 |
Fiction
The Secret Gang of Oomlau (1988) |
The Five Mile Press, 122 p, paperback, illustrated
by Brett Colquhoun, cover by Brett Colquhoun
Largely because of the company I was keeping in 1985 – when I wrote
Oomlau - I became hugely interested in collage.
Somehow, I felt ‘if only visual collage could be transferred in words’.
For example, ‘Lone Ranger’ conjures up images of Tonto! The mask!
A white horse! Plus the William Tell Overture!
Thus the whole of this story is peppered with references to Ginger Meggs,
Just William, Monty Python, the Holy Grail, the Phantom, Just William, etc.
The very real problem with this book is that not everybody knows who Ginger
Meggs is any more, - and so much of the humour rests in a subliminal knowledge
of – say – the Phantom’s antics? Memories of the Lone Ranger,
etc. However, those who know these things, have found a few laughs in The Secret
Gang of Oomlau.
People who will enjoy it: Children in late-primary-early high school. Nostalgic
adults.
Available from:
• Your local library. If they haven’t got it, ask for inter-library
loan.
• Or from me - for $Aussie 10 plus $3 postage. Send it to Lowell Tarling, P.O. Box 758 Katoomba, NSW, 2780, Australia.
Raving on:
Oomlau was not conceived as a novel, but rather in a comic strip form – even
as a film. In the end it became a novel out of necessity.
Twice I gained interest in the film project, once with the Australian Film
Commission and again with the ABC, but I didn’t get it over the line.
So it became this novel instead.
Somehow this book had its own little sub-culture involving my entire family
and many friends in jokes, drawings and language.  |
