A book ostensibly about sport contains much more, writes Philip Somerville.
THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET
Jock Serong
Text Publishing
By PHILIP SOMERVILLE
I read this book in two distinct innings.
The first was packed with interest, especially for a cricket follower who spent uncountable childhood hours indulging in a rough equivalent of "backyard cricket''.
But this reading was also marked by mounting dread. The Rules of Backyard Cricket opens with the primary character, Darren Keefe, in the boot of a car, beaten up and with a bullet through his knee on his way to his apparent execution.
From there, he rewinds through his often disreputable life, larrikin charms and all.
We learn of his gutsy solo mum and his upbringing in struggle-street Melbourne, where she dedicates herself to her two boys and their cricket ambitions.
The boys' backyard battles are brutal and their progress exhilarating, while soon following different paths. One becomes the wayward fallen sportsman - think George Best or Jesse Ryder and then a whole lot more - while the other is the uptight, upright paragon of sporting virtue, dedication and control in every action.
I could not help but think of the differences between star Australian cricketers, the Waugh twins, although it must be said Darren makes Mark seem like an obedient choirboy and "Wally'' proves to be very different from Steve Waugh.
The writing is sharp and the flawed characters compelling. That awful agony about what was looming, however, was such the book was cast aside for a couple of months. Perhaps, also, like the middle overs of a 50-over cricket match, a little momentum was lost as the disintegration of Darren's career and life is described.
This is, in part, a crime mystery. It is streaked with a black tinge and could be said to be in three parts. The brothers and their upbringing and their climb to fame, then the worst of Darren's woes, and finally the race to the denouement.
It was halfway through Darren's dark times I abandoned play for a while. But when I picked the book up again, I sped through the second innings, each chapter beginning with another brief over or two of the painful struggles of the man in the boot.
Serong bowls with a wry eye. He's savagely scathing of the PR-staged public sporting apology, so much a part of the 2016 sporting world. At the same time, he observes "a fallen sportsman of any hue'' is soon "a sinkhole for righteous indignation''. Although cricket provides the context, and the novel will appeal most to those embedded in cricket's lore, the topical themes could be written around any major sport.
The Rules of Backyard Cricket, nevertheless, is about much more than cricket or sport. It's about Australian society, relationships - particularly between competitive brothers - celebrity, masculinity, loyalty, dementia and humanity.
Jack Serong is a lawyer, feature writer and editor. This is his second novel. The first, Quota, about abalone catches, won the Ned Kelly Award, Australia's crime fiction award.
Phillip Somerville is ODT editorial manager.
