True History of the Kelly Gang

• Author: P. Carey (1943)
• Title:  The True History of the Kelly Gang
• Published: 2000
• Genre: historical novel
• Trivia: Awarded Man Booker  Prize for fiction 2003
  
• Trivia: November Clean Up  Challenge
• Trivia: (VIC) #AusReadingMonth  @Brona’s Books
• Trivia: List Reading Challenges 2017

Introduction:

1. The book opens during the
2. …famous shoot-out between Ned Kelly and the law
3. that finally ended his years on the run.
4. Told in first-person, from Kelly’s perspective,
5. …the fictional work draws from historical accounts
6. of the gang’s movements across the Australian bush.

Conclusion:

1. The story is one long letter to Ned Kelly’s unborn daughter.
2. Instead of  a sequence of dated letters
3. …Carey has divided the book into 13 parcels of manuscripts.
4. Ned tells his story in his own distinctive style.
5. There is little in the way of punctuation or grammar:
6. “I said I were”… “effing,  eff, “
7. Weak point: It took time to get used to reading this!
8. The language shows Ned’s lack of education and his Irish heritage.
9. The narrative is fragmented jumping from one episode to another:
10. highway robbery, horse theft, slaughter calf,
11. ….buying dresses for  sweetheart  Mary Hearn.
12. Strong point: Carey recreates the gritty realism of Australia.
13. He fictionalizes the  legendary,  traditional story that concerns
14. …the infamous bushranger  Ned Kelly.
    
15. A fun read for anyone who enjoys a lovable outlaw,
16. …..or wants to learn more about Australia’s “Robin Hood.”