Page turner: 5/10
Heart tugger: 6/10
Thought provoker: 6/10
Overall: 3 stars

The trouble with the True History of the Kelly Gang was that I got bored. I didn’t mean to get bored, but I did. I still Liked it, but I just felt like I sort-of-got-the-point-and-you-know-how-it-ends-anyway so, why bother? Perhaps I would have been more gripped if I knew the core elements of his real life in advance (I didn’t) and thus wasn’t spending so much energy trying to keep track of the characters comings-and-goings. There are a lot of them. But even then, I’m not sure.

As I have since discovered in my historical research – Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang were Australian outlaws primarily active in the 1870s outback. The book is about Ned, his childhood, and (surprisingly briefly) his gang and its exploits as an adult.  The book actually really picks back up in the ending chapter where accounts of his gang’s daring dos really get told.

Ned Kelly in 1880

It’s a clever idea, and the structure of the book is quite nice. As a reader, chapters are bunched into manuscripts, that are clearly Ned’s own scribblings of his life on whatever paper he has to hand. In the end, it becomes clear how these documents have been gathered, grouped, and published for the sake of posterity. Neat. I liked it.

Peter Carey does a wonderful job of making Ned a consistent, likeable, pleasant Outback murderer/Robin Hood type character. I liked Ned.

And yet, somehow, after whizzing through the first half of the book or so, I really did get bored. I felt I ‘got’ Ned – what made him tick – and somehow that early revelation made me much less interested in following him and what happened next. The ‘traps’ (police) are all corrupt. You want your own land. You are oppressed. Pride and honor are of the utmost importance to you. As are horses. Check check check check check. Now get on to your exciting burglaries, get-aways, tell us about your suits of armour! Explain to me more about your ending! Tell me what I always wanted to know!

There is very much a good story in the ‘untold truths’ of the Kelly Gang as clearly the man, myth, legend has a great deal going for it. And I did like this attempt. I suppose the trouble is that I keep having to remind myself of that. It was something a bit different, and certainly worthwhile.

Maybe some Aussies can open my eyes, more, to questions that WERE answered in this book that had I been less ignorant of the principle stories of the Kelly Gang before I started I would have found more exciting and compelling?