AustLit

'A key to understanding Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang is to realise that this is a book about speech and text, witness, and the question of the reliable or unreliable narrator. It explores the need to explain one’s actions, motives, and character in the context of possible histories and their receptions by personal and public audiences. The narrative of Ned Kelly is constructed for a private audience, though made public through the machine of research and public interest. Or so Carey directs his reader. As a child Kelly hears tales of Cuchulainn and Irish mythology, of the legends and terrors of the district, but only spends a limited time at school because of poverty and his father’s death. Kelly’s great moment of childhood bravery, saving a boy from drowning, is rewarded by the boy’s publican father – a sash with Kelly’s heroics blazoned across it is awarded in front of the school. Text is the hero here. And though resentment surfaces regarding its value, it’s the pride that links his narrative together.' (Introduction)