Jennifer, to prove me completely wrong. Well, therefore, it must be good! Sorry, don't I look stupid now. No, look, all I'm saying is… it wasn't a terrible book, it does not deserve to be in the top ten.
JASON STEGER
People have taken the trouble to vote for this book.
MARIEKE HARDY
Yeah, and I'm here telling them I don't think that it deserves to be on here. It's my opinion.
JENNIFER BYRNE
Because you've been brainwashed, basically.
MARIEKE HARDY
No, I'm just… That's why we're here — to give our opinions, people!
JASON STEGER
Oh, I wondered why we were here!
MARIEKE HARDY
I didn't feel passionately about it.
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
To be fair, Jason, can you think of any time when democracy's got it wrong, ever? I know I can't!