An Accidental Terrorist

by Steven Lang

When Kelvin returns to his childhood home on the southern coast of New South Wales, he discovers the town is a haven for people like him who are on the run from their pasts. He meets Jessica, a lawyer who has escaped the city, and Carl, an enigmatic American farmer. Both are pursuing new lives and causes inspired by the extraordinary landscape around them, but Kelvin begins to see the darker side of the environmental debate when he becomes drawn into a community of anti-logging activists. When his relationship with Jessica intensifies and eventually implodes, Kelvin makes a decision with devastating consequences for all of them.

Genres: Fiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

A f2f bookclub read, I started this book with high hopes, having just finished another with what seemed like a similar concept. A scenario that had some serious potential, this book started off okay but quickly just seemed to degenerate into a mish-mash of making the reader feel sorry (attracted to / interested in) a central character that was just... well boring. Unfortunately this feeling of being bored was compounded by some extremely predictable events, actions and outcomes. Perhaps the idea was to show how somebody unwittingly gets involved with things that they shouldn't. Personally I didn't find it all that surprising / unlikely / sad or even unpredictable that this man could fall into such involvements.

I really really really struggled to get to the end of the book, hoping for some sort of moment in which our "hero" became the sort of bloke that I had a hope of understanding (quickly moved past wanting to like or even sympathise with him), and was more than disappointed to find a non-ending. I'm quite partial to an open-ended resolution to a book, but the story's got to be strong enough to support that - and if ever a book was calling out for a strong ending - this was it.

[NCHS Library]

From Follett
When Kelvin returns to his childhood home on the southern coast of New South Wales, he discovers the town is a haven for people like him who are on the run from their pasts. He meets Jessica, a lawyer who has escaped the city, and Carl, an enigmatic American farmer. Both are pursuing new lives and causes inspired by the extraordinary landscape around them, but Kelvin begins to see the darker side of the environmental debate when he becomes drawn into a community of anti-logging activists. When his relationship with Jessica intensifies and eventually implodes, Kelvin makes a decision with devastating consequences for all of them.

[Jacinta Fintan · Rating 1 out of 5]

liked the first half, then it died in the arse a bit after that... some of the hippy characters started to give me the shits. couldnt figure out who was the main character by the end. or maybe id had too much whiskey or maybe xmas holidays ended and I had to go back to work and books just aren't as good if you've been a slave to the grind all day

[Just · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book tedious to read and found myself drifting off while reading it and having to read whole chunks to catch what I'd missed. Couldn't wait to finish it so I could move onto something else.

[Jen Roe · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am on a roll, as they say. My last three books have all been great reading, and interesting to me is that all three – The Custodians; Haxby’s Circus and now An Accidental Terrorist are from the backlist. In a way it should not be surprising that they are all beaut books because I tend to buy only books that come well-recommended, but still, the contrast between these deeply satisfying books and some more recent publications is intriguing. Lately I have been reading blurbs and publicity materials and booksellers’ catalogues and prize shortlists – and reviews of the same titles – and finding myself not very interested. At this rate the Miles Franklin longlist will come out – and I won’t have read much of it. Oh well…

The reason why I hunted out my copy of An Accidental Terrorist is that in a little while Steven Lang has a new book out called Hinterland. It’s been a long wait between novels from this fine Australian author, but lucky me, I have a copy though I am not allowed to tell you about it yet because it’s still under embargo. I really liked Lang’s 88 Lines about 44 Women which was shortlisted amongst some very distinguished company for the 2010 Qld Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction (Brian Castro, Peter Carey, Alex Miller and J.M. Coetzee) and the 2010 NSW Premier’s Prize for Fiction (J.M. Coetzee (again), David Malouf, Richard Flanagan and Cate Kennedy). Somehow *smacks forehead* I had let Lang’s debut novel slip to the back of the TBR…

An Accidental Terrorist is good, very good indeed, as the judges obviously agreed when it won the 2004 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards for the Best Emerging Author. It tells the story of a lost soul called Kelvin who gets mixed up in eco-terrorism, a term I only use to distinguish it from violent religious terrorism, with which we are now only too familiar. I would call Kelvin and his ilk activists, because what they do is not intended to cause terror to anybody but to be an economic irritant. And as it turns out, it’s the activists who end up being terrified because they fear violent retaliation from the workers in the logging industry.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/04/29/a...