Today I wanted to indulge us with some fun, thoughtful, edge of your seat, literary sci-fi. Now that may seem like I’ve just thrown a whole lot of adjectives at the wall to see what sticks (and in a way I have) but stay with me, I think I’m justified…Georgina Young’s debut novel Loner won the Text Prize for Young Adult novel, was commended by the CBCA as a notable book for older readers, and was shortlisted for a Prime Minister’s Literary Award.Now Georgina is back with her new novel Bootstrap and it is all the adjectives I mentioned above and more.Ginsborough’s famous for its chicken and leek pies and not much else. Down the road in Koornang all they’ve got is Al’s Takeaway and Jackson Sweeney is doing his best to sour that reputation.Sweeney’s not languishing in Koornang per se. Languishing sounds way more active than what Sweeney is doing. With nothing but Hooley Dooley’s on a Friday to look forward to (and Sweeney’s pashed most of the available blokes there) life is looking dire.That is until a tall, dark and very out of place bloke named Bootstrap splits into Sweeney’s life saying he’s come to see the night that Sweeney becomes a hero!Now I could tell you that Bootstrap is full of the most outlandish cast of characters you’ve met in a long time…I could tell you that the book has more twists than the highway out of Ginsborough…I could mention that this is a refreshing take on the sci-fi staple of messing with your own timeline…All of that would be true but it still wouldn’t capture the enormous heart that Georgina Young has infused into the most unlikable, lovable rogue that is Sweeney and the strange and beguiling figure of Bootstrap.Sweeney feels trapped in Koornang and that’s the central dramatic tension of the novel. He feels like nothing will ever happen to him and little changes when the entirety of the space time continuum seems to come crashing onto his doorstep.In a lot of ways Sweeney is all of us when we are feeling the FOMO and getting down on our lives. In a much more real way he is a young gay man who is languishing in a town that doesn’t have enough to offer him and is actively trying to such the life out of him.The arrival of his best friend Marnie and the enigmatic Bootstrap are still not enough to shake Sweeney’s stupor. He sees one as an excuse to get drunk and the other as a quick pash when he gets there. Marnie’s on her own journey into the doldrums and can’t quite seem to shake her own tendency to plant her food in her mouth. These are not the heroes we need but then again Bootstrap may not deserve saving…I loved Bootstrap as much for its high octane adventuring as for its parodying small town charm (or was it desperation? Sweeney is really unsure about his nostalgia) In highlighting that regional Australia is a tough place to grow up it also shows us a world where every corner holds a memory. It’s all in stark contrast to the figure of Bootstrap who is a fugitive from his own past.There’s an incredibly clever and thoughtful crop of mind bending speculative and science fiction popping up in Australia lately and I am here for it. Georgina Young’s Bootstrap is so grounded as to defy the notion that it literally opens up a whole new world of timey wimey adventuring for readers…
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