Excitable Boy: Essays on risk (Dominic Gordon, Upswell)

Dominic Gordon’s Excitable Boy: Essays on risk is a collection of punchy vignettes about his life growing up in Melbourne in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gordon sets out an honest picture of the city’s darker side, his stories replete with drugs, petty crime and violence. Jumping between years and suburbs, Excitable Boy becomes a transient blur of time and space, giving the effect of one long bender across a decade of one man’s life. Along the way, Gordon introduces a rolling catalogue of characters often left on the outskirts of society—from those struggling with addiction, to kids left to fend for themselves, to men who are regularly in and out of jail (like the figures in the heist films he loves). However, Gordon’s account is refreshingly free of moral judgement and lessons. He avoids self-pity and excessive introspection, describing his own crimes and downfalls in an almost jovial tone. With an air of Gonzo journalism, Excitable Boy is a good choice for readers interested in a high-energy, defiant snapshot of a culture from the inside. Where the prose is sometimes lacking in craft, Gordon makes up for it in boldness. Though reminiscent of novels like Aotearoa New Zealand author Dominic Hoey’s Poor People with Money, Gordon assures us that these events really happened, despite how unbelievable they might seem.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Ash Davida Jane is a writer, editor and publisher from New Zealand. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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