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| 12 Nov. 2002 |
Remembered Dreams, Fears and Joys: 'Of a Boy' by Sonya Hartnett
Romy Ash
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Of
A Boy, by Sonya Hartnett.
Penguin,
Camberwell Victoria, 2002. ISBN:
0 670 04026 6. |
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Sonya
Harnett's Of a Boy is written with tenderness and
a lightness of touch. Of a Boy resonates like a
dream remembered, echoing into the waking world, haunting
the reader long after they have turned the last page.
This is a book set in a surreal suburban landscape. Surreal
only because every street, every tree or clipped lawn
is so familiar, so real, so like every other neighbourhood.
It is a landscape where it is possible to get lost, where
streets look impossibly alike. Yet the narrative is haunted
by the disappearance of three children who never return
from buying ice cream at the local shop.
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1 |
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'It has
never occurred to him — and he blushes faintly,
for being so stupid — to think that children
can vanish. The Metford's have not been lost or abandoned
— they have been made to disappear.'
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2 |
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It
is this landscape that we see from the point of view of
the boy, Adrian. We see through his eyes the streets,
and perceive the neighbourhood and his home where he lives
with his grandmother and uncle Rory. Harnett lovingly
evokes his thoughts, his world and his unique perception
of it. A beautiful portrait of childhood, Harnett brings
to life a time when monsters in the wardrobe are just
as real as car crashes or murderers. It is a world heavy
with his fears.
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3 |
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'Adrian
worries about all sorts of things. Many of his fears
he keeps private, sensing that there is something
a touch ludicrous about them, but that does not lessen
their power.'
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4 |
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Of
a Boy is set in winter and it is cold. The frost seeps
into Adrian's school shoes. Adrian lives on the periphery
of social circles at school and it requires all his courage
to stand alone in the playground, an icy wind blowing
across the soccer field. His best friend is Clinton 'whose
glasses are thick enough to hold back the tide' but their
relationship is tenuous, as is his relationship with his
family. Unloved children from 'the home' attend his school,
they have no mothers or fathers, and Adrian is terrified
of the similarities there is between them. He lives with
his grandmother who if he is not careful turns into a
'Grandmonster' and his uncle who, although young, is haunted
by his past. Adrian fits uncomfortably into this family
unsure of his place within it. The arrival of new neighbours
brings the possibility of friendships, which carefully
grow.
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5 |
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Harnett's
words are heavy with emotion and the reader is drawn into
Adrian's world that oscillates between home, school and
a deserted park. A landscape inhabited by real ghosts
that through Adrians' eyes are dark and ominous. Harnett
captures a time of life which most remember vividly, certain
moments seeming real and close, but it is the space in
between these moments that the author brings to life,
filling in the gaps, fuzzy with memory and feeling. Harnett
forces these dark gaps into the light and captures for
the reader an evocation of their own childhood, with their
own ludicrous fears and simple joys.
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6 |
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Of
a Boy is a book touched by sadness, each sentence
and image perfectly crafted. The novel captures the reader
until its breathless end, which releases you only to be
haunted by its words, just as the narrative is haunted
by the disappearance of three children.
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7 |
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An
earlier version of this review was published in Syntax
Magazine, 1, August 2001.
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