The Delinquents

Kylie Minogue, Joseph Conrad, the fascist state that was Queensland and how I came to realise that the star rating system may not be appropriate for this book.


At a Lifeline Bookfest in Brisbane a while back I picked up battered copies of both this book, The Delinquents by Criena Rohan and The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, both for only a dollar. Conrad's classic was known to me and had always been on my TBR. The Delinquents on the other hand was a spur of the moment purchase based on the cover blurb. Brisbane being the location was a lure. I also realised, after a look at the www, that the pop diva Kylie Minogue has played the lead in a movie based on the book. Not that I am particularly a Kylie type of fella but what did that matter.

Both of these short books I earmarked for a 12 hour flight I was making mid last year. After taking my seat I half slept just about the entire trip so read little. On leaving the flight I proceeded to leave both battered books on the plane.

I was a little annoyed with myself so once back in Brisbane I purchased new copies of both and decided to start with The Delinquents. With that let's be utterly brutal. The Delinquents is a badly written book. The writing has the appearance of being rushed and with that the need of a good editor. It was almost juvenile in delivery at times. The romanticism was so poor at times I imagined a high school kid writing this after too much Mills and Boon such was some of the narrative. Events blended into each other so rapidly that it was almost as if the author had had so many ideas to tag to the story but knew not how. Some parts are so badly written as to be almost funny. At one point, completely out of character to the way the story is told, we get several sentences of possums peeking into a room deciding as what were the actions of either Lola or Brownie, the main characters of the story, in deciding as to who had cleaned the room they were in. The sympathetic style towards the pair of “delinquents” was also just a little too much. It lacked, for me, the grit required.

But! And a big BUT.
Written in 1962 this novel may be a bit more observant of street life in Brisbane in the 50's than my complaints about poor writing and delivery deserve. The author is observing the subculture that was Australia at the time called Bodgies and Widgies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodgies_and_widgies
Being Queensland, historically the most reactionary state in Australia, the authorities frowned upon this subculture just as much as the emerging Punk culture of my youth in the late 70's. The tale itself covers under age sex, contraception and abortion, living on the street and squatting amongst others themes. Migrant communities are a big part of the narrative. These, I would suggest at the time of writing, were radical in terms of what Qlders (and maybe Australians in general) were reading in the early 60's. The Bush was seemingly the ideal topic with the only critical writing being by likes of the brilliant Thea Astley writing about the reactionary bourgeois middle classes. Books on subcultures? I know of none and if there are any out there can someone let me know please?

I was once witness to a policeman beating up a punk rocker in King George Square in the heart of Brisbane in the late 70's and hearing the cop say to the boy that he should not “be allowed to dress like that.” I heard the same at a gig I attended. “They shouldn't be allowed to listen to stuff like this.” said a big burly policeman standing next to me. It gets no more innocuous than the pop pap of a band that is called Mental as Anything but they may have been subversive for all I know. Perhaps he thought the nips were pornographic as opposed to alcoholic!
Interestingly the government at the time was elected via gerrymander and had at best a 30% popular vote. They were authoritarian and used to discuss how they did not like southerners (people from NSW and Victoria I kid you not) and as late as 1989 they raided a record shop over supposedly obscene record covers. From the Rocking Horse Records Facebook we get the following.

“On this day in 1989 - Police raid long time 4ZZZ supporters Rocking Horse Records, then located at 158 Adelaide Street in the city. An undercover officer from the Licensing branch, came into the store seeking out rude records for a “wild valentine's day party”, followed later that day by four uniformed police who raided the store. Owner Warwick Vere was charged with exhibiting and selling obscene material under the Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act, but ultimately found not guilty. Albums included The Dead Kennedys “Give me Convenience” (featuring the classic ‘Too Drunk to Fuck'), Guns n Roses “Appetite for Destruction” (available at many major chain stores at the time), the Hard-Ons “Dick Cheese” and The Champs “Do the Shag” (an instrumental album from the early 60s). In an interview with Gavin Sawford for Time Off Magazine, Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra commented: “if these attempts to shut down record stores because an instrumental band mention a type of carpet on their record helps to galvanise people to vote out the present administration, then by all means let's see some more raids”. That government went soon after such was their lack of understanding that the world was the late 1900s and not the mid-1600s.

For me for all the poor writing and delivery that the book delivered it is a very important piece of writing. Let's be utterly brutal again, Brisbane and Qld in general was verging on a reactionary fascist state from birth until the early 90's no matter the side of politics that governed. The 50's were no different from the past and the future. For all the ham-fisted writing, poor delivery, lack of character development etc. this is probably an early observation of the fascist state that was Queensland and maybe a plea for help.

Strangely at times the author showed some literary smarts. We got the following after boyfriend Brownie had come back from a stint in the merchant navy.
“it puzzled her that a little seaman, with all the wonders of the wonders of the world just a voyage away, in a manner of speaking, should take an interest in the impossible marvels of the more lurid type of historical fiction – what Brownie called ‘lusty busties.' ‘Wouldn't you think they would read Joseph Conrad?' said Lola innocently. She had just discovered Conrad, and had decided he was her favourite Author. ‘Who's he?” said Brownie. Lola explained. Brownie snorted. He said that if Joseph Conrad was a sailor he should have known better than to go writing about the sea – and who wanted to read about the sea anyway”

We also get a great line that resonated right up until the early 90's considering Qld's police state credentials. “‘If you ask me, all Brisbane's full of coppers and all of them are bastards,' she said expressing in one concise sentence the full theory of central government in the sunshine state”.
For me this sentence from a relatively obscure 1962 novel was an astonishing observation considering what was to come once the corruption in the Sunshine State was exposed during the Fitzgerald Enquiry of later years.

Interestingly I was telling a work college about this book the other day. He laughed and told the yarn of when he and 3 mates were making a short film for their studies while at Art Collage when the film of this book was being made in the late 80's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Delinquents_(1989_film)
In a lane in the middle of the central business district they were setting up their cameras. When he was asked what they were doing he being a smarty said they were filming a scene for the movie The Delinquents and expected Kylie to be along later. Next thing there were about 100 people watching and waiting for Kylie to appear. He had to lie later and say they had word that she could not make it that day. Kylie is still very popular in this part of the world and as I write she plays in Brisbane this weekend. Let's hope the rain holds of for her and the fans.

So a couple of things. Would I recommend this to others? I recommend it to no one. It is poorly written. Does it deserve to be read? Yes if one has an interest in Queensland literature and needs to understand its youth subculture and that it was a cultural backwater that the authorities were keen to keep that way. Thank goodness we have moved on from the days of watching a kid with a funny haircut get bashed for being just a kid with a funny haircut. With that I need to read Conrad's Heat of Darkness. If 1950' delinquent Lola was impressed I will be disappointed if I am not.

Star rating? No idea. How about five for the fun of it all.