2009 Indie Book of the Year - Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

You may remember from one of my January posts that I was going to read "Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey after really enjoying his earlier book, "Rhubarb".  Well, I completed it this morning.  Firstly, a little synopsis of the story.  Set in the 1960's in a small town in Western Australia, the story is told by 13 year old Charlie whose father teaches at the local secondary college and his mother struggles to live in a community so different from the world of wealth in which she grew up.  One hot summer night, Charlie is awoken by a tap at his window.  It is Jasper Jones - the town outcast, the boy that all parents warn their children about hanging out with, and who is a year older than Charlie.  "I need your help" says Jasper and intrigued Charlie goes with Jasper to his secret place where Jasper has made a horrible discovery.   Jasper insists that it must be kept secret and enlists Charlie's support in order to solve the mystery before they tell anyone what he has found.  Through the hot summer, Charlie battles with himself about keeping the secret, the telling of which he knows will eleviate the fear that the town is living in at the expense of his new friend.  It is a summer where everything is changing and nothing will be the same again.

"Jasper Jones" has been described as a coming of age book, and to be honest, initially, I wasn't sure whether the intended audience was adults or teenagers.  I had trouble with the ages of Charlie and Jasper - 13 and 14 is still young for a lot of the things that happened in the story but maybe that's a product of my sheltered life.  I did like parts of the story very much - the relationship between Charlie and his best friend Jeffrey Lu, the sensitive telling of the discrimination that Jeffrey's Vietnamese family were subject to, the budding romance with Eliza Wishart, the description of an epic cricket match with Jeffrey as the hero of the day, proving to the town that just because he's Vietnamese doesn't mean he can't play cricket.

I found the plot a little predictable, and I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first.  If you are a reader that really likes character development, and gutsy descriptions of events, then this book is worth trying. I have read many reviews in online blogs where the reader loved this book, and this is born out by it's 2009 Indie Book of the Year award. For me, I think that I preferred "Rhubarb", Craig Silvey's earlier novel.

If you would like more about the plot, go to http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741757743