THE BOOK OF EMMETT by DEBORAH FORSTER

Back Blurb : ‘ … Emmett Brown is as dark as Heathcliff, and as unpredictable. Sometimes he’s an inspiration, but not often. He’s a man of booze and obsessions: one of them is his ‘System’, an attempt to bend the laws of probability. But when the lottery numbers and horses fail him, so do love and reason, and he becomes an ogre to his wife and children. For the innocents – Louisa, Rob, Peter, Daniel and Jessie – the bonds formed hiding in hedges at the end of the street, waiting for the maelstroms to pass, are complex and unbreakable. Over the years, the consequences of Emmett’s rages shape their spirits and psyches, but as he lies dying they discover that love – however imperfect – is the best defence against pain …’

Set largely in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, The Book Of Emmett tells the story of the Brown family.

Emmett Brown is father and husband to a family that can read his emotions like the tide. An alcoholic, possibly manic-depressive man – Emmett loves the form guide more than his wife and children. He takes his frustration out physically on his captive family, swatting his children about like flies and subjecting their mother to a ritual of abuse that ranges from throwing dinner plates, to covering her in bruises.

Told from the perspective of the children, The Book Of Emmett is a hard to read, but beautifully written novel.

We meet the family as they organise the burial of Emmett Brown, who’s death has finally released them all from a collective nightmare spanning more than thirty years.

The relationships in this book are portrayed with sensitivity and frankness. Emmett brown is a man with his own fractured past, and has light and shade to his personality like any man. While consistently terrorising his family, Emmett reinforces the need for a full education for his children – he has as much passion for literature and the arts as he does for his beer and racing statistics. The Brown children are constantly trying to reconcile the equal amounts of love and hate that they feel for their father.

‘ … Emmett was a tough father and we had our problems, to be honest there were many problems. The best I can say is that I remember him clearly.’ (p.14)

Their love for their mother however, never wavers – despite the fact that she never tried to leave their father, or take them out of the damaging environment, even after one of the children dies indirectly at the hands of Emmett.

If you’re after a story that lifts the veil on one family and their experience with domestic violence in suburban Australia – then this book is for you.

7 out of 10.

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Next time on the bookshelf : “Maynard & Jennica” by Rudolph Delson