Did you spot that Hairy Man was the unknown man on the exodus from Hobart who handed the grieving Dan the nail gun to attach his grandmother’s body to the tree? That was the most disturbing scene I wrote. I came unstuck over it. It’s fiction, but it may be that our descendants will be forced into such predicaments if we don’t face up to where we are – the top of the bell curve and about to take the roller coaster down.
A literary agent turned down Eat My Shadow (they all did) saying, I will never get that scene out of my head. Some of Eat My Shadow hurts. It hurt to write it as much as it does to read it.
Trapped in the past, Father retells the story of Nicholas and the exodus from Hobart. The dogs attacking the refugees foreshadow Finn’s own attack, but alone, he can not rely on a group of women with sticks to save him.
Instead he is saved by an unlocked car door. For some reason I find the locking, or leaving unlocked the doors of abandoned cars interesting. How some people find it difficult to divest themselves of the idea of ownership and try protect their belongings, even after they no longer have worth or purpose. For Finn, someone’s past actions enabled him to survive. If we face our fear of loss, the desperate need to claim something ours and keep it, we may also have the opportunity to ensure the lives of others are not needlessly lost in the future.
