This was my March book club pick, but I didn't actually read it until the first week of April. March just got away from me, so I used a good chunk of my Spring Break to read this novel. It took me several days to read this one -- it's 453 pages long. It's not a light and fluffy read, although there were certainly parts of the story that made me laugh out loud. It's about a kid growing up in the 1980s in the suburbs of Brisbane, Australia, and he's going through it. Let's see if I can give you a brief plot summary before I dive into the full review.
Eli Bell is 12-years-old when he realizes his stepfather, Lyle, is selling drugs for Tytus Broz. It's a pretty big blow for Eli since Lyle is his hero, the man he looks up to the most in the world. One night, Tytus Broz and his goons show up at Eli's house to take Lyle away, never to be seen again, and Eli's mother ends up going to prison on a made-up charge. Eli and his brother, August, have to go live with their dad, Robert, who's basically an alcoholic hermit due to his debilitating anxiety. Through it all, Eli has one consistent adult to lean on: Slim Halliday, an infamous criminal who holds the record for most successful prison escapes. Eventually, the story will come full circle, but it takes years before justice will be served.
Okay, so this is told in first person point of view through Eli. It spans about six years of Eli's life. Before we get into the spoilers, I feel like there's a warning that needs to be issued about this book, and that is the language. It's horrendous. These characters cuss like sailors and really like to drop f-bombs. So, if you're offended by persistent and consistent cursing, you should probably skip this one. That said, it's beautifully written. Despite the proficient foul language, there's definitely a poetic quality to this story. Mr. Dalton has a way with words.
This book is written like a memoir, so it's like having access to Eli's mind and his most important memories during this specific time period. Most of it is told in a linear timeline, however there are quite a few flashbacks woven into the story. They help to provide perspective and give insight on Eli's choices, which otherwise wouldn't always make sense. This review will not cover every single detail -- that would be impossible in a story of this size-- but will focus on the most important plot points for the main arc of the story.
To avoid spoilers, skip to the end of this post.
***Spoilers***
The novel begins with Eli having a driving lesson with his babysitter, the infamous Slim Halliday. This chapter is less about the driving lesson and more about establishing the three most important characters of the novel: Eli, his brother August, and his mentor Slim. So let's start there.
Eli is 12 years old, but his mind and his soul are much older. He notices everything, all the little details, which often results in him hyper-focusing on one thing or another and getting lost in the moment. He wants to be a crime reporter one day, so this noticing will come in handy eventually. His babysitter, Slim, is the infamous Houdini of Boggo Road. He might be a murderer, and he might be considered the most successful prison escape artist of his time, but to Eli, he's a mentor and friend and one of the only people who's always there for him. Slim's wisdom and stories become Eli's guiding voice almost. Eli's brother, August, doesn't speak. Not because he can't, but because he doesn't want to. He communicates by writing in the air. August is brilliant but different. He sees things and knows things that he shouldn't. He's Eli's and their mother's protector, always, and is the second person that Eli can always count on.
From there the actual storyline begins. This story takes years to unfold in its entirety, and the author doesn't skip over the years that seemingly have no bearing on the main plot. Those in-between chapters are important, though, to the development of our main character, Eli, and to a lesser extent his brother, August.
I mentioned in the brief plot summary earlier that Eli discovers his stepfather, Lyle, is selling drugs for a man named Tytus Broz. Lyle is incredibly important to Eli, who barely remembers his real father and never sees him. Lyle is his hero, so to discover that he's selling heroin on the side is quite the blow. One night, Eli follows Lyle to his supplier's house where he convinces Lyle to let him help out on his runs. For awhile, things seem to be going their way, but one fateful night, Tytus Broz shows up unannounced at their home.
Turns out, Lyle has been selling on the side and cutting Tytus out of the profits. We confirm later in the story that Lyle's best friend and partner, Teddy, sold him out, although it's pretty obvious in the moment. Tytus's men drag Lyle out of the house and knock Eli's mom, Frankie, out. Then they question Eli and his brother, August, who Lyle wrote a message to in the air about the location of his heroin stockpile just before he was dragged out. August speaks for the first time in Eli's memory: "Your end is a dead blue wren." Obviously, that was not what Tytus wanted to hear, and Eli loses his right pointer finger as a consequence.
When he wakes up in hospital, Eli learns from Slim that his mother has been arrested on charges of child neglect. The story the cops were told was that August chopped off Eli's finger with an axe while trying to chop up an action figure. Lyle is said to have disappeared.
So the boys must now go to live with their biological father, Robert, who they've not seen in years. Robert is an alcoholic who rarely leaves his house. He has debilitating anxiety that results in intense panic attacks.
A lot of important things happen while the boys are living with their father. One of the most notable is the involvement of their school counselor, Mrs. Birkbeck. It's through her that we learn about the incident that resulted in the boys' separation from their father. When they were very young, Robert drove the three of them into a lake. Eli has a recurring dream about the accident, and August has been obsessively painting the accident. Eli has also confided to the counselor that August believes they both died in the accident and then returned. This, if you're wondering, is when August stopped talking. It's unclear, even after me having read the book, whether the accident was actually an accident.
Another notable event from this in-between time is Eli managing to break into the women's prison where his mother is serving her sentence. With Slim's help, he is smuggled in via a produce truck on Christmas Day. He ends up running from the prison guards and almost managing to escape by climbing the fence. But his rope breaks. Luckily for him, the guards don't want any bad publicity resulting from a 13-year-old sneaking in, so they let him go.
Probably the most notable event in this part of Eli's life is the death of Slim, though it doesn't take up much chapter space. This is a little over halfway through the book, but Eli never fully abandons his mentor. Slim lives on in his mind, imparting words of wisdom and life lessons that guide Eli through the remainder of the book.
Shortly after Slim's death, Eli's mother is released from prison, and to his surprise, she moves in with Teddy. Just before this happened, August revealed to Eli where he'd hidden Lyle's heroin stockpile, and Eli sold it back to the original owner. During that transaction, Eli's suspicions about Teddy's loyalty to Lyle are confirmed, so during a week-long visit with his mom and Teddy, Eli flat out asks him why he betrayed his best friend. As you can imagine, this doesn't go over well, and Teddy is revealed to be an abusive bastard. But despite his abusive tendencies, it takes awhile for Eli's mom to finally leave him for good.
When that happens, Eli convinces his dad to do the right thing and take her in. Teddy, though, doesn't just let her go and brings some of his trucker buddies to forcibly take her back. It's at this point that we meet Eli's old pen-pal, Alexander Bermudez. At the beginning of the book, Eli was exchanging letters with the imprisoned sergeant at arms of the Queensland Rebels motorcycle gang. Alex has shown up to show his appreciation to Eli for his friendship during his time inside, and he pretty much saves the day...in a lot of ways that will play out over the next few chapters.
Kind of mixed in with all of these big, life-changing events, Eli has decided that he absolutely wants to become a crime reporter for The Courier-Mail. He has unsuccessfully tried to get hired as a cadet reporter, which is kind of like a paid intern; he missed the application deadline. However, Alex agrees to an exclusive interview, which gets Eli in the door. He's brought on as the backup to the backup horse-racing reporter. He's also getting to work with the love of his life, Caitlyn Spies, who we actually met earlier in the book. It was just after everything happened with Tytus Broz, and Eli wanted to expose him. He took his story to Caitlyn Spies, promptly fell in love with her, and was interrupted by a crazy guy causing a scene over his wife's death.
Eli has been told expressly by the editor to stay away from the crime desk, but when the paper is scooped on the disappearance of a family including a missing 8-year-old boy with ties to Tytus Broz and Iwan Krol, Eli can't help himself. He gives Caitlyn Iwan's name, and she, being the dedicated investigator she is, launches an investigation that will eventually lead us to the resolution of the story.
Meanwhile, Eli has just been handed his first big assignment. He's to interview 10 recipients of the inaugural Queensland Champions which is recognizing citizens for their contributions to the community. August is actually one of the recipients for his work to raise funds and awareness for muscular dystrophy, which is an interesting side story -- he actually gave away 95% of the money Eli made selling the heroin to their neighbor with muscular dystrophy and liked the feeling of giving back so much that he just kept going and even managed to convince Alex Bermudez to back him in a business venture allowing criminal enterprises to give back to charitable causes. Anyway, one of the people Eli is tasked with interviewing is none other than Tytus Broz. He saves him for last.
Just as Eli is about to leave for his interview, Caitlyn shows up. She's finished her investigation into Iwan Krol and wants to see things through to the end. The interview itself is weird; Tytus has a new prosthetic arm prototype he wants to show off, which is almost too lifelike. The interview ends when a blue wren dashes itself into the window (Remember the first thing August says? Your end is a dead blue wren.). When Eli and Caitlyn go out to see if it's alive, it seemingly comes back to life and flies away, landing on a suspicious out-of-place concrete bunker in the middle of Tytus Broz's otherwise luxurious garden.
When everyone has left the estate, Eli and Caitlyn sneak back inside the garden and break into the bunker. What they find is akin to Frankenstein's laboratory -- operating rooms filled with human body parts, including the preserved heads of Tytus and Iwan's victims and Eli's missing finger. Among the heads is Lyle, who Eli has to take with him, along with his finger. Fortunately, they also find the missing little boy, still alive, and manage to rescue him, but not before being confronted by Iwan, who Eli manages to wound by chopping part of his foot off with an axe.
After escaping the bunker, they all head to city hall where the Queensland Champions award ceremony is already underway. Eli makes it just in time to see his brother receive his medal and to set up Tytus Broz's downfall. He and August swap out the prosthetic prototype Tytus planned to unveil after receiving his award with Lyle's preserved head.
In the resulting chaos, Iwan shows up and manages to separate Eli from pretty much everyone. He stabs Eli in the stomach, and somehow they end up on the roof in a police standoff with Iwan using Eli's body as a shield. Eli turns the tide by smashing the jar holding his missing finger against Iwan's temple, causing Iwan to drop him and allowing the police to shoot Iwan.
Eli, unsurprisingly, almost dies from his wound. In his pre-death vision, he's in the prison yard with Slim, and Slim helps him escape by climbing over the wall. He ends up on a beach where a woman, who Eli later determines is Caitlyn, calls him back home.
The book ends with Eli and Caitlyn partnering to tell the story of Tytus Broz. They go back to where it all began: Eli's childhood home. Eli shows her the secret room that Lyle built to hide his drug stash. In the room is a red telephone. This telephone plays an important part in the story, despite my not mentioning it until the very end. I couldn't figure out how to explain it. This phone only receives calls, and it only receives calls from August, but not the August of this timeline. These alternate Augusts impart critical knowledge to both Eli and August that helps guide them through life, giving credence to August's belief that he died in the accident with his dad and came back to life.
This red phone was also present in the room where Caitlyn and Eli found the little boy, so she's well aware of what it is and what it does. While Caitlyn and Eli are in the underground room, the phone rings one final time. But this time, Eli doesn't answer at the behest of Caitlyn. Instead, they share their first kiss.
***End Spoilers***
I know I already said it at the beginning of the post, but this book is phenomenal. I almost wish I could read it with my students, but the language alone would disqualify it.
Parts of it are almost unbelievable, but the author has said that it's about 50% true. The main character, Eli, is based on the author himself. August, Eli's older brother, is a mash-up of Dalton's three real-life brothers. Lyle and Frankie, Eli's stepfather and mother, were based on Dalton's real stepfather who was a heroin dealer and mother who did serve time. Robert was based on Dalton's deceased father, and Caitlyn Spies was inspired by his wife. Slim - the Houdini of Boggo Road - was a real criminal who was friends with Dalton's family. (via State Library Queensland)
Slim was the character I was most interested in learning about after I realized that this novel was based in part on a true story. His history was easy enough to verify, and I'm pretty impressed that Dalton stayed true to the facts with this character. I feel like it showed the duality most people have to them. We're not all good or bad.
Arthur "Slim" Halliday's first stint in Boggo Road Gaol was in 1939; he was sentenced to five years on a burglary charge but ended up serving ten before it was all said and done. His first escape happened in 1940 when he scaled the prison wall. It took two weeks to recapture him, and the section of wall became known as Halliday's Leap. He escaped again in 1946, in the exact same way over the exact same stretch of wall, taking two prisoners with him this time. All three were recaptured within a week. He was released in 1949 but was back in 1952, this time on a murder charge. He was released for good in the 1970s and died in 1987. (via Inside Boggo Road)
The other character I was interested in was Alexander Bermudez, the Boggo Road prisoner with whom Eli exchanged letters with throughout a good chunk of the book and who showed up during the fight with Teddy for Eli's mom. He wasn't a major character, but he was pretty important to Eli, and I liked that he didn't forget about this kid who helped him get through his sentence. Yet another character that shows the duality of humans. What I found was that the Rebels motorcycle club was and is real, but there's nothing verifying Alex actually existence, although it's certainly not out of the realm of possibilities.
So final thoughts -- read this book! You get to watch this kid grow up and truly struggle with good and bad. He finds himself in so many impossible situations, things that a 12 year old should never have to worry about, but he is so resilient and honestly pretty funny at times. I love the relationship between Eli and his brother, the innocent and naive way in which he views his mother, his dedication to a cause, and his determination to succeed in life. It's truly a story worth reading.
P.S. There's a Netflix series based off this book. I'm not sure if I'll watch it, but I'm definitely interested.
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