The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco is a book by John Birmingham which is the sequel to his previous book He Died With A Felafel In His Hand - available in both a book version and a comic book edition - but Tasmanian Babes is at this point book form only.With some prior knowledge to the details of Felafel from the Comic Edition, I’m sort of aware of the characters that reappear in this sequel. Some of the faces are entirely new, like Missy the Malaysian party girl, Jordan the moocher who steals all of JB’s household’s stuff, and Stace who’s a photographer in training.Let me tell you, this is a fun read but make no mistake, this is a hard-hitting, brutal book. Unlike Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which the style of JB’s writing is inspired by, there’s some definite hard-looks at what the characters have done with their lives living like this for so long. The book consists of a week in JB’s shared house, peppered with stories and anecdotes shared by other housemates of people JB got the permission of to use parts of their stories in this novel with the names changed.It’s a fun read, at least until you get to the Generation X angst which can be a bit off putting for younger readers who aren’t in the Gen X mindset. This Aussie tale chronicles both Left and Right wing politics down under, the visage of Pauline Hanson on a billboard is characterised in a way that any real characterisation of the woman herself would be slander probably. It documents a very strange time in Australian history, when racism was rife but the Left in their compensation for this were just as bad at forcing their beliefs on people. The descriptions of the chaos that ensues are amazing - no doubt some of the best tone and atmosphere I’ve read in a book in a long time.I’d recommend it. My copy was signed by John Birmingham via my brother’s girlfriend who works in a bookshop JB frequents.
This novel was a strange disappointment. It started out full of promise, with a cast of characters rich with comic potential, but soon descended into very self-satisfied lazy writing and a whole load of uninteresting back story that had me give it up around page 107. Watch out Douglas Coupland, you've got competition!A large group of young people from various backgrounds share a house in Brisbane. When one of the roommates steals the rent money, it's up to the rest of the roommates to figure out where he might be, leading them on an investigation into the previous houseshares he belonged to. Because it's a sequel, the narrator many times asks the reader to remember so-and-so from the previous book and then uses that as the basis for some new character's description. Dialogue is often pointless and unnecessary and characters are barely sketched out and mostly indistinguishable. There's a whole load of telling without much showing, and the dramatic tension seems to have disappeared with the rent money at the start of the story.It's a shame really because I was hoping this novel would give me a little insight into Brisbane (where a good friend of mine has currently moved to) and its slacker culture. I'll just have to hope that one day another Brisbanite (?) writer will satisfy my curiosity.
What do You think about The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1997)?
