#NSW Premier’s 2019 Special Award B. Boochani

• Author: B. Boochani
  
• Title: No Friend But The Moutains
  
• Published: 2018
• Genre: non-fiction
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• #NSWPLA
• @MacmillianAus
• @Picadorbooks
• Trivia:
• A special award of $10,000 was made to
• Manus Island refugee Behrooz Boochani
• for his book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison.
• Boochani’s book was ineligible for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
• which require authors to be Australian citizens.
• Trivia:
• The book won the top prize at the
• Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in January 2019.
• This year was an exception made to the eligibility requirements.

 

Introduction:

1. Prison literature is always a difficult read.
2. For instance the Pulitzer Prize Winner History 2017
3. Blood in the Water  by H. Thompson (worth your reading time!)
4. But it is necessary to know the disturbing truths
5. ….that are not always in the news.
6. Boochani’s book was not a pleasure to read.
7. I persevered to force myself out of my comfort zone.
8. My review is in fragments.
9. I could not add any commentary to this
10. confrontational book.
11. According to PEN International
12. “Manus Island has become notorious for its
13. …ill-treatment of detainees where violence,
14. sexual abuse and self-harm are reportedly common.
15. No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison
16. is an autobiographical account
17. …of Boochani’s  perilous journey
18. from Indonesia to Christmas Island and thence to Manus.
19. He  tells of what life is like for the detained men.
20. #LiteratureDoesHavePower

 

Conclusion:

0-25%:
The trip to Manus (ch 1-4)
Boochani enters Manus Prison (ch 5-6)

25% – 60%:

1. Once a concept is mentioned
2. it is repeated over and over
3. …again for several paragraphs:
4. stench of hairy man’s breath (ch 7)
5. smell of putrid soil
6. fans
7. mosquitos
8. rooms
9. pissing
10. filthy toilets
11. distress caused by saying ‘hi’
12. bellowing of profanities
13. prison becomes hive of killer bees
14. prisoners become wolves…threat to everyone else
15. Generator (cuts off water and electricity)
16. ….manipulates minds

 

Queuing for food (ch 8)

1. everything is micromanaged and mechanical
2. meat is like pieces of car tyre
3. guards like shepherds guiding a herd of sheep
4. Nicknames: the Cow…first one entering dining area
5. starvation has a smell…
6. officers and cooks work 2 week shifts
7. …then leave the island to be replaced
8. answer to all the prisoners question:
9. …”The Boss has given orders.”
10. queue in the telephone room

 

Father’s Day…men struggle for the telephone (ch 9)

1. …this leads to bruises and bodily harm.
2. power of biceps can determine many situations
3. distributing cakes….devoured right off the cardboard
4. …mayhem but Boochiani does not move.
5. …he knows “I am an animal that has already lost the game.”

 

60-100%

1. I am a child of war. (ch 10)
2. Boochani describes the guards crushing a unruly prisoner.
3. This chapter reminds me of a mind becoming unhinged.

 

It’s hard to discern a genuine smile…  (ch 11)

1. Toothache…terrible pain…worse treatment!
2. Self-harm in the prison becomes a cultural practice.
3. When prisonor spills his blood he appears to enter into ecstasy.
4. It is a moment emitting the scent of death.
5. According to Boochani every prisoner must
6. …look out for the prisoner standing next to him.
7. The most important thing is they must challenge the
8. Kyriarchal System of the prison.
9. …Kyriarchy is a system that creates webs of privilege and exclusion.

 

Revolt in Mike Prison…August 2014. (ch 12)

1. Death of Reza…the gentle giant.

 

Last thoughts:

1. Despite winning the prestigious
2. New South Wales Special Literary Award 2019
3. with a prize worth $10.000 dollars
4. Boochani may not leave Manus Island
5. …and his future is unknown.