Some books keep you enthralled from the moment you read the
opening paragraph. You are transported so deftly into another world, there is a
reluctance to leave. The Comet Box is
such a book. Adrian Stirling creates the suburban setting of Merton, easily
recognisable as any small Australian community, replete with characters that
populate our everyday lives, and thrusts us straight into a mystery.
It is 1986. Andrew thinks he knows everything about
Merton and its inhabitants until one day his sister runs away from home. It
turns his world upside down. Amelia has gone and everyone except Andrew seems
to know why. Then, when she is found and brought home against her will, even
Amelia – uncommunicative and sequestered – is more intent on injecting misery into
the family than revealing the truth to her brother. The world as Andrew knows
it begins to unravel and spiral downwards into a vortex of secrets, lies and unhappiness.
By degrees, as he stumbles upon the truth, his fourteen-year-old worldview begins
to shatter; he makes the distressing discovery that uncovering what someone has
gone to great lengths to hide can sometimes have unexpected and unbearably weighty
consequences. In Andrew’s crumbling world, the only thing to look forward to,
to keep hope alive, is the arrival of Halley’s Comet.
This is a compelling coming-of-age story, unswerving
in its treatment of human frailty and fallibility. Stirling is not afraid to
subject his young adult readers to the brutality, pain and messiness of
relationships. When Andrew discovers what really goes on in his own family and behind
the doors of his neighbours, it rocks his equilibrium. Once a secret is
revealed, there is no burying it again. He learns that uncovering the truth may
not always be the wisest option.
There are no two ways about it: this book is dark. Take,
for instance, the characterisation of the troubled Amelia, which verges on horror,
and the unmitigated portrayal of a son made to drink beer and watch pornography
with his loathsome father. There is domestic violence, there is bullying and
there is desperation and sadness.
The Comet Box
is full of symbolism with the hot, languid days; the darkness of the
underground pipes; Andrew’s friend being called Romeo; the contents of the comet
box and all it reveals about the families of Merton; and even the anticipation
of Halley’s Comet itself, hurtling through space with its blazing tail.
I found this book to be gripping, well-written and
compelling, though somewhat enervating in its sense of deepening desolation. Especially
into the second half of the book, I was looking for sunnier moments, but they
are few and far between. There are moments of humour, but these, too, are dark.
Recommended if you don’t mind an intense read that doesn’t
shy away from negotiating the shabby side of the human condition. If you’re
looking for an uplifting read with lots of laughs, try something else.
Penguin 2011
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