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    The Fine Colour of Rust
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    The Fine Colour of Rust
    Unavailable
    The Fine Colour of Rust
    Ebook297 pages6 hours

    The Fine Colour of Rust

    By P. A. O’Reilly

    4.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    ‘Funny and touching by turns’ DAILY MAIL

    Single mother Loretta Boskovic may have fantasies about dumping her two kids in the orphanage and riding off on a Harley with her dream lover, but her reality is life in a dusty country town called Gunapan.

    A self-dubbed ‘old scrag’, Loretta’s got a big heart and a strong sense of injustice. So, when Gunapan’s primary school is threatened with closure, and there’s a whiff of corruption wafting through the corridors of the local council, she stirs into action. She's short of money, influence and a fully functioning car, but she does have loyal friends who’ll do whatever it takes to hold on to the scrap of world that is home…

    The Fine Colour of Rust is a wryly funny, beautifully observed, life-affirming novel about friendship, love and fighting for things that matter.

    ‘A delight … I found it hard to put down’ NEW BOOKS MAG

    ‘Warm, moving and funny’ BIG ISSUE, AUSTRALIA

    ‘O'Reilly's novel ought to be one of the sought-after books of the year' SATURDAY AGE, Melbourne

    ‘Can anyone write the story of a whirligig single mother gamely and hilariously fighting development of her small town better than Paddy O'Reilly? No, and nor should they try’ WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateFeb 2, 2012
    ISBN9780007434947
    Unavailable
    The Fine Colour of Rust
    Author

    P. A. O’Reilly

    Paddy O'Reilly is a writer from Victoria, Australia. Her work has been published and broadcast widely both in Australia and internationally. Her début novel, The Factory was broadcast in fifteen episodes as the ABC Radio National Book Reading in 2009. She has also written screenplays. Paddy has spent several years living in Japan, working as a copywriter and translator.

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    Reviews for The Fine Colour of Rust

    4.5/5

    6 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Epigraph: The Japanese have a word, sabi, which connotes the simple beauty of worn and imperfect and impermanent things: a weathered fence; an old cracking bough in a tree; a silver bowl mottled with tarnish; the fine color of rust.Loretta Boskovic has been abandoned by her husband and left in a small dusty Australian town with her two children. Her imaginary life, where she leaves her children at an orphanage and meets Mr Beemer, or Mr Harley, competes with the realism of small town life with kids she loves even though they are not perfect, and good friends, including Norm Stevens, father figure and adopted grandfather to her kids. O'Reilly has not only painted an excellent picture of the small Australian town but created wonderful characters who come alive. The topics that spur Loretta's activism are common enough: single parenting, injustice, political intrigue, told with humour but without turning it into a comedy. I enjoyed this book enormously.
    • 4/5
      I've long thought that if I was to move out of this country, Australia would be an appealing place to go. This is based on zero actual knowledge whatsoever but because it has so long been true (I first fell in love with the country long distance at the ripe old age of nine via my long-time Aussie penpal), I have always gravitated to books set in Australia or that sought to explain that sunburned country to me. And so I have read both Australian fiction and non-fiction extensively despite the logistical difficulty and prohibitive cost of getting my hands on some of these books. So when I saw that The Fine Color of Rust, published here in the US, was set in a small, dusty, Australian country town, peopled with typically Australian characters, and being called very Australian in outlook and humor, I knew I would have to read it.Loretta Boskovic is a single mother living in the sun-baked, hardscrabble small town of Gunapan. Still married, her good-for-nothing ex rode off into the sunset long ago leaving her with their two kids in this struggling provincial town, not a place she ever envisioned ending up. Loretta has gotten involved in the life of the community, made-up of many single women like herself by starting the Save Our School committee in an effort to forestall their tiny school's threatened closure. As she seeks to help the town, both through her efforts on behalf of the school and eventually through her uncovering of a secretively planned resort development that would not in fact bring any tourism to the town but would cut off access to the only local spring around, Loretta learns a lot about herself and about living a happy and fulfilled life.Loretta has an active imaginary life, coming up with scenario after scenario where she is swept away from her restricted life in Gunapan by a knight in shining armor (or just a hot guy on a Harley). Her kids Melissa and Jake are stroppy and waiting for their deadbeat father to return. Her closest friend is crusty local junkman Norm who brings her a pair of goats, Terror and Panic, when Loretta is in desperate need of a lawnmower. She's a self-deprecating, self-described "old scrag" with a dry wit and a strong sense of right and wrong. There are some wonderfully humorous scenes in the book crowned by the taking of the Education Minister to the local abattoir to watch their speediest butcher deconstruct a cow where the shell-shocked politician comes away from the "amusement" rather speckled with raw meat. But there are some poignant scenes too where it is clear that the town and, in some ways, Loretta too, is really only held together with a wing and a prayer and probably some baling wire too.O'Reilly has created an authentic and warmly entertaining story about a woman learning to bloom where she's planted. The characters are quirky and delightful and the sorts of people you'd want in your own corner as friends. The pace of the novel is consistently steady as Loretta slowly uncovers the things she needs to know to have a chance at saving Gunapan and her outrage that so many other people in this small town already knew what she was searching for is perfectly presented. The fact of her accidental activism; the demands of her family, especially once ex Tony reappears; and trying to balance a semblence of a personal life for herself always rings true. A delightful, very Australian David and Goliath story, this novel will keep the reader turning pages, chuckling wryly, and recognizing and appreciating the universality behind its themes of reliance on friendship and dedication to community.
    • 5/5
      I loved everything about this book, beginning with its intriguing title. So many of us can relate to Loretta, who desperately loves her children but has wonderful fantasies about the man, various versions of him, whom she is going to meet after she drops the kids off at the orphanage.Caught up in her small Aussie town's (well, mostly her) attempt to save the local school, she petitions, makes signs, organizes, and becomes someone to generally avoid, even in a town where people cannot easily be avoided. Her sense of humor is delightful. Although Loretta doesn't have it easy, this is not a dark book. At fewer than 300 pages in paperback, it is a quick read and perfect for that feel-good kind of novel in which I love to escape.Thank you to Atria for providing me with a copy of this book.
    • 3/5
      The Fine Color of Rust is a mildly entertaining story about a single mother living in a small, run down town in the Australian bush. Her daily routine involves driving her kids to and from school in a car that is falling apart, interacting with colorful friends, working on the Save Our Schools Committee and investigating a suspicious development being built on the outskirts of town. She tells it all with irony and self-deprecating humor. Silly at times, the book is a light and easy read.
    • 5/5
      Left behind in Gunapan by her lousy husband with her two children, Loretta Boskovic drives the dusty road from her house to town, staring out at the scrubby bushland dreaming of rescue by a handsome lover and a car radio that gets something other than racing commentary. In this unique, wryly observed novel, Paddy O'Reilly captures the essence of a lonely Australian bush town and it's ordinary residents with humour and heart.The author's protagonist is a woman you will find in any small town, she is a single mother juggling child raising with work, a budget that only allows for discounted undies and a longing for an intimate relationship. Loretta copes with the spareness of her life with a wicked sense of humour, and roll-up-your-sleeves and get-on-with-it attitude. Her children are everything to her, even though she regularly fantasises about being whisked away from their whining demands. Raising her two children on her own isn't easy, they miss their father and his sudden (though mercifully brief) reappearance seems to trigger their worst instincts leaving Loretta floundering.Loretta isn't completely alone, her neighbour, Norm - a laconic and slightly eccentric collector - is her dearest friend and champion. Her best friend is also a single woman on the prowl and in a community like Gunupan everyone knows everyone else.In an unconscious effort to stave off her loneliness, Loretta rallies the community in an effort to stop the closure of their school and when that is accomplished, finds a new cause involving a shady development deal and corruption Councillors. In a small town like Gunapan the community is the lifeblood of the town and depends on its' residents to fight for it to stay alive.It is rare to find Australian novels with a vivid sense of place but O'Reilly evokes this tiny town in the middle of nowhere, slowly dying as services and amenities disappear. Public swimming pools are drained and sports fields are unplayable thanks to the extended drought and the youth grow up and leave for greener pastures. These towns rarely get much attention in fiction with the dazzling Sydney Harbour or wild, romantic outback providing more popular and scenic backdrops.Loretta's every day life in an ordinary town makes for a surprisingly compelling story. The Fine Colour of Rust is a character driven novel that also addresses a variety of themes such as social injustice and inequality within a subtly layered plot. It will make you laugh and cry and is a fine example of contemporary Australian fiction that captures the essence of who we are, and who we want to be.