When reality is too real

I've just finished reading The Devil You Know, a new YA book by Australian writer Leonie Norrington, which was just released last month (August 09). I found it incredibly difficult to read. Not because it was poorly written; in fact it was just the opposite. The writing is superb - tight, controlled, fast-paced. But, in creating the world of young Damien and his family, the writing was overwhelmingly real to the point where it was claustrophobic. And this is where the problem is for me.

Damien's life is tough. His mum loves him but she has a few problems, including picking the wrong guys and sometimes drinking too much. They've moved around a lot and are now back up around Darwin, so Damien also has a new school, a nasty teacher and a couple of bullies to contend with. And now, his mum is keen to get back with Damien's father, a violent biker known as 88.

When Norrington describes Damien's feelings as he tries to deal with what is happening in his world, the writing is so true that it's heart-stopping scary. I can say with 100% conviction (drawing on some of my own life experiences) that the descriptions of the fear, isolation and that overwhelming sense of having no way out are frighteningly accurate. I found myself having to put the book down, unable to face reading on because I couldn't bear what was happening and what was about to happen to Damien. And I'm an adult. I'm not a kid having to deal with this stuff, which is, unfortunately, a reality for too many kids.

So I'm not sure who this book is for. It can't be for the kids who have to live like this because it's hard enough having to deal with it in your everyday life without having to confront it in a teen novel. Not even the convenient 'happy ending' (which is the least satisfying part of this book) would make it a good read for kids in this situation because they'd see through the ending, and it's unlikeliness, better than anyone else. So is it for kids from happy, stable family homes to enable them to see into another world? Is it for teachers to help them get a better understanding of what it's like to live with violence? Maybe.

Despite the brilliant writing that is throughout most of this book, for me it ultimately fails because the unrealistic happy ending negates everything else Damien experienced. Particularly when set against the unrelenting hardship portrayed as Damien's everyday life (where even in his fantasies of escape it all goes wrong) it's the writing equivalent of saying 'there, there, everything will be okay after all' and then sending the kid back into the violent home.

There were lots of other things about the story I liked. The characters were all well-drawn and empathetic, the dialogue rang true and the illustrations are fantastic. But an author has to be particularly careful when they write realistic contemporary fiction like this for a young adult audience. Are some kids' lives really like this? Absolutely. Do they deserve to have their stories told? Definitely. Is it a good idea to offer hope at the end of a YA novel? I think so, but it has to be realistic hope. Otherwise it's just another slap in the face.

The joy of creation

In the waiting room at a specialists office today I picked up the exhibition booklet from a 2007 exhibition of 'outsider art'by Arts Project Australia (APA). I flicked through the book and started reading the opening notes about the exhibition, which were about the history of 'outsider art' and the very notion of classifying the art of people who have mental or intellectual disabilities as 'outside' the cultural art norm.

Unusually, the specialist was running on time so I didn't get to read all the opening notes or look at all the art in the book. But one thing the critic wrote really struck me: that all the pieces in the exhibition possessed the 'joy of creation'.

Sometimes when I'm reading fiction I feel the writer's hard work as they strive for that 'right' word or phrase, that doesn't end up coming out 'right' at all because the strain of striving shows. And then I read other books (recently, Notes on a Scandal, The Master and Margarita) and the joy within the writing really shines through.

Too often in writing I (and others) get sidetracked by the need to be clever or new or fresh or groundbreaking or whatever. When really that is missing the point. Good writing doesn't come easily, but in some ways, great writing does. Because great writing comes when you let yourself go and just let the words out.

You might be the only person who ever reads those words. But if they really express your personal joy in writing, then that is great writing.