Today I’ve brought you all a book that I flew through. I don't know which cliche you want to invoke; page turner, unputdownable, I found myself thinking of them all as I devoured George Haddad’s Losing Face.George Haddad is an award winning writer from Western Sydney. He won the Viva la Novella for his story Populate or Perish and is a doctoral candidate at the Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University.Losing Face is told between the narrative perspectives of Joey and his Tayta Elaine.Elaine came to Australia as a young wife from her village in Lebanon. Through years of work and raising a family she has confronted the expectations and disdain her adoptive country has heaped on her. Now with her husband gone she lives for her grandsons, although she is not quite sure what Joey is doing with his life.Joey’s nineteen; young enough to feel bulletproof but far enough away from school to wonder if he should be doing more. His friends aren’t everything to him, his job is even less than that but Joey feels like he has more to offer.As Joey drifts from music festivals to cafes and barbershops he wonders whether his life should be more. In doing nothing he is setting himself on a path that finds him in a car full of young men like himself. Men who want more from the world, and in one horrific chain of events try to take it.Losing Face performs the incredible narrative feat of vividly realizing an ensemble cast of characters and then challenging the reader to explore their morality.While I’m not going to give away the pivotal moment that sends Joey and the novel hurtling towards their conclusion, it’s fair to say that Losing Face takes on the social question of men’s power and privilege and how that is weaponized against women.Through the juxtaposed narratives of Joey and Elaine we see the toll of displacement from home and family and the legacy it leaves on families. Where Elaine learned how to be a Lebanese woman in the often racist world she found herself living in, Joey finds himself adrift. Is he the young Leb that people stare at on the streets of Greenacre or can he be the white, privileged Aussie that his father’s background might offer him.In avoiding these choices Joey allows himself to be buffeted by the will of others in his life. It’s a non-decision that proves fateful.Losing Face is powerful because it makes you care for Joey even as it shows you why you could hate him. It challenges the reader with injustice and makes us culpable for rooting for a protagonist who is implicated.Losing Face is the new novel from George Haddad and it’s out now through UQP
George will be joining me on the show this Saturday morning and is also appearing as part of Sydney Writers Festival running the 16th - 22nd May.
Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew PopleWant more great conversations with Australian authors?Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.
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