| GAZ REVIEWS
TEEN
LITERATURE'S LOCAL HERO (extract)
Written for children
- or young adults - somewhere in the 13-16 age
range, Gaz is not the sort of literary
offering I usually pick up these days.But how I
wish it had been written several years ago.
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link to buy
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The book is a tour-de-force of teenage fiction, a
significant accomplishment in a world where too many
books for young people are written by older people trying
to get into the minds of their readers but rarely
succeeding. It is difficult to imagine the average
teenager disliking Gaz - there are just too many
characters they will identify with and too many everyday
events weaved into the storyline to create a thoroughly
entertaining, often humorous, piece of reading.
Flynn
clearly writes for the 'average' teenager. The language
is crisp and simple, the dialogue rapid and colloquial,
the story fast-moving, touching and honest.
The central
character, Gary, has all the insecurities, problems and
interests common to so many 15-year-olds in the 1990s. He
also has a love interest - an Asian girl new to the
school whom Gary ignores at first, but develops a crush
on as the story proceeds. This, perhaps, is the strongest
component of the novel.
All in all,
Gaz is the kind of book that should be compulsory
reading for all teenagers.
I feel sure that if it was
introduced as a high school text, thousands of children
previously uninterested in reading would discover the
immense pleasures of the text.
Andrew Burrell
The Albany Advertiser 21 April 1994
FINGER-GNAWING
SUSPENSE(extract)
Written in an honest
down-to-earth style, Gaz is filled with familiar
and realistic themes that are appealing to an adolescent
reader. Told with such verve, descriptions of school-day
nightmares lead me to believe there is more than just a
little of Warren Flynn in his character Gary.
Sometimes Gary's brutally honest perception of events is
parodied by his amazing ignorance of the world around
him. This quirk of character initially leads to many an
amusing misunderstanding; however, as the book
progresses, Gary's narrow-mindedness and tactless
behaviour are replaced by a new understanding.
Flynn
has skilfully captured an entertaining slice of
Australian family life with which any Aussies worth their
Vegemite can identify.
Megan Clough,
second year professional writing student, University of
Canberra.
The Canberra Times
19 Feb 1994
Click here to buy this book at bookworm.com.au
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