Contemporary Brisbane fiction authors were once so rare that when Nick Earls, John Birmingham and Melissa Luchashenko came on the scene in the 1990s, Brisbanites were excited to read depictions of our city and its people.
Sure you have David Malouf, Thea Astley and Hugh Lunn, but for a long time there were far fewer stories about modern Brisbane in bookshops than stories set in Melbourne, Sydney or Perth.
Brisbane voices
These days, Brisbane voices are becoming more prominent and independent publisher Hawkeye Books is turbo-charging that trajectory by championing emerging Brisbane authors.
Brisbane-based author and GP, Jo Skinner, is one of Hawkeye’s new writers. Her books are about dysfunctional families, ‘hidden truths and uneasy pacts’.
Brisbane GP and author Jo Skinner
Her first book, The Truth about my Daughter, dug into how hard it is to understand your family history when parts of it have been fabricated or embellished by your own family members.
Skinner recently released her second novel, A World of Silence, which broadens her scope from one family to three. The woman in each family is keeping a secret that could lead to great harm for all of them.
The characters are former uni mates: psychologist Kate, businesswoman Tori and footy wife Shelley. Behind all the café breakfasts, school concerts and expensive children’s parties, the women are bristling with the tension of their secret constantly trying to reveal itself.
Deep dysfunction
What I liked about this story is how it goes behind the scenes of middle class families that might look perfect from the outside but are deeply dysfunctional on the inside.
On the surface, A World of Silence is all Pink Lady cocktails, lemon meringue pie and music lessons for the children. The women are from the social class with time to hang out in inner city cafes (some with recognisable names like the now closed Grindhouse Coffee at Greenslopes. I wondered if the novel’s fictional Vincents café was a play on the real Van Gogh’s Earlobe café that ran for years at Annerley).
Underneath the surface, the reader sees that education, money and social class do not protect these women from gender inequality, violence and abuse, nor the unequal division of labour at home that make women’s teeth (and other body parts) clench.
The way Skinner weaves this gender inequality into the day to day lives of the characters is clever and effective. The book mostly has a strong narrative drive, although it sagged at times due to dialogue that is a little pat (too simple to sound natural). Major developments sometimes occur without the right pacing or buildup, causing an anti-climactic effect.
The end, however, is climactic and surprising.
Overall, the story makes you think about the cost of keeping silent when you know something very wrong is happening.
I was both invested in and frustrated by Kate, Tori and Shelley who run around like chooks with their heads chopped off, avoiding serious problems they do not address. Thank Goodness there is one sensible, stable character of Indigo, who plays a supporting role and a much-needed counter balance to the other three.
Tori hires Indigo to help with her growing second-hand furniture and clothing store and competent, kind, even-tempered Indigo turns out to be more than just a good employee. Throughout the book Indigo sensibly doles out good advice, practical help and nourishing food (just the way there is often that one person calmly doing the soothing stuff through all the drama).
Simmering tension
The simmering tension of the three main characters trying to keep up appearances, hold down jobs and raise children while danger lurks in the background, builds momentum to a surprising, authentic climax.
Expect a realistic depiction of middle-class life in contemporary Brisbane that reveals behind the flowering jacaranda trees, pool parties and balmy nights of the River City, lies an entrenched misogyny that persists to this day.
A World of Silence is published by Hawkeye Books and retails for $32.99.
