Reviewed by Rod McLary
The Youngest Son tells the story of the three Leach siblings – John, Maureen and Bob [the titular youngest son] – and the lives they make for themselves. In a sprawling tale spanning fifteen years [1929 to 1944] and the Great Depression and a World War, the action takes place on the tough streets of working-class Sydney. Raised by a single mother, each child has to make his/her own way in the world – John chooses the Catholic Church; Maureen wants a life ‘just like in the movies’; and Bob discovers power in his fists and a taste for criminality.
Three different life choices and three different narratives. Set out in chapters headed with the name of the sibling, the trajectories of their lives are narrated separately – thus underpinning their estrangement from each other and from their mother Betty. Their separate lives are lived out in the underbelly of Sydney and more specifically in Ultimo – or the ‘Mo – but inevitably they intersect and not always with good outcomes.
The lives of John and Maureen are particularly thrown off course by betrayals – John’s by a Catholic Brother whom he admired and wished to emulate; and Maureen’s by her choice of partner – Vince – who forced her into prostitution and consequently drug abuse and degradation. But the action is entrenched in the milieu of the times. The criminality, the violence, the police corruption and the total disregard for anyone – or indeed for their lives – are well captured and articulated by the author. The Youngest Son is a novel steeped in the culture of time and place.
Similarly, the action in the theatre of war in Europe, where John is posted after enlisting in the Army, is heart-wrenchingly described including the sometimes-disastrous impact of army discipline on the more sensitive recruits. One such incident is captured in simple but effective language: Glen Cameron was swinging, as cold and alone as any man would ever be [258].
Even though John and Bob have chosen – or had chosen for them – very different paths, they have more in common than either would think. John’s experience of war, first in Egypt and later in New Guinea, sets alight something in him which even his fellow officers can see; and as one says to him: I just hope whatever it is you’re carrying around with you, well, I hope one day you can put it to rest [294]. And what he is carrying is finally put to rest towards the end of the novel when he is back in Australia and is caught up in a gangland shooting. He is not very different from Bob after all.
The author has crafted what has been called ‘an epic saga of brotherhood, betrayal and revenge’; and this description is very close to the truth. It is a book which will draw the reader in from its beginning to its rather heart-aching conclusion. The three key protagonists are each drawn with their faults on full display but also with empathy and compassion. A book to be savoured.
The Youngest Son
[2024]
by John Byrnes
Pan Macmillan
ISBN 978 176126 818 2
$34.99; 389pp