Barracuda

by Christos Tsiolkas

[pamela]

Oh god, what a painful slog to get through this tome of boring self indulgence. Barracuda suffers from the very Middle Class complaining that seems to be the negative focus of the narrative. While trying to point out the classist flaws inherent in Australian culture, Christos Tsiolkas instead becomes party to it.

The protagonist, Danny Kelly, had a life I could relate to. His social mileu was one I can understand, being from Melbourne myself. But this is where my sympathy ended. Danny Kelly is an abhorrent person. He has nothing which redeems him and thus I felt no sympathy for him. I wanted horrible things to happen to him because he is just a horrible, horrible person.

The positive reviews of this novel have stated that it shines a light on classism inherent in Australian culture and the issues of growing up Gay. I didn't get this from the book. The classism exists but not in this novel. Danny was so unlikeable and explosive that most of that seems his own petty hangups, and Gay relationships are painted as selfish and animalistic.

The only redeeming feature for me in this book was the sense of home I felt in Tsiolkas' descriptions of Melbourne. Unfortunately familiarity is not enough for me to rate this book particularly high.