Wing features a cast of truly awful, nasty people. What is Gemmell trying to achieve here?
Cin’s mother is Mig. Tamsin’s mother is Tink. Willa’s mother is Cara. Ella’s mother is Beth. Pup is the school administrator, a bloke. The head of the school is called Sarge by her staff. That school is Koongala, a Sydney girls’ school where the parents drive not just Mercedes and Porsches but rarer things. But 67 girls aged between 15 and 17 have gone on a bush school camp and four are missing; Cin, Tamsin, Willa and Ella.
Sarge writes of Cin as if she were in love with her, calling her insufferable and self-obsessed behaviour courageous and authentic. And Mig, the only steadfast figure in her life – they were both aspiring and dazzling state school girls who didn’t want to stay where they were assigned by class and status – is no longer speaking to Sarge. Their argument has something to do with the ability, or non-ability, to love.
And the writing? Well, the characters’ names – brittle, one syllable – seem to be a metaphor for the book in every way. Maybe this is all ironic? Can Gemmell believe this means Feminism, 2024? I’m terrified she does; the book’s dedication says:WTF? And two admirable women – Susan Johnson and Suzie Miller – are quoted on the cover saying they couldn’t put this down. Call me perverse; I had to pay myself to pick it up again and again to read for this review.
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