I started my review of The Graveyard Book by saying what an embarrassment of riches of reading I’ve had recently and as I’d just finished this book before I wrote that review you’ll probably get a good idea of why I was feeling that way.
Sydney Bridge Upside Down was first published in 1968 and has just been reprinted and reissued by Text Publishing (literally just – last week!). And how very, very, VERY lucky we are. The book is set in a small New Zealand out of the way bay – Calliope Bay (apparently modelled on Hicks Bay, where the author spent some time as a child – more on that below) and is narrated to us by Harry. Harry’s mum has gone to the city for the summer and his cousin Caroline has come to stay with him, his younger brother and his dad.
Caroline is beautiful – and seemingly entrancing for every man and boy in the bay, including Harry who isn’t overly happy about the attention Caroline attracts from everyone (and I mean everyone), and struggles with his own ambivalent and sometimes powerful feelings towards her. Meanwhile it’s summer holidays and so they’re all at play – in their house, in caves, at waterfalls, on the wharf, at the neighbours (there’s like 6 houses of people), in gossip, and shadowing everything there’s “the works” – an abandoned meatworks, crumbling, the scene of several deaths – excluding the more than several animal deaths obviously.
In the brand new introduction Kate de Goldi quotes Patrick Evans as saying that: “Sydney Bridge Upside Down… is the great, and unread, New Zealand novel.” And… oh… is it ever. Gothic, thrilling, creepy, drowsy with summer sunniness – this is that laid back, mad, bad New Zealandness we all know exists but don’t really know how to talk about.
The book starts as a relatively straight-forward seeming narrative but gradually it becomes clear that these are not straight-forward lives – there are questions here, lingering and being ignored, and you just know they can’t be ignored forever. Eventually they will be faced and they will be answered and most likely something terrible, or at least terribly creepy, will happen.
And it does.
The writing is intense, veering between narrative and dreamlike stream of consciousness, but never losing any focus or my attention. I could easily have read this in one sitting, if not distracted by the rest of life.
Sydney Bridge Upside Down drew me in, thrilled me, wrong-footed me and, ultimately, shocked me. It is a wonderful piece of work to have back, and I hope that this time around it is read.
A lot.
Starting with you *points*.
P.S. I’ve been to Hicks Bay once about 9 (?) years ago. It’s beautiful in that lazy New Zealand way. You drive in and drive along the beachside road and there’s a few houses and suddenly there are several concrete boxes and you think that’s incredibly strange, it’s like a factory in the middle of nowhere. And of course that’s pretty much what it was for a long time. It’s one of those disparate and ever so odd places that you stumble across in New Zealand.
Oh, and there was a kunekune pig with lots of little hairy piglets running around. I desperately wanted to pick one up and take it home with me. But I didn’t, because I’m responsible. *sigh*
18 Responses to “What’s BookieMonster reading? Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne”
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Actually, the reason “Sydney Bridge Upside Down” isnt widely read is – because it’s not really good. Nor is anything else David Ballantyne wrote. He has/had a cachet among male homosexuals – cool, OK, good. But as – an ANZ writer- this is a flail-round-in-the-dark-
o, kunekune pets. Dont. They’re really attracticve wee pigs but they’re – pigs.
I hadn’t read any David Ballantyne before this (obviously) and to be honest had barely heard of him other than a vague attention when After the Fireworks came out. I totally enjoyed reading this though – well, no need to restate it.
So cute doesn’t equal pet? Danggit!
O, I add that I actually really like pigs?
So much so that I havent eaten them since 1975?
Oh dear, now I feel guilty – I HAVE eaten them since 1975!
No worries Ngaire – by the time you’re eating them, they dont mind.
However, beforehand…
I might seem to be harshing on David Ballantyne: I’m not intending that. And -obviously – every reader will make up their own mind.
Suffice it to say, I bought a copy of “Sydney Bridge Upside Down” shortly after it came out. I last read it about 15 years ago and decided, Nah, that’s it, history section of the library.
*sigh* If I ever do have a piggie pet that’s the end of any piggie eating for me.
No, please, opposing views are all good – I like to see more discussion and hey, I’m only giving my opinion – so I really want to see others’ opinions too! And the more different they are the more interesting it is.
I read Gordon McLauchlan’s review in the Saturday NZ Herald this weekend – interestingly enough he highlighted Harry’s mother’s abandonment of the family from the beginning, which I found a little odd to be honest because I thought that was one of the revelatory and catalytic moments that happened later in the book and it was meaningful that the reason for their mother’s absence wasn’t completely clear in the beginning.
On a totally different note it was also fun to review something at the same time as the “establishment”, hehe
I appreciated the way the author was able to get things across in Harry’s “voice” – but found the book largely irritating. There were hints of all sorts of things but, being reasonably information hungry, I felt as if my reading senses weren’t fully functioning.
I only just finished it this morning and there are a few things I can’t put my finger on, but I feel slightly discomforted and am frowning because I wanted to really really like it.
Glad you commented! I’d love to see some more comments from recent first-time readers (like me). It’s really interesting to see different reactions, especially to something that’s older. Did you find a disconnect between the more reasonably (seemingly) straightforward chapters and the darker, “dream” chapters?
Kim, I also only finished the book this morning, and feel slightly discomforted, but I think that’s how a reader is supposed to feel. It really is a creepy book. How clever of David Ballantyne to write in the first person, who is the creepiest of all, but have him only slowly reveal the truth of matters. BookieMonster, I didn’t find the reason for Harry’s mother’s leaving the family revelatory and catalytic; by the time I read that towards the end I was ready for anything that wasn’t what it seemed! I loved the book and shall be reading more of David Ballantyne.
Hi Jan, thanks for your comment! I would like to read more David Ballantyne too – with the caveat that I am slightly afraid nothing will live up to my reaction to Sydney Bridge Upside Down.
Just finished this also and enjoyed it very much – I think I’ll need to reread again though, to bring out more of the details and things I think I missed (e.g., when did Dibs Kelly actually fall over that cliff? And what happened?).
My first encounter with proper New Zealand gothic was, of course, The Scarecrow back on a third-year university course – haven’t read that one recently but the comparison might be interesting…
I’m rereading SBUD also, waiting until the library notifies me that the next David Ballantyne book I have requested has arrived. I had forgotten in the first few pages that Dibs Kelly fell from the cliff – or did he? One of Harry’s fibs? Also, how old would Harry be? I think about 13/14, and thought initially Caroline was 16, but she must be closer to 18 given that she gets engaged at the end. She is a tarty tease, and her fibbing (about the Uncle Pember chapters in her book) gives Harry a good run for his money. I wonder if Harry is a warning to all those parents who think their children can do no wrong, and the children who blame everyone else for their misfortunes in life!
Hmm. Regarding that cliff, at one point mid-book I remember Harry talking with Caroline about playing up there cliff; Dibs interrupts asking Harry to tell Caroline what he did to him up there one day – Harry cuts him off threateningly saying “We have good fun up there – so far no accidents”…
Maybe something quite different happened up there which Harry is not going to be open about…
(Of course later on it’s apparent, in a different sense, that there are very few accidents indeed…)
Hi,
I just read Sydney Bridge Down Under for my daughter’s book club. I started off a bit confused – got thoroughly creeped-out through the middle of the book, (so many near misses …)and by the end I concluded that it was a very clever book, almost a thriller, with such a great last paragraph.
Many of my initial questions were resolved by the end of the book (at least I thought i had it all worked out…) but nothing revealed in a too obvious a way, too soon. The setting was great – a small dying settlement on the edge of nowhere – underpinning of the themes of death, isolation desertion. And the setting in summer was a clever contrast to the dark events – and lifted the mood of the book for me.
It’s kept me thinking and connecting since I finished – a most satisfying read.
Thanks for your comment! Great description – it sounds like we read it very much the same way, your feelings and impressions sound so much like mine.
It was really satisfying and that juxtaposition of the light of summer and the darkness of the setting played so well with me.
Thanks heaps for such a great comment!
The way Ballantyne built things up to the (climactic) union in the works was quite masterful. The sentences became shorter as Harry was watching what everyone was doing from his rooftop lookout. I found myself reading faster and faster…
Then when he used the ‘f-word’ in the book’s closing, it was such a shock. The crudeness of the word and its first-time use coupled with my perception of its taboo-ness circa 1968 was an arresting experience.
I enjoyed this book on many levels and could go on about it for sometime. I look forward to exploring your site further.
Welcome and thank you!
Hi, I’ve just finished reading this for a bookclub and was googling it as I am confused by a few things that (to me) weren’t resolved fully and so came across this discussion – I’m a few months after the fact so hope you don’t mind! I have to say I loved the book – loved the way it was written and how many things were left to our own imaginations (although maybe a little too much). I got quite early on that Harry’s Mum had left with Dalloway. And I too was confused as to whether Dibs actually fell off the cliff and if so when that was (so I re read it to see if I picked up anything new second time). I concluded that Dibs did fall but somehow didn’t hurt himself too bad (and Harry did cut him off while he was trying to tell Caroline). What I don’t quite understand is Uncle Pember – and especially at the very end about Harry seeing Uncle Pember in the city riding Sydney Bridge? Also at first I thought Caroline was sick (or pregnant) as she was always tired and maybe that’s why she had come to the Bay for the summer – in the end I didn’t think so but then why was she so tired all the time! She was certainly at least 17 as she referred to being 17 in her diary when Harry secretly reads it. Harry was maybe 13/14? Sorry too many questions and you probably can’t remember as you read it back in January – but any thoughts?