'Three brothers are forced to confront the quiet, pervasive violence of their family’s past and the distances to which they have all carried their father’s pain into their own futures. Paul Mitchell’s episodic novel is an unraveling of the twisting threads that tie us to the past.
'We. Are. Family. explores the trauma handed down through generations as folklore and the way we all relate to those closest to us. The damaging idea of Australian masculinity is described with tenderness and dry humour.
'Taking cues from Tim Winton’s The Turning, Paul Mitchell’s We. Are. Family. is a cyclic meditation on the slow turning of life and the interconnectedness of identity and family.' (Publication summary)
'The scorpion needs to cross the river. He watches the boy's eyes as he scurries onto the quivering chest. I need to be brave enough not to sting. The water flows over the boy's chest and touches the scorpion's feet. The fear causes a reaction, and the tail pierces the chest. In this instant, he knows that he will drown, he knows the pain he is causing the boy, but the reaction is familiar; the fear has made him feel there is no other way. In Paul Mitchell's debut novel, We. Are. Family., masculinity is laid bare. Three generations of the Stevenson family are crippled by the pretense of appearing strong. Familiar equilibrium is punctuated by trauma. We see the scorpion's tail pierce the boy's chest to deliver the poison; we feel the father's eyes want his sons to have fun fishing because as males, the challenge of knots and poles and the silence of water has to give us a chance to feel our souls. The bold title is absolutely perfect. In my California surfer dialect, THIS! BOOK! ROCKS!' (Introduction)
We. Are. Family. The punctuation immediately calls to mind the Sister Sledge hit of 1979. Those full stops syncopate the disco rhythm. The song, composed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, features the lyrics:
no we don’t get depressed
Here’s what we call our golden rule
Have faith in you and the things you do
You won’t go wrong
This is our family Jewel
(Introduction)
'The scorpion needs to cross the river. He watches the boy's eyes as he scurries onto the quivering chest. I need to be brave enough not to sting. The water flows over the boy's chest and touches the scorpion's feet. The fear causes a reaction, and the tail pierces the chest. In this instant, he knows that he will drown, he knows the pain he is causing the boy, but the reaction is familiar; the fear has made him feel there is no other way. In Paul Mitchell's debut novel, We. Are. Family., masculinity is laid bare. Three generations of the Stevenson family are crippled by the pretense of appearing strong. Familiar equilibrium is punctuated by trauma. We see the scorpion's tail pierce the boy's chest to deliver the poison; we feel the father's eyes want his sons to have fun fishing because as males, the challenge of knots and poles and the silence of water has to give us a chance to feel our souls. The bold title is absolutely perfect. In my California surfer dialect, THIS! BOOK! ROCKS!' (Introduction)
We. Are. Family. The punctuation immediately calls to mind the Sister Sledge hit of 1979. Those full stops syncopate the disco rhythm. The song, composed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, features the lyrics:
no we don’t get depressed
Here’s what we call our golden rule
Have faith in you and the things you do
You won’t go wrong
This is our family Jewel
(Introduction)
