Reviewed by Rod McLary
Psychologists say that a white lie is a small, socially acceptable untruth told – among other reasons – to avoid embarrassment. It can also be a lie of omission; that is, when something incorrect is said and there is no attempt made to correct the error. But as with so much in life, it all depends on your perspective – are you telling the white lie or are you the recipient?
I Want Everything explores this very human dilemma but in the literary world. Is the act of taking someone else’s thoughts and words and presenting them as one’s own literary theft? This fundamental question is at the heart of the novel. The narrative begins with the sentence: An innocent mistake. Innocent, then progressively less so [3]. And from this first ‘innocent’ sentence begins an intriguing and fascinating exploration of deception and dubious morality within the world of literature.
The unnamed protagonist – an aspiring writer living in Melbourne and a guinea pig for medical trials for which he is paid – espies by chance a famous author who disappeared from the public eye many years previously. The author Brenda Shales wrote two searing novels which captured the attention of the world – but then nothing. Our protagonist realises this may well be the scoop of his life if only he can get to see her and speak with her. And he does get to see and speak with her by the simple expedient of not correcting the simple error of his being introduced to her as ‘her grandson’.
His plan is to get everything he can from Brenda and then to write his book and make his name. Over a number of interviews, Brenda Shales tells her story to our protagonist and in so doing takes the reader on an intriguing journey through the claustrophobic culture of the 1950s in Australia – and particularly the harsh reality of being a young woman in a male-dominated world.
But as Sir Walter Scott once said ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive’ [Marmion: A Tale of a Flodden Field [1808]. And our protagonist learns very quickly that lies – however innocently told – soon confound everyone they touch and especially the teller. Through intelligent and elegant writing, the author weaves a tangled web full of twists and turns which are as surprising as they are insightful. We soon discover that it is not only our protagonist who is being untruthful and there is more than one person in this tale who has deceived those closest to them.
In many ways, the novel is a literary – and literate – mystery where only at the end of the narrative is the truth revealed. And what a ‘truth’ it is – suddenly the world has moved and our footing is uncertain.
Dominic Amerena has crafted a brilliant debut novel uncovering the unpalatable truth that the spectre of fame and success can override personal ethics and morality even in those who may claim the higher ground for themselves. The protagonist is perhaps least deserving of the reader’s sympathy as he continues to recognise the moral ambiguity of his behaviour but, as the idea of fame is drawing closer, he is less and less willing to bring an end to his deception.
Dominic Amerena is an Australian writer and has been published in The Sydney Review of Books, The Saturday Paper, The Age, The Australian and The Guardian. He has won a number of prizes including the inaugural Speculate Prize and the Alan Marshall Short Story award. He lives between Melbourne and Athens.
I Want Everything
[2025]
by Dominic Amerena
Summit Books Australia
ISBN: 978 176163 173 3
$34.99; 288pp