BR: Gravity (Scot Gardner)

Book Link: Gravity

Adam Prince is 18 years old, suffocated by small town life and desperate to escape the responsibilities placed upon he and his father to care for Simon, his brother and an intellectual vegetable since an accident claimed the older boy’s best friend and almost his life. Adam’s mother, overwhelmed by Simon’s disabilities and in receipt of minimal (at best) assistance from her husband and Adam, throws in her apron and heads for the city.

The story opens with Adam in the small town’s local pub, getting tanked, then stumbling outside to contemplate his life as he throws up in the street. Bullant, his best friend and confidante tries (in a bloke-like, ineffectual way) to help, but Adam isn’t ready to talk, to share his feelings, to untangle the confusion that’s twisting him up inside.

He declines Bullant’s help, gets into his ute and drives out of town, almost crashing the vehicle once then waking after having crashed it for real. He’s uninjured, without a car and in trouble with the police. Unable to deal with the fallout and needing some time to think, he takes off to Melbourne in search of his mother, intent on bringing her home.

Despite the dark start to this story, recollections of brutish injustices suffered at the hands of his brother and a series of experiences that should have elated him yet left him feeling empty, once Adam hits the city his luck changes. He lands a job, makes friends, attracts the eye of a woman who treats him like an untouchable sex-toy. He doesn’t much complain.

Interactions with his mother foster a growing sense of appreciation and empathy, interspersed with bouts of volatile misunderstanding.

Mum’s lips disappeared into her mouth. She strode across the flat and exploded. ‘I sat out there for three hours. Three hours! I couldn’t even sit in my car. You had those keys, too. Ignorant, selfish, inconsiderate child.’

She was shaking. Her words tapered to a spitting whisper and I thought she was going to hit me. I knew if she hit me, it would be over. The sorry in me had gone. Now I was buoyed by my own anger. If she hit me, I’d hit her back. Force ten. I’d break her and there’d be no going back from that. She’d go down.

Over the space of a week, Adam finds himself, his truth, his calling and his true love (though she was there the whole time). The story is nicely paced, beautifully written, illustrative of country life and layered with honest introspection and revelations. Adam is a smart kid, loyal, honest, he’s been raised well and has a strong instinct and self-motivation to act when he sees something has to be done. He is a son any parent would be proud of. I adored him, felt for him, had my throat tighten when he was struggling to find solid ground, and my heart swell when he demonstrated his instinctive altruism.

This is a coming of age story, a feel-good, hopeful tale tinged with sadness and loss, with regret and the reality that the past cannot be changed, no matter how much we wish it could. Despite this being a young-adult novel and myself somewhat older than young adult, I fell in love with this story, with Adam, with his journey to find himself. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys strongly written character drama, enriched prose and a young protagonist who is as inspiring as he is flawed.

My only criticism is the degree of personal transformation over such a short time period, and the convenience of some of the events and friendships that enabled it. However, stranger things have happened so my rating drops only half a star.

Rating: ****1/2 out of five