This was the case in Birch’s previous novel,The White Girl,a book that deals with the experience of Indigenous people in the fifties and sixties,a time when children were routinely stolen. Birch often sees the world through the eyes of a young protagonist. InThe White Girl, we travelled with Sissy,who is about to turn 13,and is being brought up in a regional community by her grandmother,Odette Brown. Sissy must learn to negotiate a hostile world.
Birch’s new book,Women&Children,is similarly compassionate. The central characters are humanly warm. The issue that gnaws at the text is domestic violence,a theme to which Birch has returned over and over since his first book,Shadowboxing. It is front and centre,for example,in the lead story of his fine collection,Dark as Last Night,told in the voice of a nine-year-old boy.
Women&Children is set in a similar time and place as Shadowboxing,inner Melbourne,and deals with some of the same issues. This time,we see through the eyes of Joe Cluny,aged 11. Like Sissy inThe White Girl,Joe has learnt to be wary of nuns and the church. Joe’s grandfather,Charlie,doesn’t have much time for religion.
The question of God,however,is an open one for Charlie as he copes with the death of his wife,Ada. He has been a streetsweeper for much of his working life. His offsider in running a scrap yard,Ranji Khan,has a place in his life for prayer. Ranji is a kindly,wise figure who tells Joe to worry less about Hell and more about Heaven.
Joe’s father is absent. He has an older sister,Ruby,who behaves better at school than he does and a staunch mother,Marion,who does the best job possible in tough circumstances. Joe has a lot of love in his life,if not material security. His world starts to unravel when Marion’s sister,Aunt Oona,turns up at their place having been assaulted by her partner but denying there is any real problem. Oona is six years younger than Marion who feels protective towards her.
Oona was 15 when her mother died,16 when she left school to work in a shop selling beauty products and 18 when she got together with a much older man,the smooth-talking Ray Lomax. He wore fine suits and had a taste for luxury. He was trouble from the start.