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A review by lisa_setepenre
Half Wild by Pip Smith
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.