#Novella nr 2: NovNov – AusReadingMonth 2021

• Author: Nigel Featherstone
• Title:  I’m Ready Now (pg 156)
• Genre:   novella
• Published: 2012
• Monthly plan
• #AusReadingMonth2021  @Bronasbooks
• #NovNov @746Books
• @bookishbeck

 

Quick Scan:

1. Chapters 1-12  
2. Introduction characters and backstories
3. …marriages, childhood, deaths, abandonment.
   
4. Chapters 13-16
5. The tension rises to a boiling point: Gordon (son),
6. Mother and Levi (Gordon’s lover) are all about to make
7. a life changing decisions but it
8. …is unclear to the reader what that will be!
9. Conflict: should mother just listen to her son’s plans
10. …or try to stop him from making a grave mistake?
11. Chapters 17 – 23
12. The story reaches the climax
13. ….during Gordon’s 30th birthday dinner celebration.
14. Chapters 24 – 32
15. The resolution…each character embarks on their own paths.
16. ..and perhaps those paths will cross each other in the future
17. ….at least Nigel Featherstone ends the book on an optimistic note!
18. Conclusion:
19. Ending:…feels like the sound of a bell ringing.
20. #Bravo !!!   Nigel!

 

1. Strong point:  Structure – Alternating narrator:
2. ch 1 Son (Gordon) and  ch 2 Mother (Lynne)…etc
3. Strong point:  Thoughts and inner dialogue
4. 70% of the book is inner dialogue that
5. raises the emotional level in every scene!
6. It reveals the truth, the darkness, hopes and dreams
7. …that are often lost in direct dialogue.
8. Mother (Lynne) is worried about her son
9. …but cannot let him notice her concern.
10. Son (Gordon) feels his heart is torn in half.
11. ..one  part  for his lover (Levi)  the other part
12. for his determination to continue with
13. …the “Year of Living Ridiculously”.

 

Major theme:  loss, abandonment

1. In chapter 9 we hear Mother say words that left me puzzled.
2. Gordon: “Is there anything you need while I’m up the street?
3. Mother: “No, just make sure you come home.”
4. Gordon “…of course I’ll come home…”
5. Mother: “Than that’s all I need.”
6. As you read Nigel Featherstone  adds layers
7. with backstories about the characters and their lives.
8. Only then does this short dialogue between mother and son make sense.

 

Characters:

1. Gordon (Donian, nickname) 29 yr, born 23 October 1981
2. Levi Greenguard  (Jewish social worker, Gordon’s  lover)
3. Mother (Lynne)
4. Eddie (stepfather) – recently deceased
5. Margie Ardmore (friend of Mother…feels like an aunt for Gordon)
6. Patric Finn (…just mentioned as mother’s first love)
   
7. Minnie and Lenah ( Gordon’s step-sisters)
8. Ailis Kildare (Lynne’s  mother, from Ireland, died in Hobart 62 yr)
9. Father – (name?) died 6 months later
10. Shanie Doyle – G’s childhood friend …followed him from Hobart to Sydney
11. Delia Canola – Shanie’s fiancée

 

Best Quote:  chapter 19

1. “I think birthplace is a matter of DNA.
2. You can try running from it….
3. ….but it’s always in you, mapping you out.”

 

Locations:

1. Mother takes a flight from  Hobart, Tasmania to…
2. Sydney – Gelbe, NSW (inner-city suburb) – Gordon’s appartment
3. Convict-era cottage on 11 Union Street (polished doorknob) (backstory)
4. Point Puer (place where Patric Finn made a film)
5. Battery Point…where Shanie used to live
6. Battery Point House  – owned by mother Lynne
7. Gleeson House (1839)  (..the family home Hampton Road, Hobart)
8. …is about to be sold at an auction…so Mother is visiting her son Gordon.
9. Sydney apartment (Eddie’s  place at Manly on the Corso)

 

Title: “I’m Ready Now”

1. Ch 27 – quote … to bookend the story: 
2. Mother: “There’s a future in abandonment, so it seems.
3. I’m ready for it.”
4. Ch 30 – quote … as Levi leaves he says to Gordon:
5. “marriage is not out of the question”..in the future. 
6. Levi calls for a taxi  and says “Yes, I’m ready now”.