If you love reading Australian YA, or have teenagers residing at your house, then Claire Zorn’s new novel One Would Think the Deep, published by UQP, should be next on your reading list. Claire was recently awarded the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for The Protected, and her latest work brings us another memorable, damaged and emotionally isolated character in the form of adolescent Sam. The opening scene is harrowing: set in 1997, Sam is on a public phone to his Aunt Lorraine, who he hasn’t seen in seven years, to ask if he can come and live with her for a while because his mother (Lorraine’s sister, Rachel) has just died. Sam is all alone, with a social worker hovering in the background. And so Sam moves from Sydney to the northern beaches to live with his aunt, and his cousins Minty and Shane. Minty is a talented surfer who is in the process of competing in national competitions and hopeful of being recruited by a major surfing sponsor. The boys were close as children, but not only has Sam not seen his extended family – nor his Nan, who ‘disappeared’ years earlier, around the time his Pop died – for years, he has no idea what caused the rift in their relations or why the family disintegrated. Mourning his mum, and feeling at a loose end with his friends and school gone, Sam must fit in with Minty’s surfie mates, and make some decisions about the direction his life will take.
Claire writes adolescents exceptionally well. She gets into their heads, and reminds us all what it was like to love deeply, fall heavily, and feel intently the embarrassments, peer pressure and responsibilities of those teenage years. The blossoming romance between Sam and Gretchen is portrayed with a lovely innocence and tenderness. The relationships between the cousins, between Sam and his aunt, and between Minty and the enigmatic Ruby are also developed with insight and empathy. Claire writes particularly good dialogue, and she has really captured that time period (1997 – was it really almost 20 years ago?!) when the book is set. For those into music, she has thoughtfully included a list of Sam’s mixtape at the end, with classics from Jeff Buckley, Split Enz, Nirvana, Foo Fighters and more.
One Would Think the Deep deals with themes of grief, belonging, and family. It is raw; rather than shy away from issues such as loss, violence, drugs, alcohol and insecurity it tackles them head-on, in a way accessible to teenage readers. Claire’s indepth and detailed depictions of the surfing culture, the skateboarding scene, and even running and swimming, all ring true.
This novel is a well-balanced portrait of darkness and light; of challenges and trauma depicted against resilience and hope.
One Would Think the Deep – Claire Zorn
