FOR CRICKET LOVERS
BOOK REVIEW
THE GIFT OF SPEED
A novel by Steven Carroll
Fourth Estate, 2004
I was engrossed by Steve Carroll’s novel, “The Gift Of Speed.” At a surface level, not a lot happens if you are looking for clever plots, sudden changes in circumstances and a surprise at the end of each chapter. However, at a deeper level, many things happen and this engaging book finishes with a record of an actual event which many Victorians will recall with pleasure.
During a University vacation in the late 1950’s I spent several weeks working for the Electoral Office, trudging around the streets of Glenroy, knocking on doors and checking to see that the residents were registered to vote at the next elections. I also found time to watch some lazy days of Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, fascinated by the names and faces and skills of the visiting tourists from the former British colonies.
It is not surprising then that Carroll’s book appealed to me. Set in the summer of 1960-61, it describes the life and reflections of Michael, a teenage cricketer from the northern suburbs, obsessed with the desire to excel as a fast bowler, eagerly anticipating his first game with the senior local team, developing his own understanding of reality. Readers will identify with Michael’s encounters, not least with his excruciating visit to Linsday Hassett’s sports store in the city.
Michael’s mother and father are among those thousands who settled the growing northern suburbs after the war and the atmosphere of the area is cleverly evoked in the accounts of Michael’s parents’ reflections.
Vic is a retired engine driver, whose prime delight is being, or anticipating being, out on the fairways of the local golf club. Rita, not altogether confident of Vic’s faithfulness, has accepted that she cannot change Vic but she can at least change the house by having French windows and a patio installed at the front. Vic’s dying mother has recently come to stay and, determined to be noticed, makes occasional and unwelcome appearances, carrying her potty about with her in front of visitors.
A rather shadowy figure in the story is Webster, local identity and business man, who is in the process of closing his factory and who has some fleeting connection with Michael. The consequences of Webster’s passion for speed have more alarming consequences than Michael’s passion for fast bowling.
Michael’s Maths teacher is savagely drawn in just a few sentences, the Maths teacher who smiles with his lips but who has no smile in his eyes, “who seems to be on the point of pinning down one of his insects with a question.”
The only friend of Michael who is introduced is Kathleen Marsden, orphan girl from the local Children’s Home, finding in Michael a listening ear and a source of affirmation, yet having to resume her life elsewhere when the Home is forced to close.
The most engaging and elusive character of all is West Indies team captain, Frank Worrell, whom Carroll uses to frame the story and who becomes the catalyst for the memorable final revelation.
“The Gift of Speed” was the subject of our local book group in November and the range of reactions was as diverse as usual. This should not have surprised me, but I admit to being disappointed to hear one response of “couldn’t get into it” and another of “too bleak for me.” On the other hand, several of us ranked it as one of the best of the thirty books that we have read since the group began.
I pondered the comment about the novel being bleak and wondered whether the reader had finished the book, because I had been deeply moved by the sense of hope and new possibilities that emerged towards the latter part of the story.
Yes, there are some bleak and disturbing experiences encountered by the various characters in the story, but this is a book that encourages and inspires. Carroll is honest about the obsessions and thwarted hopes of those living their suburban lives of quiet desperation, but there is an underlying sense that there is more, and that the characters are in the process of discovering this, albeit in unexpected ways.
The final chapter is set in Swanston Street on that extraordinary lunchtime in February, 1961, when the West Indians were given a ticker tape reception by the people of Melbourne. For Michael it is something of an epiphany. Awareness comes.
Mac Nicoll
THE GIFT OF SPEED
A novel by Steven Carroll
Fourth Estate, 2004
I was engrossed by Steve Carroll’s novel, “The Gift Of Speed.” At a surface level, not a lot happens if you are looking for clever plots, sudden changes in circumstances and a surprise at the end of each chapter. However, at a deeper level, many things happen and this engaging book finishes with a record of an actual event which many Victorians will recall with pleasure.
During a University vacation in the late 1950’s I spent several weeks working for the Electoral Office, trudging around the streets of Glenroy, knocking on doors and checking to see that the residents were registered to vote at the next elections. I also found time to watch some lazy days of Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, fascinated by the names and faces and skills of the visiting tourists from the former British colonies.
It is not surprising then that Carroll’s book appealed to me. Set in the summer of 1960-61, it describes the life and reflections of Michael, a teenage cricketer from the northern suburbs, obsessed with the desire to excel as a fast bowler, eagerly anticipating his first game with the senior local team, developing his own understanding of reality. Readers will identify with Michael’s encounters, not least with his excruciating visit to Linsday Hassett’s sports store in the city.
Michael’s mother and father are among those thousands who settled the growing northern suburbs after the war and the atmosphere of the area is cleverly evoked in the accounts of Michael’s parents’ reflections.
Vic is a retired engine driver, whose prime delight is being, or anticipating being, out on the fairways of the local golf club. Rita, not altogether confident of Vic’s faithfulness, has accepted that she cannot change Vic but she can at least change the house by having French windows and a patio installed at the front. Vic’s dying mother has recently come to stay and, determined to be noticed, makes occasional and unwelcome appearances, carrying her potty about with her in front of visitors.
A rather shadowy figure in the story is Webster, local identity and business man, who is in the process of closing his factory and who has some fleeting connection with Michael. The consequences of Webster’s passion for speed have more alarming consequences than Michael’s passion for fast bowling.
Michael’s Maths teacher is savagely drawn in just a few sentences, the Maths teacher who smiles with his lips but who has no smile in his eyes, “who seems to be on the point of pinning down one of his insects with a question.”
The only friend of Michael who is introduced is Kathleen Marsden, orphan girl from the local Children’s Home, finding in Michael a listening ear and a source of affirmation, yet having to resume her life elsewhere when the Home is forced to close.
The most engaging and elusive character of all is West Indies team captain, Frank Worrell, whom Carroll uses to frame the story and who becomes the catalyst for the memorable final revelation.
“The Gift of Speed” was the subject of our local book group in November and the range of reactions was as diverse as usual. This should not have surprised me, but I admit to being disappointed to hear one response of “couldn’t get into it” and another of “too bleak for me.” On the other hand, several of us ranked it as one of the best of the thirty books that we have read since the group began.
I pondered the comment about the novel being bleak and wondered whether the reader had finished the book, because I had been deeply moved by the sense of hope and new possibilities that emerged towards the latter part of the story.
Yes, there are some bleak and disturbing experiences encountered by the various characters in the story, but this is a book that encourages and inspires. Carroll is honest about the obsessions and thwarted hopes of those living their suburban lives of quiet desperation, but there is an underlying sense that there is more, and that the characters are in the process of discovering this, albeit in unexpected ways.
The final chapter is set in Swanston Street on that extraordinary lunchtime in February, 1961, when the West Indians were given a ticker tape reception by the people of Melbourne. For Michael it is something of an epiphany. Awareness comes.
Mac Nicoll
posted by ledingham at 10:44 PM
0 comments
