REVIEW

LUDO - Boyd Anderson

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

Jockey McAuley is 15 years old, with no idea what he's going to do with his life, when he somehow or other ends up working for Mr Hardaker at Paton Electrical.  His job - well it's odd.  It's mostly to shadow Mr Hardaker and watch / listen and remember everything that happens.  Somewhere in the background there's something going on at Paton Electrical though.   There's reference to "the Phoenix affair", there's police, there's the owner of the factory in his wheelchair, there's great big cars, a secretary, canteen gossip and Ludo.  Ludo is Fred Paton's nurse or companion, or something.  Something a 15 year old boy with a good Catholic mother can't quite get a handle on.

LUDO (the book) is told entirely in Jockey's voice.  It's written as a reminiscence, Jockey looking back at his role in the lives of Hardaker, Paton and Ludo (the woman).  It was a very short episode in his life, but it has obviously had a very profound effect - although the full extent of that effect isn't revealed until right at the end of the book.  Nothing much is fully revealed until the end of the book mind you - it's in the last few chapters that the full extent of the Phoenix Affair (for that matter what the Phoenix Affair actually is) is fully revealed.

Reading LUDO I have to confess to frequently feeling a distinct sense of frustration.  There's a lot of Jockey and Hardaker running around, and because the book is told completely from Jockey's point of view, there's a sense of repetitiveness, a certain floating feeling filled in by a lot of chat to cover the nothingness of the action.  Which isn't quite true - there's something going on always, but it's bubbling away under the surface, hidden within the detritus of people seeming to go about their daily lives, just a little bit on edge.  I suspect what the author is aiming for is to give the reader some sense of Jockey's own confusion - even his own frustration at sitting, and listening and watching and not really knowing why or even what's going to come of all of this.  It's all a bit mysterious - both to Jockey and the reader.  The book is set in the 1960's and the terminology and setting, seemingly accurate, does help to put the reader very much in the same position as Jockey.  Watching, listening, remembering, not quite getting the whole picture, wondering what the hell is going on here.

LUDO isn't exactly a gentle reading experience, there are points at which you just want something, anything, to happen.  Just something to break up the waiting and watching and wondering.  There are points at which you'd really swear you'd missed something - just as Jockey obviously thought he'd missed something.   It's an interesting book LUDO, undoubtedly one of those books that will divide readers, and whilst I found myself squirming with frustration whilst I was reading it, something definitely kept me with the story right to the end. 

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
Author
ISBN
9780702238987
Year of Publication
Series
BLURB

Sydney, 1961: Jockey McAuley is just looking for a little direction in life.  On a fast track from high school to the old school, he stumbles into the notorious Phoenix affair, a netherworld of shady deals, half truths and men with more sides than a cut diamond.

And then there's Ludo.  Glamorous, unattainable Ludo, playing everyone by her own rules.  The game changes fast, and a wink and a nod can get a capable young man anything from a gun in the face to a fortune in his kick.

With sharp dialogue, vivid characters and shocking intrigue, Ludo tips its hat to classic crime noir as it brings to life the seedy world of Sydney in the 1960s

Review LUDO - Boyd Anderson
Karen Chisholm
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Blog Currently Reading - Ludo, Boyd Anderson
Karen Chisholm
Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Add new comment

This is a book review site, with no relationship whatsoever with any of the authors mentioned here.

We do not provide a method for you to contact authors for any reason and comments of this nature are automatically deleted.

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.