Tom Keneally, The Widow and Her Hero, Doubleday Sydney 2007, ISBN 978-1-86471-101-1. 297pp. Hardback. RRP $49.95 website
Although Tom Keneally fans might consider it heretical to undervalue the popular novels of his middle career, it seems likely that in retrospect Keneally’s earlier and more recent works will be considered his greatest achievements. The exuberant art of novels such as Bring Larks and Heroes (1967) and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1972) focussed baby boomer yearnings for Australian identity. The skilfully crafted An Angel in Australia (2003) and The Widow and Her Hero provide mature reflections on the formative influences experienced by that ageing generation.
The author’s prefatory acknowledgements specify the setting of this story. Grace, the narrator, is the daughter of a Braidwood bank manager when cousin Mel introduces her to comrade-in-arms Leo Waterhouse. Although Grace knows from their ritualised attacks on one another that they are training for "something more exotic than ordinary soldiering", she could not have anticipated that they would become heroes and martyrs, much like the members of Operations Jaywick and Rimau, the 'real' wartime Australian commando raids on shipping in Japanese occupied Singapore. Grace and Leo marry in 1943, and enjoy happiness briefly, because Leo’s fate leaves Grace deeply scarred.
Grace, in her eighties, addresses her memoir to her grand-daughter, and Keneally makes her tale realistic and troubling. Grace is convincing because she admits her failings, her flaws, her doubts and her frustrations as a widow. Far from undermining the major themes of the novel, the complexity and humanity of Grace’s character place the forces that crushed Leo into stark critical contrast. As the details of Leo’s operations, capture, torture and execution become clearer, Grace’s resentment deepens and strengthens. Because she does not spare herself, Grace seems justified in taking offence on Leo’s behalf.
The betrayals are many. Within the Independent Reconnaissance Department for whom Leo and Mel work, senior military men who will never again go to war "find it politically inadvisable to defend them even from the enemy … that’s the burden of my tale". Leo promises that they will marry when he returns from a secret mission. Grace notes the Homeric idea that a man must "undertake a quest to earn the company and solace of his woman", a handy one for nations "organising their young for war and bloodshed". While she does not urge Leo on, nor does she question his naive