'The time I have spent writing this book has caused me a lot of pain. Sometimes because of what I have remembered about my childhood and sometimes because of what I couldn't remember. It is funny how your mind blocks things out when those things can hurt you. There are a lot of things I wish I didn't remember... A household name, an Australian rock icon, the elder statesman of OzPubRock - there isn't an accolade or cliche that doesn't apply to Jimmy Barnes. But long before Cold Chisel and Barnesy, long before the tall tales of success and excess, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan - a working class boy whose family made the journey from Scotland to Australia in search of a better life. Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood, which fuelled the excess and recklessness that would define, but almost destroy, the rock'n'roll legend. This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes. It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have. Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny - Jimmy Barnes's childhood memoir is at once the story of migrant dreams fulfilled and dashed. Arriving in Australia in the Summer of 1962, things went from bad to worse for the Swan family - Dot, Jim and their six kids. The scramble to manage in the tough northern suburbs of Adelaide in the 60s would take its toll on the Swans as dwindling money, too much alcohol, and fraying tempers gave way to violence and despair. This is the story a family's collapse, but also a young boy's dream to escape the misery of the suburbs with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a rock'n'roll band and get out of town for good.' (Publication summary)
Working Class Boy
( dir. Mark Joffe
)
Australia
:
CJZ
Empress Road Productions
,
2018
15376709
2018
single work
film/TV
Documentary based on the Jimmy Barnes autobiography.
Working Class Man
Pymble
:
HarperCollins Australia
,
2017
12096667
2017
single work
autobiography
'It's a life too big and a story too extraordinary for just one book. Jimmy Barnes has lived many lives - from Glaswegian migrant kid to iconic front man, from solo superstar to proud father of his own musical clan. In this hugely anticipated sequel to his critically acclaimed bestseller, Working Class Boy, Jimmy picks up the story of his life as he leaves Adelaide in the back of an old truck with a then unknown band called Cold Chisel. A spellbinding and searingly honest reflection on success, fame and addiction; this self-penned memoir reveals how Jimmy Barnes used the fuel of childhood trauma to ignite and propel Australia's greatest rock'n'roll story. But beyond the combustible merry-go-round of fame, drugs and rehab, across the Cold Chisel, solo and soul years - this is a story about how it's never too late to try and put things right.' (Publication summary)
' A questioning about the ethics of reading and the visualization of refugees and asylum-seekers in graphic life narratives recurs throughout this issue, and necessarily so, given the urgency of scholarly work on the inhumanities of forced migration now. How do we bear “adequate witness” to graphic narratives that document the undocumented, receiving their testimony without deforming it by doubt, or substituting different terms of value than the ones offered by the witnesses themselves? The distinction between the spectator, as the detached observer, and the witness, who undertakes an ethical look that mobilizes a sense of responsibility, is critical here. Many of us have claimed that the gutters, frames, and lines of autographic art, its grammar and technology, summon ethical engagement. Comics do not merely represent; they materialize, they are productive, creating ways of seeing and feeling. As the editors of this special issue suggest in their introduction—which immediately alerts us to these questions on the ethical positioning of the artist-witness and the reader-witness—comics are an intersubjective, immersive representational form, where the reader is drawn into affective and ethical exchanges as we project meanings into the gaps and gutters on the page. But what forms does this ethical engagement take? What are the outcomes of “mobilizing responsibility” and why do these questions become urgent and personal when the subjects of autographic art are refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers?' (Introduction)
'This article focuses on the trauma memoir as an identifiable type of creative writing. It begins by tracing its popularity, especially in the 1990s, in the process recognising what can be proposed as key works internationally, many of which—but not all—are American, as well as how these texts were received by critics and readers, in order to place the Australian trauma memoir in this broader context. The so-called ‘misery memoir’ is also discussed. As little investigation has focused on the Australian trauma memoir as a form of memoir, this article will profile some (mostly recent) examples of Australian trauma memoir in order to begin to investigate what these texts contribute to our understanding of the trauma memoir as a form of creative writing. This recognises debates over the literary and social value of memoirs.' (Publication abstract)
'Jimmy Barnes: biography of the year winner says writing makes sense of life.'
