Jody

The Australian Jesse James and Abe Lincoln all rolled into one; perhaps those with more knowledge of the tale will enjoy this book; it is "historical fiction;" the known facts are all in there, but the rest (childhood, Ned Kelly's relationship with his mother, etc.), are made up. So it is sort of an interesting psychological profile of the man who dared to stand up to the English; and to take on the corruption which resulted from Australia's beginnings as an English penal colony. But in the end, you don't really know why he did it; even with all the psychological profiling. So, what was the point of all that?

The work is supposedly based on writings by Kelly, newly discovered. And, in fact, some of his writings were discovered in the late 1980's. Perhaps some judicious abridgement would help this book, but I struggled to finish it.

The narration is ok; but it is troubled by some repetition of the word "adjectival" . . . reminiscent of the use of "expletive deleted" in the Nixon tapes. Even if that is how they really talked back then, it was a bit much.

This was a good read; I like short stories, and these were very evocative. I especially liked the connected short stories. The narrators all did an excellent job. The subject matter is intriguing; relationships mostly, and poignant and funny at the same time.