Description
Eli Bell's life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli's life is Slim--a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes--who watches over Eli and August, his silent genius of an older brother. Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a seedy suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli's path--most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane's legendary drug dealer. But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain doom--all before starting high school. A story of brotherhood, true love, family, and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe is the tale of an adolescent boy on the cusp of discovering the man he will be. Powerful and kinetic, Trent Dalton's debut is sure to be one of the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novels you will experience.… (more)
Genres
Collection
Publication
Harper Perennial (2020), Edition: Reprint, 464 pages
Pages
464
Media reviews
Boy Swallows Universe is a first novel rich in adventure, description and plot.
Mark Twain famously said that truth is stranger than fiction, and the parts of Boy Swallows Universe that draw on Trent Dalton’s actual boyhood are as intriguing as the fictional plot involving drug czars, prison
Show More
break-ins and prescient siblings.
The novel is seen through the 13-year-old eyes of Dalton’s alter ego, Eli Bell, as he navigates his way through Brisbane’s squalid 1980s housing commission suburbs, peopled by hardened criminals, junkies, Vietnamese gangs, and drug lords masquerading as bastions of society.
The earth-bound, kitchen-sink wretchedness, tinged with hope and love, is a solid, confident foundation for the novel. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member PhilipJHunt
This one rushed to the top of the charts here in Australia, and I bought it. Wasn't money well spent, at least for me. Doubtless, lots of people enjoyed it but I was rather disappointed. Dalton is certainly a competent writer but sometimes his descriptive passages have an enervating whiff of
However, the book is longer than it needs to be (almost 500 pages) and the climax tamer than I hoped. Not to mention, it begins to read like a chase from a screenplay. In a cinema near you soon.
Show More
thesaurus about them. The plot is creative enough, and there's enough weirdness about the characters to engage the reader. I loved the evocation of Brisbane where I spent a decade and a half of my teens and young adult life. Always fun to read something set in familiar places.However, the book is longer than it needs to be (almost 500 pages) and the climax tamer than I hoped. Not to mention, it begins to read like a chase from a screenplay. In a cinema near you soon.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Mercef
Started twice. Gave up at 145 pages (one fifth of the book) the second time. Something about the writing style really irritated me and reading this felt like such a chore. I just don’t get all the hype. At least I have enjoyed reading the other 1 star reviews. I feel better now.
LibraryThing member AngelaJMaher
This is a beautifully written book, which was essential for this to be an enjoyable read. Why? It's big. It feels like it's bigger than it needs to be. Even though there's always plenty happening, the core plot progresses slowly. It does snowball gradually, but there are a lot of digressions. It
I did enjoy this. I do think, however, that you need to be Australian to really get a lot of the content. It's always good to get an authentic Australian story, but overseas readers won't understand a lot of references.
Show More
all adds up to the overall story but if the writing hadn't been so good, it would have been excessive. I did enjoy this. I do think, however, that you need to be Australian to really get a lot of the content. It's always good to get an authentic Australian story, but overseas readers won't understand a lot of references.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mbmackay
Wonderful book - partly a page-turning thriller, partly a slightly mystical family memoir, and partly a boy-does-good-from-bad-background tale.
I was spellbound from the first chapter, and read the book in two days, wishing there was more to come.
I was spellbound from the first chapter, and read the book in two days, wishing there was more to come.
LibraryThing member Edwinrelf
Slick and interesting - if a bit creepy
LibraryThing member lesleynicol
A little bit hard to follow at first, but perseverance paid and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Delightful characters of the two boys and their parents and even the "criminals " they met along the way.
LibraryThing member devilish2
Very well written, really evokes the Australia of the era (early '80s). But I found its really hard to get into, worth it once I did, just a bit of a slog.
LibraryThing member alexrichman
An enjoyable romp that will make for a great TV series. Not sure it will stick with me for long but was good while it lasted. A decent summer read.
LibraryThing member MandaTheStrange
Honestly, I struggled with this book, at times it almost defeated me and I just wanted to put it down and never pick it back up again but I persevered as many people have said it's a slow burner. Sadly finally reaching the conclusion of the book last night (due to not being able to sleep because of
The biggest letdown for me was the repetitiveness, I really need a break from 'bitumen, tomato sauce, tiptop bread, Devon, Dunlop KT-26, Margarine' and the repetitive phrases of 'Boy Swallows Universe, Your end is a dead blue wren, Caitlin Spies...'
I felt that the Australian imagery was very forced and sometimes unnecessary, you don't need to name every single 90's Australian food-brand to give the reader a nostalgia hit. I think the book could have been edited a little better too.
I've never read a book that's 60% autobiographical with elements of magical realism and I do take my hat off to the author for that but sadly this just wasn't for me.
Show More
the horrible heatwave) this book just wasn't for me, and that's okay.The biggest letdown for me was the repetitiveness, I really need a break from 'bitumen, tomato sauce, tiptop bread, Devon, Dunlop KT-26, Margarine' and the repetitive phrases of 'Boy Swallows Universe, Your end is a dead blue wren, Caitlin Spies...'
I felt that the Australian imagery was very forced and sometimes unnecessary, you don't need to name every single 90's Australian food-brand to give the reader a nostalgia hit. I think the book could have been edited a little better too.
I've never read a book that's 60% autobiographical with elements of magical realism and I do take my hat off to the author for that but sadly this just wasn't for me.
Show Less
LibraryThing member breic
This is a very engrossing story, once you get halfway in. Suddenly millions of things start happening, all at once, tying every loose thread together. A bit over the top. I didn't really like it, though. The writing style was very grating. It isn't bad writing, it feels right for the character, but
Show More
too harsh for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Steven1958
A different type of story. I enjoyed the stories and the characters. The story is told by Eli from the ages of 13 to 19. Like many teenagers, this book heads off into many tangents but always returning to the main story. The tangents, many and oh so varied, make the overall book a pleasure to read,
Show More
while at the same time they take the reader to places you weren't expecting. Show Less
LibraryThing member Steven1958
A different type of story. I enjoyed the stories and the characters. The story is told by Eli from the ages of 13 to 19. Like many teenagers, this book heads off into many tangents but always returning to the main story. The tangents, many and oh so varied, make the overall book a pleasure to read,
Show More
while at the same time they take the reader to places you weren't expecting. Show Less
LibraryThing member zmagic69
What a dogs breakfast this book is. Fictional story takes place around 1983 to start, jumps forward years. Goes backwards, might be a thriller/mystery or it could be a coming of age story, or maybe it’s everything I learned in creative writing class but have not been able to use because I’m a
In any event this book goes nowhere, is not interesting and goes on forever.
If the author wasn’t already a journalist of some renown this book would never have seen the light of day.
Show More
journalist.In any event this book goes nowhere, is not interesting and goes on forever.
If the author wasn’t already a journalist of some renown this book would never have seen the light of day.
Show Less
LibraryThing member robfwalter
This is an entertaining story which I found rather frustrating. To me it just reeks of too much time spent in creative writing classes and not enough time spent reading or editing.
The good? A cast of mostly well-drawn and sympathetic characters and a rollicking plot that carries the reader along
The bad? Clunky, careless writing and a lack of profundity. I think the message of this book is "do your time before it does you." This is exactly the sort of thing that people say that sounds profound until you think about it a bit further and realise it doesn't mean much at all. Being generous, I think it means it's worth enduring the hard parts of life in order to get to the good bits - "it gets better", "everybody hurts", "if you're going through hell, keep going." I guess this is fair enough, but the book doesn't really model how to go about this. If the point is the value of enduring, why do the characters fail so comprehensively to model it? The only character who takes the challenge seriously is Slim, and he doesn't rise much above this advice from the Simpsons: Principle Skinner: Oh, licking envelopes can be fun! All you have to do is make a game of it.
Bart: What kind of game?
Principle Skinner: Well, for example, you could see how many you could lick in an hour, then try to break that record.
Bart: Sounds like a pretty crappy game to me.
Principle Skinner: Yes, well... Get started.
The writing has that annoying technique that must be taught in every Australian creative writing class of withholding information to create "tension". Chapter 2 starts like this "This room of true love. This room of blood. Sky-blue fibro walls. Off-colour paint patches where Lyle has puttied up holes. A made-up queen bed...." I think I'm supposed to be intrigued by these fragments - what is he talking about, where is this room? Instead I am always just annoyed - why doesn't he use sentences, why doesn't he just say what's going on? I think it stems from a lack of faith in his story - the author is trying to jazz things up to hide the plot flaws with fancy writing. He's basically apologising for daring to think he can write fiction and for taking up so much of the reader's time. This is especially annoying in this case because the story doesn't need any of that nonsense, just as it doesn't need the tired magical realist elements which could all be snipped without any negative impact on the plot.
And then there's the loose prose. He’d thumb the peaks and valleys of his knuckles and they would take him there, to the hills of the Gold Coast hinterland, take him all the way to Springbrook Falls, and the cold steel prison bed frame of cell D9 would become a water-worn limestone rock... Yeah, but there's no limestone at Springbrook. I'm not a geologist, maybe there is a bit of limestone up there, but the whole point of the Scenic Rim is that it's volcanic - the basalt is what makes it special. If you don't know about rocks, either research them or don't mention them. I don't think that's being pedantic - these things take me out of the story, distract me from what's going on, rather than filling in the detail. These little missteps and self-conscious flourishes happened just often enough to stop me from fully immersing myself in the story. The author is always there, either in his errors or his excesses.
All of those little mistakes are a shame, because this is a lovely, fun book. It's a good holiday read, but it could be that much better if a little more care had been taken and some more brutal advice had been given by those who read it early on.
PS: Just remembered that the dialogue isn't great. Sometimes it's pure exposition, at other times it's supposed to be real but is instead is stilted.
The good? A cast of mostly well-drawn and sympathetic characters and a rollicking plot that carries the reader along
Show More
with twists, turns and coincidences that really connect with the point of the book.The bad? Clunky, careless writing and a lack of profundity. I think the message of this book is "do your time before it does you." This is exactly the sort of thing that people say that sounds profound until you think about it a bit further and realise it doesn't mean much at all. Being generous, I think it means it's worth enduring the hard parts of life in order to get to the good bits - "it gets better", "everybody hurts", "if you're going through hell, keep going." I guess this is fair enough, but the book doesn't really model how to go about this. If the point is the value of enduring, why do the characters fail so comprehensively to model it? The only character who takes the challenge seriously is Slim, and he doesn't rise much above this advice from the Simpsons: Principle Skinner: Oh, licking envelopes can be fun! All you have to do is make a game of it.
Bart: What kind of game?
Principle Skinner: Well, for example, you could see how many you could lick in an hour, then try to break that record.
Bart: Sounds like a pretty crappy game to me.
Principle Skinner: Yes, well... Get started.
The writing has that annoying technique that must be taught in every Australian creative writing class of withholding information to create "tension". Chapter 2 starts like this "This room of true love. This room of blood. Sky-blue fibro walls. Off-colour paint patches where Lyle has puttied up holes. A made-up queen bed...." I think I'm supposed to be intrigued by these fragments - what is he talking about, where is this room? Instead I am always just annoyed - why doesn't he use sentences, why doesn't he just say what's going on? I think it stems from a lack of faith in his story - the author is trying to jazz things up to hide the plot flaws with fancy writing. He's basically apologising for daring to think he can write fiction and for taking up so much of the reader's time. This is especially annoying in this case because the story doesn't need any of that nonsense, just as it doesn't need the tired magical realist elements which could all be snipped without any negative impact on the plot.
And then there's the loose prose. He’d thumb the peaks and valleys of his knuckles and they would take him there, to the hills of the Gold Coast hinterland, take him all the way to Springbrook Falls, and the cold steel prison bed frame of cell D9 would become a water-worn limestone rock... Yeah, but there's no limestone at Springbrook. I'm not a geologist, maybe there is a bit of limestone up there, but the whole point of the Scenic Rim is that it's volcanic - the basalt is what makes it special. If you don't know about rocks, either research them or don't mention them. I don't think that's being pedantic - these things take me out of the story, distract me from what's going on, rather than filling in the detail. These little missteps and self-conscious flourishes happened just often enough to stop me from fully immersing myself in the story. The author is always there, either in his errors or his excesses.
All of those little mistakes are a shame, because this is a lovely, fun book. It's a good holiday read, but it could be that much better if a little more care had been taken and some more brutal advice had been given by those who read it early on.
PS: Just remembered that the dialogue isn't great. Sometimes it's pure exposition, at other times it's supposed to be real but is instead is stilted.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Craftybilda
Great book, thoroughly good read, written when I lived in Brisbane so can relate to it, funny, amusing, entertaining
LibraryThing member vdt_melbourne
ok, very Australia
LibraryThing member secondhandrose
I wish I could give this more stars! The best novel I have read in years.
LibraryThing member samnreader
This is told in that kind of narrative style where the earnest optimism of the protagonist is easy to be swept up in, much like how I felt about The Heart's Invisible Furies.
It's difficult to describe how this never distilled someone's humanity down to their worst mistakes or actions-big or
The writing is full of imagery and gorgeous. It walks a line carefully between magic and reality. It never gets indulgent, and it never bores.
Quite simply: brilliant. I loved it. Thanks to Jultri for the recommendation.
It's difficult to describe how this never distilled someone's humanity down to their worst mistakes or actions-big or
Show More
little-and it never got bogged down in cynical meditations despite Eli Bell's often heartbreaking realizations about the world around him and its fragility and how wrong he can be about how he perceives it.The writing is full of imagery and gorgeous. It walks a line carefully between magic and reality. It never gets indulgent, and it never bores.
Quite simply: brilliant. I loved it. Thanks to Jultri for the recommendation.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kazzablanca
Smiling through tears. Favourite book in years.
LibraryThing member Brumby18
Excellent...simple story with bizarre twists. My backyard. Variety of characters well woven in.
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2020)
New South Wales Premier's Literary Award (Winner — 2019)
Australian Book Industry Awards (Shortlist — Book of the Year — 2019)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Fiction — 2020)
Queensland Literary Awards (Finalist — People's Choice — 2019)
Voss Literary Prize (Shortlist — 2019)
Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award (Shortlist — 2019)
Miles Franklin Literary Award (Longlist — 2019)
The Indie Book Award (Winner — 2019)
BookPeople Booksellers' Choice Award (Winner — 2019)
MUD Literary Prize (Winner — 2019)
Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List (Selection — 2020)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2018-06-18
External links
Similar in this library
Breath by Tim Winton
Eyrie by Tim Winton