{"id":153524,"date":"2021-10-12T09:59:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T22:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=153524"},"modified":"2021-10-12T10:07:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T23:07:27","slug":"plum-and-wild-abandon-reckoning-with-fragile-masculinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/10\/12\/plum-and-wild-abandon-reckoning-with-fragile-masculinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Plum and Wild Abandon: Reckoning with fragile masculinity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Plum<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the last few weeks, two new contemporary novels I\u2019ve read have worked in tandem to have a peculiar effect on me. These books have gone beyond the hallmarks of the contemporary reading experience, one of pathos and the delivery of wit and clarity. They\u2019ve also made me wiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be enthralling to recognise aspects of the people around you in the characters of novels. When you see yourself in a novel in some way, it can be disturbing \u2014 for me, at least. On the surface, I don\u2019t particularly resemble Brendan Cowell\u2019s 48-year-old ex rugby star or Emily Bitto\u2019s 20-something millennial Kerouac wannabe. As you can imagine, they don\u2019t resemble one another either. Reading their stories, however, was a revelation for me. I\u2019ll go into them a bit and try to explain how.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"9781760879136\"Wild Abandon<\/a><\/strong><\/em> follows the reckless wanderings of Will, an unremarkable 20-something who throws himself at the expanse of North America, fleeing rejection in Melbourne and the parochial trappings of his regional hometown. Will is having an identity crisis \u2014 what some might deem a quarter-life crisis (although it happens to men of all ages and isn\u2019t always a short-term phenomenon). He feels compelled to reach out and grab experience by the testes, as that\u2019s what men of character supposedly do and it would be a moral failing for him to live a life that is insignificant in the eyes of his peers.<\/p>\n\n\n

The heady adventure begins in New York City where Will is taken into the charge of one his childhood bullies who is now a high-end chef with a lowkey drug problem and strained relationship with a conceptual artist. This placement pushes Will headfirst into the rarefied, commodified and frequently undignified worlds of fine food and art. Consumption is unquestioned, inequality is rushing toward the infinite, and Will doesn\u2019t for a moment question his place in it all. But my goodness does he overthink how he might be perceived by others both near and far as he takes his maiden flight into the skyscraper jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His hunger for a yarn-worthy experience later finds him in small town Ohio in the company of Wayne, a troubled veteran who has become the sole caretaker of an inordinate number of \u2018exotics\u2019 \u2014 creatures ranging from bears and wolves to baby monkeys and heck of a lot of tigers. The mere existence of this man-eater menagerie is a moral travesty, but through Will\u2019s eager eyes the reader begins to empathise with Wayne and the long-felt hurt and desperation for acceptance that has led him down this path.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"9781460760505\"<\/a>Will and Wayne, eager to be loved but afraid to be made vulnerable, are ultimately \u2014 dangerously \u2014 alike. They are similar also to the indomitable Peter \u201cThe Plum\u201d Lum, the ex NRL star with acquired epilepsy who is haunted by dead American poets in Brendan Cowell\u2019s Plum<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Peter lived his career on the field to the bitter end, and when he retired he shrugged off the limelight and commentary circuit to trade time between towing jets at Botany and sinking schooners and punching darts with a gaggle of mates down at his local. He hides his illness from his loved ones and quickly gets into a world of trouble. A journey through dark places with some unlikely characters, living and dead, puts Peter on the path to being vulnerable and making peace with his anxieties.<\/p>\n\n\n

People who know me understand that I err on the softer side of gentle giant \u2014 I take pains not to fit the Anglo-Australian male stereotype. Still, I\u2019m every bit as closed off and anxious as the men you\u2019ll meet at the outset of these novels and I\u2019m legitimately scared of what that\u2019ll mean for the years I have to come. Thanks to the miracle of contemporary Australian fiction, though, in particular these two remarkable new books, I have a little bit of wisdom to help me navigate the coming storm. And I didn\u2019t even have to engage in wild animal trafficking or have Sylvia Plath move into my house to get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Wild Abandon<\/a><\/em> by Emily Bitto (Allen & Unwin) and Plum<\/a><\/em> by Brendan Cowell (HarperCollins Australia) are both out now. Signed copies are available while stocks last.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Booktoberfest<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How two seemingly different new novels have helped me find peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":153537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[486,715,723,13682,1050,1814,9192,7163,12759,4484,13533],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/PlumWildAbandon-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153524"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153552,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153524\/revisions\/153552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}