True History of the Kelly Gang

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Peter Carey

Literature

Jul 31, 2018

The son of an Irish convict father, Ned Kelly stole horses as a child, murdered policemen, robbed banks, and took up as a “bushranger”—the Australian term for runaway convicts who evaded British authorities in the open continent. His notoriety grew until Kelly became a Robin Hood–like symbol of Irish-Australian opposition to the young country’s Anglo elite. Today he’s seen as an icon of the Australian psyche—untamed, independent, and a little crazy. A tour de force of authorial invention and tonal control, Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang tells the outlaw’s story in his own voice, with the protagonist frantically scribbling down his story as he flees the police. Working from a long letter Kelly wrote in 1879, Carey invents an entire vocabulary and syntax of Kelly English: muscular, vernacular, and totally profane. Although the unforgettable voice of Kelly, which makes a century-old outlaw’s tale breathtakingly immediate, may be the most memorable achievement of True History of the Kelly Gang, this book is also a rock ’em, sock ’em true crime tale of page-turning intensity.

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