The Drowning by Bryan Brown
(published by Allen & Unwin)
Author interview with Bryan Brown
The Drowning is a compulsive, gritty crime novel with plenty of dry Australian humour. It grabs your attention from the start because it is so easy to read.
It has a large cast of male and female characters. We are privy to their perspectives and insights. At times these are like unfolding snapshots that reveal a lot about their lives, personalities and thoughts.
Told by a storyteller, the plot draws you in and then surprises with its wide-ranging ideas and exploration of important issues woven into a gripping, twisty tale.
Thank you for speaking with Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords about The Drowning, Bryan.
A Monaro car features in the plot of The Drowning. Why a Monaro?
A GTS Monaro is a classic of its time. It oozes power. I see one and it reminds me of how boringly samey cars are today.
The ‘drowning’ of David, a young Aboriginal boy, at the start of the book is the catalyst that propels your plot and makes many events come to a head.
What is it about David that makes us care about him so quickly?
The introduction of David with his curiosity and sense of adventure and skating on the edge of getting into strife from his grandmother, reminds us of how great it is to be young.
I like how strong your female characters are, and the agency and control they show over their lives and circumstances. Who were you cheering hardest for? Why?
Yep I like all my female characters in The Drowning but I have a particular fondness for Anna. Wanting more out of life she allows herself to be conned into a dreadful predicament, part of the sex trade. She trusts and dreams. I don’t want her dreams to be shattered.
Many of your characters surf, and I really like your descriptions of the hinterland setting, “plenty of land along the eastern seaboard of northern New South Wales necking into the many valleys running west of the Pacific Highway and the calm Brian and Nolene’s property “nudged into a hill with forest all round and a river running through” gives them.
What’s your preference – the beach or the bush hinterland?
I really love the beach. Bush is great but at the beach you can see forever. And diving into the ocean over the golden sand of the beach always makes me grin.
It cleanses me.
Adrian, one of your characters, muses about pressures on young people today. Which of these pressures particularly bothers you?
There is always the pressure to succeed when you are young. But you never know what it is you are succeeding at or what success is. These days with everyone’s lives out there on show on social media it must be easy to feel a failure.
Another of your distinctive characters, “the fella” remembers a special painting he saw at the Art Gallery. Is this a real painting? If so, what is it? Why is it significant?
The painting is’ Vive L’Empereur’ by Edouard Detaille. The charge of the 4th Hussars at the battle of Freedland,14 th June 1807.
I love it.
Thanks for answering these questions, Bryan, and all the best with The Drowning.
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