“At last Bob ambled
into the yard to take a piss
at the base of the lemon tree.
As you do.
Scratched his napper,
rearranged his balls.
I could see the
thought of a cup of tea cross his mind.”
The above quote neatly
summarises everything I enjoyed of the language of the novel 'Bloke'. The language
makes images jump from the page. The reader is in the yard. The reader can
see Bob scratch his head. Oddly, the reader can also see the thought of a cup of tea cross Bob’s mind.
This was the first of
Bruce Pascoe’s
fictional works that I had read. I first read Pascoe’s non-fiction work Dark Emu.
Pascoe writes fiction in a manner like Tim Winton; both engaging
the reader in the colour and spectacular of the Australian environment.
I particularly enjoyed the use of metyonmy; so swim-fins where referred to as slippers.
Shalom,
Ozhamada
