Ironbark

by Jay Carmichael

Overview

Shortlisted for the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award

He shouldn’t have a life he never asked for and be expected to love men. With their problems never spoken outward. And childhood trauma and family issues. Men wanting to be held or hold.

Markus Bello’s life has stalled. Living in a small country town, mourning the death of his best friend, Grayson, Markus is isolated and adrift. As time passes, and life continues around him, Markus must try to face his grief, and come to terms with what is left.

Stylistically assured and quietly compelling, Ironbark is an elliptical and beautifully evoked contemporary coming-of-age story. Through his protagonist, Markus, newcomer Jay Carmichael depicts the conflict and confusion of life as a gay man in rural Australia, and explores how place can shape personal identity by both offering and restricting potential. A moving portrait of grief and loss, Ironbark is also a devastating account of the toll exacted by our society’s expectations of what it means to be a man.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925548907
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	04/30/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	222 KB

About the Author

Jay Carmichael is a writer and editor whose first novel, Ironbark, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2019, and whose writing has been published by Beyond Blue and appeared widely in print and online, including in Overland, The Guardian, SBS, and The Telling Tree project. Jay lives and works in Melbourne.

Reading Group Guide

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. Does/will Markus leave Narioka? Why or why not?
2. Discuss the absence of mothers in the novel. How does this relate to Markus, if at all?
3. The novel is structurally complex — each section moves forward but also brings you, the reader, back in time (except for the fourth section). How did this affect your reading?
4. What is the symbolism of the ironbark tree to Markus and to the novel?
5. Consider the characters Elmyra and Elba, who have both created different identities for themselves. How are they similar/different? And what are they saying about Markus’s situation?
6. The only ‘queer’ reference Markus has is Georges,
   who travels back to Narioka twice — once after
   Grayson’s death, and once more, three years later, for his art show. What do you think Georges represents to
   Markus? And how does Markus react?
7. How does the landscape impact on the characters?
8. Does Ironbark fall in the tradition of queer tragedy or is it ultimately hopeful?
9. Markus hates that of all the rules he tries to live by, this one, believing in the inherent goodness in people, is the one he cannot break. How is this concept relevant/irrelevant to each of the characters in
   Ironbark?
10. Discuss what might be different in the novel if
    Markus was opposite-sex attracted (i.e. if he was attracted to females rather than males).

Editorial Reviews

Jay Carmichael approaches the world as a poet, from an angle that is all his own. He reveals a hidden, pulsing reality beneath the surface of the everyday.”
—Miles Allinson, author of Fever of Animals

“In sparse and quiet prose, Jay Carmichael's debut is an enveloping novel about grief, survival, and the futility of finding peace in a place you don't belong.”
—Shaun Prescott, author of The Town

“What Ironbark captures beautifully is the yearning one might feel while growing up unable to understand or express love and attraction freely; a yearning to kiss your best friend, a longing for an end to a loneliness, like cracked land waiting for rain. Ironbark is a still, quiet, compelling novel that reaches an ending both sad and peaceful.”
—Good Reading

“The novel draws deeply on the love of nature that once inspired Carmichael to pursue botanical science…It is almost poetic in its descriptions of a slightly surreal landscape overcome by an oncoming storm that seems to mirror Markus’ silent struggles.”
—sbs.com.au

“[A] subtle, impressionistic novel about adolescent alienation and masculinity in rural Australia…Carmichael paints an exquisitely tender portrait of doomed adolescent longing and love.”
—The Monthly

“Ironbark is an elegant novel, one that reveals itself slowly. It is both a wonderful evocation of the listlessness of grief and a disturbing portrait of shame and self-doubt. In many ways the story is as familiar as the town, hot and dusty with drought, but it is also fresh and new, as it questions with an unexpected urgency what it means to be a man.”
—Adelaide Advertiser

“Jay Carmichael's Ironbark does the extraordinary. It achieves what we readers want from the best of fiction: to tell a story anew, and to capture a world in all its wonder, ugliness, tenderness, and cruelty. This is a novel of coming of age and of grief that astonishes us by its wisdom and by its compassion. It's a work of great and simple beauty, so good it made me jealous. And grateful.”
—Christos Tsiolkas

“[An] accomplished debut…Carmichael has a poetic turn of phrase, and he plays with time, moving the story back and forth…keeping readers on their toes.”
—Books+Publishing

“While it feels like a cliché to call a novel—especially one by a first-time author—‘assured’, it is the phrase I kept returning to while reading this debut offering from young Victorian writer Jay Carmichael. His clean and polished prose possesses the kind of confidence that puts readers at ease…Ironbark is a poised and atmospheric work that reveals Carmichael as an author to watch.”
—Chris Somerville, Readings

“[A] subtle, impressionistic novel about adolescent alienation and masculinity in rural Australia…As the narrative progresses, Carmichael adjusts the focus, bringing his story, characters and imagery into sharper, though never completely clear, view…Carmichael paints an exquisitely tender portrait of doomed adolescent longing and love.”
—Sophie Quick, The Monthly

“It is convincing as the voice of a young man full of longing, awkwardness and a passion for things he will no doubt soon grow out of…Ironbark is a book about being stuck: the story does not develop so much as deepen.”
—Weekend Australian

From the Publisher

What Ironbark captures beautifully is the yearning one might feel while growing up unable to understand or express love and attraction freely; a yearning to kiss your best friend, a longing for an end to a loneliness, like cracked land waiting for rain. Ironbark is a still, quiet, compelling novel that reaches an ending both sad and peaceful.”

Good Reading

[A] subtle, impressionistic novel about adolescent alienation and masculinity in rural Australia…As the narrative progresses, Carmichael adjusts the focus, bringing his story, characters and imagery into sharper, though never completely clear, view…Carmichael paints an exquisitely tender portrait of doomed adolescent longing and love.”

The Monthly Sophie Quick

[A]subtle, impressionistic novel about adolescent alienation and masculinity in rural Australia…Carmichael paints an exquisitely tender portrait of doomed adolescent longing and love.”

The Monthly

While it feels like a cliché to call a novel—especially one by a first-time author—‘assured’, it is the phrase I kept returning to while reading this debut offering from young Victorian writer Jay Carmichael. His clean and polished prose possesses the kind of confidence that puts readers at ease… Ironbark is a poised and atmospheric work that reveals Carmichael as an author to watch.”

Readings Chris Somerville

[An] accomplished debut…Carmichael has a poetic turn of phrase, and he plays with time, moving the story back and forth…keeping readers on their toes.”

Books+Publishing

Jay Carmichael approaches the world as a poet, from an angle that is all his own. He reveals a hidden, pulsing reality beneath the surface of the everyday.”

Miles Allinson

The novel draws deeply on the love of nature that once inspired Carmichael to pursue botanical science…It is almost poetic in its descriptions of a slightly surreal landscape overcome by an oncoming storm that seems to mirror Markus’ silent struggles.”

sbs.com.au

Ironbark is an elegant novel, one that reveals itself slowly. It is both a wonderful evocation of the listlessness of grief and a disturbing portrait of shame and self-doubt. In many ways the story is as familiar as the town, hot and dusty with drought, but it is also fresh and new, as it questions with an unexpected urgency what it means to be a man.”

Adelaide Advertiser

It is convincing as the voice of a young man full of longing, awkwardness and a passion for things he will no doubt soon grow out of… Ironbark is a book about being stuck: the story does not develop so much as deepen.”

Weekend Australian

In sparse and quiet prose, Jay Carmichael's debut is an enveloping novel about grief, survival, and the futility of finding peace in a place you don't belong.”

Shaun Prescott

Jay Carmichael's Ironbark does the extraordinary. It achieves what we readers want from the best of fiction: to tell a story anew, and to capture a world in all its wonder, ugliness, tenderness, and cruelty. This is a novel of coming of age and of grief that astonishes us by its wisdom and by its compassion. It's a work of great and simple beauty, so good it made me jealous. And grateful.”

Christos Tsiolkas