You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead by Marieke Hardy, Allen & Unwin, $29.99.
A threesome with a prostitute is a provocative way to open this brilliant new novel by Melbourne writer Marieke Hardy.
Yet it is the chapters on her mundane life experiences that sparkle. Hardy quickly tires of prostitutes and dumps her boyfriend. From here, she moves easily into stories about caravanning with her parents, going to the footy in Melbourne and being a child actor.
The book is partly made up of extended newspaper columns, which in a less skilled writer, might struggle as a novel.
Yet there are some delightful literary devices which give this genre an instant freshness. For example, she gives her ex-lovers the right of reply at the end of a chapter where she has laid bare their relationship.
In another case, she relives her obsession with left-wing author Bob Ellis, which paints an unflattering picture of the larger-than-life character, but she still gives Ellis the final say.
Hardy, who is the grand-daughter of writer Frank Hardy, has made her name from her provocative and shamelessly pro-Labor Party column in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper.
In this book she continues to shock, but there is a quirky sweetness to her character that dampens some of the seediness.
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