Praise

I recently read and reviewed The Delinquents by Criena Rohan .
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2699060809?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

As I wrote in that review Brisbane being the location was a lure for my read. As was this book Praise by the late Andrew McGahan. The Delinquents is a love story about 2 teens in the 1950's. Brisbane was a much changed city by the time McGahan's Praise was released in 1992, exactly thirty year later than Rohans view of the street. Praise is no love story between a pair of rebellious teens. Praise is a very sparse and gritty story of an individual alienated totally with life. I suspect that this kind of social realism will not be popular with most but has hit the spot with me as I do recall knowing individuals such as protagonist Gordon Buchanan, people who just did not fit no matter what, people who were tired of having to think too hard about what it was they really wanted and what it was that society wanted from them.

Gordon comes from Dalby, a two and half hour drive west from Brisbane. Dalby is the quintessential rural Queensland town, deeply white, conservative and religious. Large families abound with well-meaning parents who tend towards a rural outlook with a friendly attitude but a fear of outsiders and change. I worked with a man who was homosexual who came from Dalby and he had no choice but to move as coming out would have been a disaster for him and his family. Author McGahan is from Dalby as is his character Gordon. I wonder if there is a little bit of the author in Gordon. Gordon left Dalby and wandered into pub work in Brisbane. He eventually left that to go on the dole and with that fell into the sparse world of boarding house living, unenjoyable sex and unenjoyable drugs. He occasionally attempted to be a poet but found his own poetry a chore.

The difference from The Delinquents 30 years prior is stark. Set In the fifties and situated not long after the troops came home from WW2. The young protagonists of that book, Lola and Brownie were, for all their trials and tribulations, mostly optimistic about their future. Gordon seems to be a character that had no skerrick of optimism, the ultimate member of the No Future generation. With that author McGahan makes this feeling of nothingness work superbly well with a narrative led tale that suits the lack of warmth in any of the characters that appear in the book.

One final thought. With The Delinquents released in 1962 and Praise in 1992 will there be a Brisbane novel of the streets released in 2022 and as thematic? I hope so. Sparse and grungy this is a great Brisbane book.