> Audiobook
> Book Club
...Ned Kelly, story told as a memoir written by Ned Kelly for his own children
...father a convict, deported from England to Australia.....crossdresser?...beat the kids
> "one never knows from where happiness may come."....Ned upon the birth of his sister, Grace....he helped deliver her and loved her immediately
> first bath after saving Shelton boy.....treated royally.....freed his father from jail.......ned age 12
> Optimistic move to mother's family's district....lived in old hotel...dreams of a farm
> Uncle James.....father's brother...."askew"...burned house, hung for it...family split up until she got land
> Hard work...age 13
> change in pnerspective....when riding out with Harry Powers
> mother just sent him off with Harry Powers so she could marry the other guy? How does one survive that kind of betrayal?
> Word....adjectival
>LibraryThing Review......Audiobook....Book Club book.....The initial third of this book had me totally engaged. Ned Kelly's childhood was incredible, as was the family he was born into. I also learned about the status of the Irish in Australia in the 1800s, only above the aborigines in the social structure of the times. The second third of the book became just plain annoying with trauma after trauma. Is it really possible to be bored in the face of such a tragic tale, you ask? Yes, it is. While. Listening to the audio version with a friend while on vacation, we repeatedly looked at one another and exclaimed," Oh....come ON!"
The final third was an improvement over the middle. Enough said. Wait...one more thing....if I hear the word "adjectival" one more time I will have to screech!
Footnote: At book club Judy mentioned the long history of the Irish "Molly McGuires"...irish-american men dressing as women and protesting exploitative conditions.....wikipedia says they started in coal mining areas and may have been formed as early as the American Civil War
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