This Book Made Me Pea-Green With Envy

Most of us read Harper Lee's seminal novel To Kill a Mockingbird as young people. It moved us. We railed against small town intolerance and were thrilled when Atticus Finch stepped up to tackle prejudice and fight for freedom. The way Atticus explains discrimination to his children serves to reinforce the baselessness of racism and we vowed to be inclusive in our dealings with people from minorities.

Craig Silvey's much publicised second novel Jasper Jones transplants these ideas to a fictional Western Australian town in 1965. The plucky young protagonist, Charlie Bucktin, has read Harper Lee and Mark Twain and constantly endeavours to apply these lessons to the dreadful event he witnesses with the town's outcast Jasper Jones. 'What would Atticus do?'

Jasper Jones inspired many emotions within me -- the chief one being envy. I'm bitter that someone could have crafted such a simple, perfect novel, I'm jealous of the wonderful friendship that exists between Charlie Bucktin and his best friend Jeffrey Lu, (their dialogue is so sparkling, so full of wit and love it just about makes you want to cry), I covet the wonderful metaphors dotted throughout the novel -- the most important being who is the braver of the superheros Batman or Superman? Superman has superpowers and need only be afraid of Kryptonite, but Batman has no special ability and needs to summon human courage in order to save the day. Indeed, Charlie must learn overcome his mortal fears and muster the nerve to face life's challenges and see the truth. I yearn for the sweetness and naivety of the affection that blossoms between Charlie and his first love. (I'm aware that I'm talking about the characters in the novel as if they are real, and not a construct of the author, but that's the green-eyed-monster inducing genius of Craig Silvey -- he writes each of the characters with almost as many flaws as strengths and makes you feel as if you really know them!) But the thing I envy most of all, is that one of you might find the novel and will get to discover it all for the first time.