What do you think?
Rate this book
The Incredible Here and Now
Michael’s older brother dies at the beginning of the summer he turns 15, but as its title suggests The Incredible Here and Now is a tale of wonder, not of tragedy. Presented as a series of vignettes, in the tradition of Sandra Cisneros’ Young Adult classic The House on Mango Street, it tells of Michael’s coming of age in a year which brings him grief and romance; and of the place he lives in Western Sydney where ‘those who don’t know any better drive through the neighbourhood and lock their car doors’, and those who do, flourish in its mix of cultures. Through his perceptions, the reader becomes familiar with Michael’s community and its surroundings, the unsettled life of his family, the girl he meets at the local pool, the friends that gather in the McDonalds parking lot at night, the white Pontiac Trans Am that lights up his life like a magical talisman.
191 pages, Unknown Binding
First published September 1, 2013
About the author
Felicity Castagna
10 books15 followersFelicity Castagna won the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction for her novel, The Incredible Here and Now, which was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and adapted for the stage by the National Theatre of Parramatta. Her collection of short stories, Small Indiscretions, was named an Australian Book Review Book of the Year. Her most recent novel, No More Boats, was shortlisted for the 2018 Miles Franklin Literary Award, the 2018 Voss Literary Prize and the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Multicultural Award.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 15, 2020
Absolutely brilliant writing style.
Written chronologically in vignettes that can be read individually, is a brilliant coming-of-age story. It has an incredibly strong Australian identity, with both setting, imagery, and language being authentic and relevant to the whole.
The characters are honest, without unnecessary drama and portray a deep sense of discovery. Despite the tragedy that underpins this novel, the author avoids the cliched ‘tugging at the heart strings’ trope and instead delivers a number of powerful messages.
Brilliant read for older YA.
Written chronologically in vignettes that can be read individually, is a brilliant coming-of-age story. It has an incredibly strong Australian identity, with both setting, imagery, and language being authentic and relevant to the whole.
The characters are honest, without unnecessary drama and portray a deep sense of discovery. Despite the tragedy that underpins this novel, the author avoids the cliched ‘tugging at the heart strings’ trope and instead delivers a number of powerful messages.
Brilliant read for older YA.
January 22, 2016
Wow! I bought a copy of 'The Incredible Here and Now' for my 15 year old son, in the hope that he would read something a little different. Having listened to Felicity speak at the SWF in Katoomba I thought I would give the book a quick look through before handing it over, but as a YA didn't expect to read it all. The surprising thing was that I couldn't put it down. So simple written, but beautifully executed. The series of tiny stories piece together the fragmented twelve months of a young man's life during the pain of death and the uncertainty of adolescence. There were moments when I felt my own teenagers inside the pages, their hopes and fears, and was almost brought to tears with the relationship between the mother and her son's. Definitely a book that not only deserves to be read by YA but also read by an older audience looking to reflect upon the angst of being a young teen.
July 7, 2014
Firstly, I just have to say how much I enjoyed the style of this book. At Katooma for the Sydney Writers’ Festival (see my post Debut Fiction at the Sydney Writers’ Festival), Felicity Castagna talked about how she wrote her novel in the vignette style.
‘A vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, idea, setting, or object’, or in Felicity’s words – a series of ‘short short stories’. She then put her stories into linear fashion and filled in the gaps. Well, it worked beautifully – the book is so cleverly written.
The chapters, or vignettes, were short, sometimes only half a page to a page or two but within those small scenes she gave us glimpses into Michael’s life, and revealed much more than some writers might do in a long laborious chapter. It was concise, lyrical and addressed the complex issues of death, grief, multiculturalism, first love, friendship and the ‘incredible here and now’ that is happening all around us right now.
It’s not often a reader can immerse themselves within a book that is set in a region that they themselves know well, especially for readers living in the suburbs of Western Sydney. For me as a reader for example – I have been to Paris, so when reading a novel set in Paris I have a slightly heightened sense of the setting, that little thrill of – ‘Oh, I’ve been there – I know that place’, and I through my own experience I can picture the setting in my mind as the character moves through the story.
It’s not often a reader can immerse themselves within a book that is set in a region that they themselves know well, especially for readers living in the suburbs of Western Sydney. For me as a reader for example – I have been to Paris, so when reading a novel set in Paris I have a slightly heightened sense of the setting, that little thrill of – ‘Oh, I’ve been there – I know that place’, and I through my own experience I can picture the setting in my mind as the character moves through the story.
I loved that sense of place, of Parramatta and surrounds – I definitely felt closer to this story than if it had been set in a suburb of Melbourne. The novel is not so ‘place specific’ that you need to know the area to enjoy the book though – the setting is Michael’s world – but the stories, observations and his life through that hard summer shine through.
I congratulate Felicity Castagna for her short list in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Older Readers – what an amazing achievement for her debut novel.
Good luck to her for CBCA Book of the Year!
Read more if my reviews and commentary on http://illuminationsbylisafleetwood.w...
‘A vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, idea, setting, or object’, or in Felicity’s words – a series of ‘short short stories’. She then put her stories into linear fashion and filled in the gaps. Well, it worked beautifully – the book is so cleverly written.
The chapters, or vignettes, were short, sometimes only half a page to a page or two but within those small scenes she gave us glimpses into Michael’s life, and revealed much more than some writers might do in a long laborious chapter. It was concise, lyrical and addressed the complex issues of death, grief, multiculturalism, first love, friendship and the ‘incredible here and now’ that is happening all around us right now.
It’s not often a reader can immerse themselves within a book that is set in a region that they themselves know well, especially for readers living in the suburbs of Western Sydney. For me as a reader for example – I have been to Paris, so when reading a novel set in Paris I have a slightly heightened sense of the setting, that little thrill of – ‘Oh, I’ve been there – I know that place’, and I through my own experience I can picture the setting in my mind as the character moves through the story.
It’s not often a reader can immerse themselves within a book that is set in a region that they themselves know well, especially for readers living in the suburbs of Western Sydney. For me as a reader for example – I have been to Paris, so when reading a novel set in Paris I have a slightly heightened sense of the setting, that little thrill of – ‘Oh, I’ve been there – I know that place’, and I through my own experience I can picture the setting in my mind as the character moves through the story.
I loved that sense of place, of Parramatta and surrounds – I definitely felt closer to this story than if it had been set in a suburb of Melbourne. The novel is not so ‘place specific’ that you need to know the area to enjoy the book though – the setting is Michael’s world – but the stories, observations and his life through that hard summer shine through.
I congratulate Felicity Castagna for her short list in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Older Readers – what an amazing achievement for her debut novel.
Good luck to her for CBCA Book of the Year!
Read more if my reviews and commentary on http://illuminationsbylisafleetwood.w...
January 31, 2015
"Some people say 'West' like it is something wrong, like ice-cream that fell in a gutter.....Parramatta is an everywhere-people kind of place."
Western Sydney; always demonised in the maistream media, and always seen by the rest of Sydney as a badlands. In this Young Adult novel however, Felicity Castagna shows us Western Sydney in all its glory, and why it is such a diverse place where anything is possible, where anything can happen; where a split second decision can change your life in moments. Michael's journey through adolescence is characterised by the people he meets and befriends, as well as the places he visits and the food that he eats: (Parramatta McDonalds, El-Jannah Charcoal Chicken, fruit in Granville, Lebanese food in Merrylands).
The novel raises a lot of things about masculinity and adult male identity in Western Sydney, especially with the recurring motif of the white Ponitac Trans Am at pivotal points in the novel. One hopes this novel reaches a wide Young Adult/Adult audience as its realism creates a familiarity of a place that so many people call home, and that those who have been scared off by the "West" will be game enough to pay a visit to it one day, and see for themselves that it is not as bad as they have been led to believe.
Western Sydney; always demonised in the maistream media, and always seen by the rest of Sydney as a badlands. In this Young Adult novel however, Felicity Castagna shows us Western Sydney in all its glory, and why it is such a diverse place where anything is possible, where anything can happen; where a split second decision can change your life in moments. Michael's journey through adolescence is characterised by the people he meets and befriends, as well as the places he visits and the food that he eats: (Parramatta McDonalds, El-Jannah Charcoal Chicken, fruit in Granville, Lebanese food in Merrylands).
The novel raises a lot of things about masculinity and adult male identity in Western Sydney, especially with the recurring motif of the white Ponitac Trans Am at pivotal points in the novel. One hopes this novel reaches a wide Young Adult/Adult audience as its realism creates a familiarity of a place that so many people call home, and that those who have been scared off by the "West" will be game enough to pay a visit to it one day, and see for themselves that it is not as bad as they have been led to believe.
December 1, 2014
A lyrical homage to brotherly love and loss in Sydney's western suburbs, told in a series of vignettes from the perspective of fifteen year old bereaved Michael. Four-and-a-half stars.
July 10, 2017
This was such an enjoyable read. It is a series of vignettes about the 15 year old main character dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic life event. It is beautifully written and gave me a real sense of Western Sydney life that I could almost smell, taste and touch. 4.5 stars.
September 21, 2017
We had to read this book as a class novel. Not one Year 11 student in my class liked it. It was depressing and rather pointless. Yeah, I know life is often random and mostly has a lot of stuff in it that doesn't make sense, but come on, do you think teenagers need to be forced to deal with that in books schools pick for them to read?
What makes adults think that my age group wants to read slice of life scenes (my teacher called them vignettes) about the death of an older brother and the numbing impact of grief on the younger brother and the family without much else to it?
Castagna should write for adults who want to read this sort of cr**! What makes me angry is that it won the Prime Minister's Award for YA literature. Are the Prime Minister and the judges nuts? Don't you know mental health issues are on the rise in my age group? Do you really think any of us want to have to go through the sort of experience that this book deals with? It's bad enough that some kids go through it for real.
When I'm able to vote I won't be voting for Malcolm Turnbull's party because he awarded a prize to this pathetic book and that led to my school picking it for us to read!
I reckon readers have a right to expect something positive will come from any negative experience that they are forced into by the novelist and st**** judges of so-called literature.
Seriously, 'The Incredible Here and Now' never made anyone in my class feel that life was incredible or worth living.
'The Incredible Here and Now' also wasn't a story that led anywhere. It was just a series of scenes picked from Michael's (the younger brother) life) before Dom died tragically in a car crash and scenes from the year after his death. The mum just withdrew and shut down. The grandfather became protective. Michael got a girlfriend. It wasn't worth the time it took from my life to read this book. The last chapter just wasn't an outcome of what went before it.
Our teacher is always going on about the logical flow of story. He says, 'X has to lead to y.' Our teacher says that you can't just tell readers the conclusion you want them to come to, the story has to show how the characters made it to the end point. Not this book!
I've looked at the other reviews for this book in Goodreads. They sound mostly like adults wrote them. There is another kid who wrote a review and a number who just rated it - everyone gave it a 1 star. We agree, this book is bad!
As for those mothers who wrote reviews and explained why they bought the book for their teenager to read - what sort of mother are you? I'm glad you're not mine.
My recommendation:
If you love your kid, don't buy or borrow this book for them to read.
Also adults should not review YA books.
What makes adults think that my age group wants to read slice of life scenes (my teacher called them vignettes) about the death of an older brother and the numbing impact of grief on the younger brother and the family without much else to it?
Castagna should write for adults who want to read this sort of cr**! What makes me angry is that it won the Prime Minister's Award for YA literature. Are the Prime Minister and the judges nuts? Don't you know mental health issues are on the rise in my age group? Do you really think any of us want to have to go through the sort of experience that this book deals with? It's bad enough that some kids go through it for real.
When I'm able to vote I won't be voting for Malcolm Turnbull's party because he awarded a prize to this pathetic book and that led to my school picking it for us to read!
I reckon readers have a right to expect something positive will come from any negative experience that they are forced into by the novelist and st**** judges of so-called literature.
Seriously, 'The Incredible Here and Now' never made anyone in my class feel that life was incredible or worth living.
'The Incredible Here and Now' also wasn't a story that led anywhere. It was just a series of scenes picked from Michael's (the younger brother) life) before Dom died tragically in a car crash and scenes from the year after his death. The mum just withdrew and shut down. The grandfather became protective. Michael got a girlfriend. It wasn't worth the time it took from my life to read this book. The last chapter just wasn't an outcome of what went before it.
Our teacher is always going on about the logical flow of story. He says, 'X has to lead to y.' Our teacher says that you can't just tell readers the conclusion you want them to come to, the story has to show how the characters made it to the end point. Not this book!
I've looked at the other reviews for this book in Goodreads. They sound mostly like adults wrote them. There is another kid who wrote a review and a number who just rated it - everyone gave it a 1 star. We agree, this book is bad!
As for those mothers who wrote reviews and explained why they bought the book for their teenager to read - what sort of mother are you? I'm glad you're not mine.
My recommendation:
If you love your kid, don't buy or borrow this book for them to read.
Also adults should not review YA books.
July 6, 2014
This is a beautifully written novel with sparse language that captures the precious relationship between two brothers and the ensuing devastation that occurs when an unthinkable tragedy occurs. The book reads more like a verse novel and it is the economy of the words that make each sentence so powerful. The setting for this novel is Parramatta in Western Sydney and the focus is on two brothers, Dom and Michael and the community of friends and family that surround them. In such a short novel the reader gets to know and love many characters such as: the eccentric neighbour, Esther; Shadi, the Lebanese mate; sassy Aunty Leena; Monique, the love of Michael’s life; and the boys’ lovely grandfather, Poppy, who lives in the retirement village down the road. The book covers their interests in cars, girls, hanging out at the swimming pool and attending the local boy’s school. It looks at love and loss and the way that families can fall apart when faced with the unimaginable. In many ways I was reminded of Pony Boy and his family in The Outsiders when I read this book such is the camaraderie captured between the two brothers. The author also celebrates the multicultural nature of their lives and the tolerance and friendships that exist between children from different cultural backgrounds. It is a worthy nominee for the book of the year awards and a favourite of mine. It has wide appeal for reluctant readers due the precise yet poetic language and at 190 pages in length it will not present too many challenges.
November 23, 2014
The Incredible Here and Now is the often moving story of fifteen year old Michael and his adolescent life in Parramatta. The most refreshing aspect of this story is its suburban grittiness. Having lost his older brother in a car accident in the first third of the book, life for Michael and his family is not always pretty. Parramatta and West are depicted in a raw truthfulness that give the reader some insight into daily existence in this part of Sydney. Castagna has created the setting and her characters' interactions with it in a careful and nuanced fashion. The story deals with many of the usual adolescent themes, but is, I think, more suitable for Stage 5 students as a classroom read. For readers of this age, The Incredible Here and Now offers possibilities for a range of readers, as better readers can make some deeper inferences about relationships, stereotypes and other important themes.
June 14, 2014
This is a simply told contemporary story about a year 10 boy living in the western suburbs of Sydney. Written in the first person, the writer matter-of-factly relates parts Michael's life in short chapters and each snippet enables the reader to get the gist of his life as if we had had brief conversations with Michael over the year.
The reader might feel that the author is too unsentimental but the way the story unfolds allowed me to feel the numbness one feels after a death in the family and with the passage of time we are shown how the death affected each family member and the friends of the one who died.
A delightful read and I look forward to more from this author
The reader might feel that the author is too unsentimental but the way the story unfolds allowed me to feel the numbness one feels after a death in the family and with the passage of time we are shown how the death affected each family member and the friends of the one who died.
A delightful read and I look forward to more from this author
Read
October 7, 2014Castagna brings Sydney's western suburbs' streets alive with her teen boy vignettes. The writing is careful, tender, spare. It's rare to read about these streets in these times. Great for YA readers of all sorts.
No star rating – I know the writer:-)
No star rating – I know the writer:-)
November 6, 2014
I heard Felicity speak at the Varuna Sydney Writers’ Festival and became intrigued about her YA book, set in the Paramatta/Granville/Harris Park area. This is a really beautiful book, sparsely written and would have wide appeal.
A.D
A.D
September 21, 2017
I studied this novel at school. It does not use the traditional narrative form but is told through a series of vignettes. It won the PM's YA literary Award. God knows why; I don't.
The story explores Michael and his family's response to the death of his older brother, Dom. Personally, I thought his parents were lax and their lack of supervision was to blame for the family tragedy.
I appreciate that Michael is only a teenage boy and that the flatness of the storytelling reflects his grief. It was boring to read though and the story itself does not live up to the title and the sequence of vignettes (chapters in the novel) do not support or justify the final chapter. The reader never sees how Michael comes to the realisation in the final chapter and the closing sentence.
Something I liked:
I liked the potential that Esther's and her son's story offered to the author in exploring the different types of grief over a son who is lost and, in Esther case, found .
Things that irritated me about the actual way the story was written
* I was really p*** that the abrupt end of the pool scene went unexplained for chapters. How is that good storytelling? Not in my book.
* The non-event nature of the experiences chosen for individual chapters. They led nowhere other than to fill in the way Michael spent time and the reader's time that led from Dom's death to the final chapter's paragraph.
* The author didn't use the Esther and son's plot to make a coherent point. Castgna just presented the slice of life scenes with them in it and left it to random readers' intelligence to draw from that story line what they could. Everyone I know, except the teacher, skipped those scenes. He made us read them. I was glad he was honest and agreed with us that the author didn't do a good job with those scenes.
* Michael, for all of his 1st person narrative, was not introspective in terms of insight into 'the incredible here and now' during the story. I didn't feel or see him healing. Shouldn't a story - vignettes or traditional narrative- let us feel and experience the journey with the character(s)?
* The story is one long flat line. If it is was living human being, it'd be dead.
If you liked this story, let me know why. Everyone I know thought it was 'not good' to say the least.
The story explores Michael and his family's response to the death of his older brother, Dom. Personally, I thought his parents were lax and their lack of supervision was to blame for the family tragedy.
I appreciate that Michael is only a teenage boy and that the flatness of the storytelling reflects his grief. It was boring to read though and the story itself does not live up to the title and the sequence of vignettes (chapters in the novel) do not support or justify the final chapter. The reader never sees how Michael comes to the realisation in the final chapter and the closing sentence.
Something I liked:
I liked the potential that Esther's and her son's story offered to the author in exploring the different types of grief over a son who is lost and, in Esther case, found .
Things that irritated me about the actual way the story was written
* I was really p*** that the abrupt end of the pool scene went unexplained for chapters. How is that good storytelling? Not in my book.
* The non-event nature of the experiences chosen for individual chapters. They led nowhere other than to fill in the way Michael spent time and the reader's time that led from Dom's death to the final chapter's paragraph.
* The author didn't use the Esther and son's plot to make a coherent point. Castgna just presented the slice of life scenes with them in it and left it to random readers' intelligence to draw from that story line what they could. Everyone I know, except the teacher, skipped those scenes. He made us read them. I was glad he was honest and agreed with us that the author didn't do a good job with those scenes.
* Michael, for all of his 1st person narrative, was not introspective in terms of insight into 'the incredible here and now' during the story. I didn't feel or see him healing. Shouldn't a story - vignettes or traditional narrative- let us feel and experience the journey with the character(s)?
* The story is one long flat line. If it is was living human being, it'd be dead.
If you liked this story, let me know why. Everyone I know thought it was 'not good' to say the least.
Read
May 21, 2020K.T
This book follows Michael, a 15-year-old boy and follows him coming of age. I enjoyed the style of this book and how Felicity Castagna was writing in the vignette style. However, I did lose motivation and passion to continue reading and struggled to finish it. Overall a good book that can be read quickly and individually.
This book follows Michael, a 15-year-old boy and follows him coming of age. I enjoyed the style of this book and how Felicity Castagna was writing in the vignette style. However, I did lose motivation and passion to continue reading and struggled to finish it. Overall a good book that can be read quickly and individually.
April 11, 2021
I definitely feel that having read The House on Mango Street I have a better idea of what this book is trying to do; the lack of one continuous narrative provides a sense of greater verisimilitude. And it helps that I'm familiar with Parramatta, and there's a power to suggesting that stories this ordinary are worth telling.
July 12, 2017
Absolutely brilliant - an easy read, but by no means simple. A fabulous insight into the life of young men's lives in Western Sydney, capturing diversity, love, loss, family & the complexity of relationships. Very clever, thoughtful writing.
June 26, 2017
Such an amazing book. A great quick read and such a realistic take on Western Sydney life.
August 28, 2019
I enjoyed reading this book. It was simple and easy to read and by the end, I felt as if I truly knew the lives of the characters.
March 17, 2020
Nice to read about places i know
March 24, 2022
Such a beautiful book with deceptively simple language. Lovely imagery and a wonderful main character. Really enjoyed this.
March 2, 2024
Short novel - like a bunch of snapshots in the life of a western suburbs teen. The voice is perfect and some great figurative language and imagery.
January 13, 2021
I enjoyed it, and having grown up in Western Sydney, I appreciated the description of the particular settings and atmosphere created throughout the novel.
However, I’m not blown away by the book- it felt a bit predictable and simplistic. Not a huge fan of the vignette style of the chapters either. Perhaps it was meant to capture the fragments of different experiences that have shaped the protagonist’s life- but it felt abrupt and underdeveloped at times.
Good read but not as rich or profound as I would have liked.
However, I’m not blown away by the book- it felt a bit predictable and simplistic. Not a huge fan of the vignette style of the chapters either. Perhaps it was meant to capture the fragments of different experiences that have shaped the protagonist’s life- but it felt abrupt and underdeveloped at times.
Good read but not as rich or profound as I would have liked.
April 28, 2014
The way the story is told is interesting. The chapters are like a series of anecdotes/stories from the life of the main character, Michael. Set in the suburb of Parramatta, 15 year old Michael narrates what he thinks about, sees and understands the year he turns 15. His world alters more than he expects when he and his beloved brother Dom are involved in a car accident. Dom dies but the story does not dwell on grief. It is about Michael and his growth, from a child to a young man. He is resilient and pragmatic character who has to deal with a lot of things including his grief over the death of his brother and the family turmoil it brings. The world Michael inhabits is described vividly, the characters that are part of that world, his family and friends, are realistic and convincing. The reader can relate to their foibles and care about what happens to them in the novel. The writing style is simple and the language suits the character. The chapters short and the events documented are easy to relate to. This a story that most teenage boys could identify with and read with themselves in mind.
August 20, 2014
Michael is a typical school boy living in the suburbs of Western Sydney. For him, life has a rhythm and routine which is closely bonded to his older brother’s. That is until tragedy strikes, and he decides that:
‘my life isn’t my life any more: It is like a movie, it’s the place where I enter the scene again and again and everything is different.’
From the time that Michael regains consciousness after the accident, his thoughts are fragmented. Indeed the nature of Felicity Castagna’s book, ‘the Incredible Here and Now’, is that it, too, is a whole story slowly pieced together. Gradually, chapters reveal little insights into the lives of people in Michael’s world, as the picture develops describing his life with family, school and his mates, and how life can suddenly become distorted and troubled....
Review continued at: http://crewsreviews.edublogs.org/2014...
‘my life isn’t my life any more: It is like a movie, it’s the place where I enter the scene again and again and everything is different.’
From the time that Michael regains consciousness after the accident, his thoughts are fragmented. Indeed the nature of Felicity Castagna’s book, ‘the Incredible Here and Now’, is that it, too, is a whole story slowly pieced together. Gradually, chapters reveal little insights into the lives of people in Michael’s world, as the picture develops describing his life with family, school and his mates, and how life can suddenly become distorted and troubled....
Review continued at: http://crewsreviews.edublogs.org/2014...
Read
January 26, 2016Michael’s older brother dies at the beginning of the summer he turns 15, but as its title suggests The Incredible Here and Now is a tale of wonder, not of tragedy. Presented as a series of vignettes, in the tradition of Sandra Cisneros’ Young Adult classic The House on Mango Street, it tells of Michael’s coming of age in a year which brings him grief and romance; and of the place he lives in Western Sydney where ‘those who don’t know any better drive through the neighbourhood and lock their car doors’, and those who do, flourish in its mix of cultures. Through his perceptions, the reader becomes familiar with Michael’s community and its surroundings, the unsettled life of his family, the girl he meets at the local pool, the friends that gather in the McDonalds parking lot at night, the white Pontiac Trans Am that lights up his life like a magical talisman
September 18, 2014
This was an interesting read for me as it was set in a location in Sydney that I was very familiar with, having grown up nearby, but of course many years earlier than the setting of the book. I am not sure that being familiar was necessary to understand or even engage with the story, but it did help me to connect with the story and characters. It was a sensitive story about a young man working through a grieving process with his family and figuring out the meaning of life.
The chapters were short, the insights were personal, it was a short and easy read, but pulls on the emotions especially toward the end.
The chapters were short, the insights were personal, it was a short and easy read, but pulls on the emotions especially toward the end.
November 3, 2016
Simply written, but beautifully executed, this novel of wonder accompanied by death is truly a great read.
The novel uses sparse language which beautifully delivers small anecdotes within hundreds of chapters.
The "matter-of-fact" style of writing gives a gist of the life of fifteen year old Michael living in Parramatta, Sydney's western suburb.
The story does not dwell on death, but rather focuses on "the incredible here and now". The novel is uplifting, humorous and it was impossible to put down.
"There's only moving forward so I put my arm around Mum's shoulder and I tell her about the incredible here and now."
The novel uses sparse language which beautifully delivers small anecdotes within hundreds of chapters.
The "matter-of-fact" style of writing gives a gist of the life of fifteen year old Michael living in Parramatta, Sydney's western suburb.
The story does not dwell on death, but rather focuses on "the incredible here and now". The novel is uplifting, humorous and it was impossible to put down.
"There's only moving forward so I put my arm around Mum's shoulder and I tell her about the incredible here and now."
August 1, 2014
This novel just wasn't for me. I tend to prefer my novels to tell me a story, rather than feed me snippets of someone's life. I didn't really get a sense of any of the characters, I didn't care about the big dramas, or anything else that happened. Really, the only thing I got a sense of in this novel was the place, and I'm just not that interested in West Sydney.
Just not my kind of novel, though I'm sure there are people out there who will enjoy this one - after all, it has been shortlisted for the CBCA. That's got to mean something, right?
Just not my kind of novel, though I'm sure there are people out there who will enjoy this one - after all, it has been shortlisted for the CBCA. That's got to mean something, right?
August 1, 2014
Hmm...i think it was a good concept, and vaguely well written. It was just a little bit boring, and the main character's voice got really monotonous after the brother dies. It surprisingly didn't really emphasise on the sadness of the narrator after the brother's death which i thought was strange, since i was expecting tears and grief etc. etc. But yeah, the grieving wasn't predominant.
The length of the book is good, if it was any longer, i wouldn't have been able to sit through any more of it.
The length of the book is good, if it was any longer, i wouldn't have been able to sit through any more of it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews