Snag Too Much Lip By Melissa Lucashenko Distributed As Volume

too hard, too depressing and too much vernacular for me to appreciate as I should have, Objectively I think this is promising but for whatever reason at this point in time I am struggling to pick it up each day.
The diagnosis might be a mini reading slump and so it would be best to move onto something else and hopefully return to it later.
Brilliant, fierce, brutal, and funny, Too Much Lip focuses on the lives, loves and struggles of a Goorie family in the wake of a death in the family and the looming threat of 'redevelopment' of a sacred site.


The most vivid portrait of contemporary Indigenous experience I have read to date, Lucashenko weaves land rights struggles, intergenerational trauma, the legacy of the Stolen Generation, institutional racism, sexuality, and so much more into a narrative with so many laters.


But above all, this book is beautifully written, Darkly hilarious and filled with nuanced characters that leap off the page, Too Much Lip is a cracking read, and I wanted more.
I timed reading Too Much Lip over the Invasion Day / Australia Day long weekend, for extra poignancy, I think,

Lucashenko has written a no holds barred account of the lives of the fictional Salter family, With flawed characters and a family on the brink of implosion and an uncomfortable depiction of both Indigenous and nonIndigenous Australians, this book confronts you from the get go.


Crime. Violence. Alcoholism. Child abuse. Intergenerational trauma. The ongoing effects of colonisation, Harsh critique of white Australia's policies and treatment of the land and it's people, Lucashenko doesn't shy away from making the reader face these hard truths, with historical context woven through, In the Afterword she writes that while Too Much Lip is a work of fiction "lest any readers assume this portrayal of Aboriginal lives is exaggerated, I would add that virtually every incidence of violence in these pages has occurred within my extended family at least once.
The very few exceptions are drawn either from the historical record or from Aboriginal oral history",

If that isn't sobering, I don't know what is, I do hope this is widely read, Wow. I finished reading Too Much Lip UQPby Goorie author Melissa Lucashenko, and have spent yesterday and today fiddling around with this review, adding bits here and there, trying to get it right and not feeling very successful.
This is a hard review to write, or rather, it is difficult to express myself in the right way,
This book is good, Very good. It is an unflinching, raw and honest exploration of one modernday fictional Aboriginal family, with all its flaws and problems.
But it is also a book that offers important cultural and historical insights into intergenerational trauma and abuse, It is a book that doesnt waste time asking questions such as why and how, but instead jumps straight in and provides the answers by depicting the effects of history.
Yes, Im talking about colonisation or invasion and massacres, about slavery and stolen land and stolen children, about one group of people attempting to systematically crush the spirit of another.
For while this story is ostensibly about Kerry Salter and her family, on a deeper level it is about so much more.

This book pulls no punches, and the author makes abundantly clear her rage at what has occurred, her absolute abhorrence of the treatment of her ancestors she is of Bundjalung and European heritage.
But just as she sweeps us up in the injustice and futility of our nations past, she takes the sting from the tail with small moments of honour and faith, small acts of love and sacrifice.
Just as she immerses us in the most terrible incidents of violence, she lifts us up with the strength of family ties, with the clarity of connection and belonging.
And she does this with such humour, such dark and funny wit, such outrageous and cinematic scenarios, that we cannot help but laugh out loud even while were cringing with embarrassment, even while the inevitable despondency descends.
This book has all the feelings,
The Salter family has suffered and is suffering, but its people are not downtrodden or lost or vanquished, They are survivors. They are tough and steely, They present their armour to the world, but underneath we catch glimpses of their soft and vulnerable underbellies, This is a book that confronts the reader with graphic and uncomfortable situations and invites us right through the door to experience them.
Reading through these pages is to just for a short time inhabit their world, This is the best kind of example of how fiction breeds empathy, And no matter how far you feel you are from the Salter family, I can guarantee that by the end of this book, you will understand something you didnt before, and appreciate the pain and struggle of others in a new way.

The book opens with a violent prologue set in, and this one incident gives us some small insight into the events that forge the shape of what is to come.
Seventy years later, the revenge and hurt and humiliation have festered, and imprinted a dark legacy for future generations,
In Too Much Lip we are introduced to a cast of memorable characters and a zany and improbable storyline, all the more remarkable because it is based on truths.
This modernday adventure part heist, part romance, part family saga, part protest is set against the blood and violence of history and the cruel realities of the present day.
The protagonist, Kerry Salter, is angry, tough, generous, reckless and, like all the characters in this book, at times intensely dislikeable and at other times wholly sympathetic and compelling.
Shes on the run on a stolen Harley, with a backpack full of whoknowswhat but its sure to be trouble, after leaving her girlfriend locked up in a Brisbane prison.
She hasnt seen her family for over a year, and when she returns because her grandfather is dying, its to the full catastrophe and chaos of dysfunctional family life, including the absence of her sister Donna who disappearedyears earlier.
Determined to stay onlyhours, Kerrys plans are derailed when she meets a handsome dugai inclined to hold fast to her, despite her best intentions to stay single.
Her older brother Ken is bitter and resentful and throws his weight around through violent rages, Along with the rest of her family her younger brother Black Superman, her mum Pretty Mary, and a whole mob of uncles, aunties and cousins they band together to try and save their spiritual home, Granny Avas Island, from the imminent development of a prison on its peaceful river banks.
As this large and chaotic group of characters come together and drift apart, as they yarn and celebrate and commiserate and mourn, they are surrounded by the ghosts of their Elders and the memories of their ancestors, and driven by the deep need to make peace with their past while scrabbling to make sense of their present.

Within the first few pages of this book, the characters reach out and grab you by the throat and refuse to let go.
Drawn into Kerrys world, you begin to recognise her family and friends, The language of Too Much Lip is astonishing the dialogue is authentic and the descriptions lush, Lucashenko has impressively woven Aboriginal words so seamlessly into the narrative that by the time I got to the final pages, I understood the meaning of words I had never heard of prior to reading this book.
Shes not heavyhanded with it though she doesnt hit you over the head with it, The words are just there, used naturally and easily,
The animals have agency in this book the crows, the shark but this is done with the lightest touch, and with such a sense of humour and wit that it not only seems entirely probable that they have spoken and that we have understood them, but it seems amazing that until now we have noticed only their silence.

Parts of this book are hard to read the violence, the abuse, the alcoholism and addiction, the crime, Some of the revelations towards the end are difficult to accept, they come upon us suddenly and without warning, and throw us off balance as we struggle to come to terms with their meanings the effects of history, the long arm of suffering, the impossibility of fighting against a lifetime of wrongs, and not only one lifetime, but generations of wrongs suffered by generations of predecessors.
It is a difficult thing, to walk in the shoes of another, to inhabit their skin and feel their pain, and Im not sure we as individuals can ever really do it effectively.
But certainly in fiction, we can journey with others, we can take advantage of the writers unique perspective, and experience

a little of what it must be like.
We can empathise. We can try to understand,
And thats one thing this book offers the opportunity to understand,
Aboriginal culture, history and current problematic issues are not viewed through rosetinted glasses but are presented with all their flaws and cracks nevertheless because we are simultaneously reminded of context and insight, we understand better how these characters came to be in this place, and how these situations have developed.
We see, perhaps, how a damaged foundation can threaten the stability of what is built upon it how a legacy of damage can undermine a family or a society how a series of wrongs can create layers of guilt and anger and revenge.

Like the authors previous work, this tale emphasises the connection between First Nation Peoples and their country, and highlights their innate sense of belonging, their unbreakable links with the land.
However I think that Too Much Lip is even more accessible and engaging than Lucashenkos previous awardwinning book, Mullumbimby, Despite the Salter family being far removed from my own experience, I felt fully immersed in their lives, The sharp language and the cutting characterisations gave me fully realised and welldrawn characters, and enabled me to feel a sense of empathy with their struggles, even though I dont share their intergenerational pain.
I can only imagine what it would be like for an Indigenous person to read this book to see their own story so raw and open.
Lucashenko touches on issues that a white person wouldnt dare she frays nerves and opens wounds that an outsider could never touch.
She does this bravely and with vigour, She lays it all out for us to see, and then dares us to approach, Look, she seems to say, Look at us, Look at where we are and what we have become, Look at what weve done, Look.
As a nonindigenous reader, I cant pretend to understand the pain that has birthed this book, but what I can do is open my ears and listen.
Look and listen. And try to learn something, "They say every child grows up in a different version of the same family, " This statement by Kerry Salter, the protagonist of Melissa Lucashenko's latest novel, is one among several 'truths' good fiction delivers.
And this is truth telling as fiction at its best, Tough, grim, darkly funny, this novel ought to become required reading in university English courses, The writer is a contemporary Bundjalung woman telling the story of colonialism and its aftermath through the lives of Aboriginal men, women and children, in their own words and voices.
We need more stories like this one, more voices like these, so we can begin the task of listening deeply and reconciling with our hearts.
Brilliant. A dark and funny new novel from the multiawardwinning author of Mullumbimby, Too much lip, her old problem from way back, And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions, The avalanche of bullshit in the world would drown her if she let it the least she could do was raise her voice in anger.
Wisecracking Kerry Salter has spent a lifetime avoiding two things her hometown and prison, But now her Pop is dying and she's an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley.
Kerry plans to spend twentyfour hours, tops, over the border, She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of grabbing on to people, Old family wounds open as the Salters fight to stop the development of their beloved river, And the unexpected arrival on the scene of a goodlooking dugai fella intent on loving her up only adds more trouble but then trouble is Kerry's middle name.
Gritty and darkly hilarious, Too Much Lip offers redemption and forgiveness where none seems possible, Too much lip, her old problem from way back, And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions,

Kerry Salter heads home, She cannot avoid it now: her Pop is dying, She heads home on a shiny new HarleyDavidson Softail, Her first conversation is with three crows: one bites a dead snake on the head, and its fangs wedge the birds beak shut.
Kerry feels certain the crow was going to spend several hideous days before starvation claimed it, But he hadnt ridden three hours to worry about a doomed waark,

That doomed crow is a sign of what is coming, Kerry gets back to Durrongo and heads back into a family caught up in a cycle of family dysfunction, carrying its history of injustice.
Shes only planning on staying for twentyfour hours, but things dont go at all according to plan,

This story is in your face confronting, Problems from the past are part of the story as is a current threat, Jim Buckley, the mayor of Durrongo, wants to build a prison on the Salters ancestral land, Theres important family history associated with the land, and Kerrys older brother Kenny is keen to sort out Jim Buckley.
Kerrys younger brother, Black Superman, who has made a life for himself in Sydney, cant escape either, And there are old wounds to be treated as well as secrets to be uncovered and managed,

I do not want to write more about the story because much of the power of it is in the way Melissa Lucashenko tells it.
These pages are peopled with complex humans: people trying to do the best they can with limited resources in circumstances that are often hostile.
Difficult issues are addressed, with insight and compassion and humour,

I finished this novel feeling uncomfortable with many of the issues raised but also feeling that I had a better understanding of at least some.


You can go as far as you like, but the past always comes along for the ride,

Jennifer CameronSmith

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