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carlytenille's review
The narration jumps around, with each character describing the action. This makes the book quite disjointed and creates a lack of focus. The first section written from a child/juvenile point of view seems to undermine the dramatic truth the story is based on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Transphobia, and Sexual content
tasmanian_bibliophile's review
5.0
‘You see, the great thing about cities is, the more people you have in them, the more you’re left alone. Or the more you find yourself alone in them at least.’
In 1938, a woman is hit by a car on Oxford Street in Sydney. She’s taken to Sydney Hospital where, comatose but aware, injected with morphine, memories come flooding back to her. These memories are disjointed, and it is difficult to know what might be real. The woman, eventually identified as Jean Ford, has £100 in her pocket. She also has memories of being found guilty of murder and sent to Long Bay:
‘What was it – almost twenty years ago now? – I was sent to die under a different name. I travelled to Long Bay Penitentiary like a celebrity, on a tram with tinted windows, ..’
From this beginning, Pip Smith writes a novel about the different and varied lives of Eugenia Falleni. Part of the story is told by Jean Ford in the first person, other parts are presented chronologically, interspersed with what may (or may not) be accurate reportage from the time. The first part of the novel presents a life of the young Eugenia, a life which makes some of her later choices understandable. If a girl had little power in the late nineteenth century, then a man surely did. Eugenia Falleni spent over twenty years living as a man named Harry Crawford. And as a man, Crawford married two women and (possibly) murdered one of them.
‘She was just a half-wild creature who felt herself apart and different, who had grown cunning and furtive, hiding her secret and satisfying her needs.’
So many questions. So few definitive answers. Much of Eugenia Falleni/Harry Crawford/Jean Ford’s life remains a mystery. Ms Smith’s novel provides possibilities to consider: just how fixed is identity, how mutable might it be? And how very difficult it was (and still is for many) to live outside accepted, defined and prescribed gender roles. The many different characters who appear in the novel each provide a different perspective, another aspect of Eugenia Falleni/ Harry Crawford’s life to consider.
I found this novel unsettling. I’ve previously read Mark Tedeschi’s true crime account ‘Eugenia: A True Story of Adversity, Tragedy, Crime and Courage’, but this is the first novel I’ve read based on Eugenia Falleni’s life. I was intrigued to read that it was seeing a police mugshot of ‘Harry Leon Crawford’ who after being arrested for the murder of his wife was discovered to be Eugenia Falleni, a woman who had been passing as a man since 1899 which provided Ms Smith with the starting point for her novel. I’ve seen the same mugshot, and wondered about the lives, about the experiences, behind the eyes. In this accomplished debut novel, Ms Smith provides some possibilities to consider.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In 1938, a woman is hit by a car on Oxford Street in Sydney. She’s taken to Sydney Hospital where, comatose but aware, injected with morphine, memories come flooding back to her. These memories are disjointed, and it is difficult to know what might be real. The woman, eventually identified as Jean Ford, has £100 in her pocket. She also has memories of being found guilty of murder and sent to Long Bay:
‘What was it – almost twenty years ago now? – I was sent to die under a different name. I travelled to Long Bay Penitentiary like a celebrity, on a tram with tinted windows, ..’
From this beginning, Pip Smith writes a novel about the different and varied lives of Eugenia Falleni. Part of the story is told by Jean Ford in the first person, other parts are presented chronologically, interspersed with what may (or may not) be accurate reportage from the time. The first part of the novel presents a life of the young Eugenia, a life which makes some of her later choices understandable. If a girl had little power in the late nineteenth century, then a man surely did. Eugenia Falleni spent over twenty years living as a man named Harry Crawford. And as a man, Crawford married two women and (possibly) murdered one of them.
‘She was just a half-wild creature who felt herself apart and different, who had grown cunning and furtive, hiding her secret and satisfying her needs.’
So many questions. So few definitive answers. Much of Eugenia Falleni/Harry Crawford/Jean Ford’s life remains a mystery. Ms Smith’s novel provides possibilities to consider: just how fixed is identity, how mutable might it be? And how very difficult it was (and still is for many) to live outside accepted, defined and prescribed gender roles. The many different characters who appear in the novel each provide a different perspective, another aspect of Eugenia Falleni/ Harry Crawford’s life to consider.
I found this novel unsettling. I’ve previously read Mark Tedeschi’s true crime account ‘Eugenia: A True Story of Adversity, Tragedy, Crime and Courage’, but this is the first novel I’ve read based on Eugenia Falleni’s life. I was intrigued to read that it was seeing a police mugshot of ‘Harry Leon Crawford’ who after being arrested for the murder of his wife was discovered to be Eugenia Falleni, a woman who had been passing as a man since 1899 which provided Ms Smith with the starting point for her novel. I’ve seen the same mugshot, and wondered about the lives, about the experiences, behind the eyes. In this accomplished debut novel, Ms Smith provides some possibilities to consider.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
lisa_setepenre's review
4.0
In 1938, Jean Ford lies in hospital, the victim of a car accident. Fragments of memory keep coming back to her, the splinters of the lives she’s lived. 1885 in Wellington, the girl who wants to escape, to be anything that’s not a wife and mother. 1917 in Sydney, the man watching and fleeing as the burnt body of a woman is discovered, the trial that follows.
Half Wild is Pip Smith’s debut novel about the lives of Eugenia Falleni. It’s hard to put into words just who Eugenia Falleni was, but she is best known to history for assuming the identity of a man and being found guilty of murdering her wife after a sensational trial.
Smith’s writing is confident and assured, she clearly knows what effect she’s going for and pursues it successfully. The structure of the novel is brilliant, allowing the reader to not only get into the head of Falleni, but see her how others may have seen her. Personally, I found the first section, detailing Falleni’s childhood, well written but off-putting. It was simply a matter of me not gelling with the point-of-view character, which I felt was sympathetic but also a bit grotesque. This wasn’t a problem that I had with the remainder of the novel, though.
Like other novels detailing historical crimes, Smith shies away from the crime and the question of Falleni’s guilt. As I understand it, there is some uncertainty about happened and Falleni’s role in it and so it feels right that Smith recreates this uncertainty.
Half Wild is an impressive read and one hell of a debut.
Half Wild is Pip Smith’s debut novel about the lives of Eugenia Falleni. It’s hard to put into words just who Eugenia Falleni was, but she is best known to history for assuming the identity of a man and being found guilty of murdering her wife after a sensational trial.
Smith’s writing is confident and assured, she clearly knows what effect she’s going for and pursues it successfully. The structure of the novel is brilliant, allowing the reader to not only get into the head of Falleni, but see her how others may have seen her. Personally, I found the first section, detailing Falleni’s childhood, well written but off-putting. It was simply a matter of me not gelling with the point-of-view character, which I felt was sympathetic but also a bit grotesque. This wasn’t a problem that I had with the remainder of the novel, though.
Like other novels detailing historical crimes, Smith shies away from the crime and the question of Falleni’s guilt. As I understand it, there is some uncertainty about happened and Falleni’s role in it and so it feels right that Smith recreates this uncertainty.
Half Wild is an impressive read and one hell of a debut.
khakipantsofsex's review
5.0
4.786276623 stars
I love Sydney's crime history, it's super interesting (until you get to the gangs and bikies and whatever like who cares) but there's so little fiction about it so whenever I come across a new one I need to get on it asap. Eugene Falleni's story is super interesting but painful if you read about the trial specifically (ugh Archibald WHY) and Half Wild told it so differently and well. So glad Friend Samuel pushed me to read it sooner rather than later even though it's been on my radar since before it was published.
I love Sydney's crime history, it's super interesting (until you get to the gangs and bikies and whatever like who cares) but there's so little fiction about it so whenever I come across a new one I need to get on it asap. Eugene Falleni's story is super interesting but painful if you read about the trial specifically (ugh Archibald WHY) and Half Wild told it so differently and well. So glad Friend Samuel pushed me to read it sooner rather than later even though it's been on my radar since before it was published.
nlfharrison's review
4.0
Wonderfully inventive account of the life of Eugenia Falleni. Formally playful and rich in character, a real pleasure.
fruity999's review
4.0
I found this a compelling read. It tells the life of a young person who fails to meet the expectations of being a woman so instead takes on the identity of a man in early 20th century Australia. Based on a true story, the novel shares multiple perspectives to explore the story and the intrigue around their life. Fascinating.
wtb_michael's review
4.0
A brilliant reimagining of a fascinating story from Australian history. Smith tells the story of Eugenia Falleni, who reinvented herself and lived as a man for a period doing the early 20th Century in Australia. The story jumps around in time a bit and works in tons of research alongside beautifully imagined details. It's a fascinating read, meditating on identity, uncertainty and providing no easy answers to the multiple perspectives that have been weaved together.
joelleps's review
3.0
Last year I read Mark Tedeschi's nonfiction [b:Eugenia|15849086|Eugenia|Mark Tedeschi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1346892273s/15849086.jpg|21594993] about the same person, so I knew the general outline of the life story (& especially the trial) before reading this novel. This book is interesting, but I wondered whether I'd have been confused by the various timelines had I read this 1st.
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