Jasper Jones | Paperback

I seem to be getting an Australian vibe recently in my reading (Sonya Hartnett) and now Jasper Jones which also gains brownie points from me for being a coming of age tale with an interesting, intelligent child narrator.

Jasper Jones is a mixed race teen who lives on the outskirts of town and of society too. The novel is less concerned with Jasper though and focuses more on Charlie Bucktin, a young teen who, thanks to Jasper, becomes embroiled in a plot to cover up a young girl's disappearance and murder in order to discover who the culprit was. The boys are in Catch 22 territory as any disclosure of information could lead to suspicion immediately falling on Jasper whose colour marks him out as Public Enemy No One in the predominantly white town of Corrigan.

This novel is a joy to read and the young male characters literally jump of the page they are so vividly portrayed with all their verbal fencing and fierce loyalty to each other. It's at times reminiscent of the film… more »

I seem to be getting an Australian vibe recently in my reading (Sonya Hartnett) and now Jasper Jones which also gains brownie points from me for being a coming of age tale with an interesting, intelligent child narrator.

Jasper Jones is a mixed race teen who lives on the outskirts of town and of society too. The novel is less concerned with Jasper though and focuses more on Charlie Bucktin, a young teen who, thanks to Jasper, becomes embroiled in a plot to cover up a young girl's disappearance and murder in order to discover who the culprit was. The boys are in Catch 22 territory as any disclosure of information could lead to suspicion immediately falling on Jasper whose colour marks him out as Public Enemy No One in the predominantly white town of Corrigan.

This novel is a joy to read and the young male characters literally jump of the page they are so vividly portrayed with all their verbal fencing and fierce loyalty to each other. It's at times reminiscent of the film Stand By Me and really very moving amid all the slapstick humour. The topic of racism is further developed in the character of Jeffrey Lu, Charlie's best buddy who bears the brunt of overt racism from his class mates - he is Vietnamese and this is 1965 when some local men are off fighting in the war so not the best place for Jeffrey to be growing up. I loved Jeffrey and his irrepressible optimism and sense of humour which save him from bitterness. The highlight of the book for me is a cricket match in which the locals reluctantly allow Jeffrey to take part - I don't understand anything about cricket but it doesn't take an expert to feel Jeffrey's joy at being even temporarily accepted. Equally Charlie is estranged from his other school mates due to his bookishness and complete and utter lack of sporting ability (Hey, I can truly empathise with this kid!)

Jasper Jones may be set in Western Australia but the themes of acceptance, childhood friendship, family relationships are universal. It's a relatively short, very readable book but it has so many different threads - echoes of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird with Charlie's father being directly compared with Atticus Finch although he's more into literature than the law. I think if you have a brother, a son or can even summon up the slightest memory of what it was like trying to be a kid fitting in and finding your place in the world, you will really enjoy this story. If you are offended by the occasional swear word (yes, horror of horrors, boys swear when they're away from their parents.. ;-)) you'd probably be better to avoid it.

I'll leave you with an example of Charlie and Jeffrey's delightful banter -

" I feel like an icy cold beer" he says.
"What? Why?"
"I don't know. It always looks so refreshing. I wishhhh to be refreshhhhed by an icy cold beer"
" But you've never had beer!"
"So?"
"So, how can you feel like something you've never tasted?"
"You never kissed Eliza Wishart before but you still wished to do that. "
I roll my eyes at him.
"That's a lot different to a beer".
"Telling me. A beer is farrr superior. You don't have to sit around holding its hand and saying nice things about its hair".