jacob_s 's review for:

4.0

This is a book that I appreciated more in retrospect. After listening to an interview with Carey upon finishing the adjectival book, I had a better understanding of what a feat of both research and imagination this was.

Carey evokes such a convincing version of Ned Kelly's emotions, motivations, and interior life that I was surprised to find out how much of it was entirely fabricated: he described his relationship to the story as that of a pitch-black field with spotlights illuminating certain well-known historical points that he knew he had to hit - but the artistry here is in how he filled in the spaces between those spotlighted events.