Brendan Ritchie, Carousel, Fremantle Press, 22 April 2015, 349pp, $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9 781925 162141
Nox, aged 22,Taylor and Lizzie meet in Carousel, a Perth shopping Mall. Nox recognises them as twin sisters, singers from Canada, who have had some gigs in Perth that he has attended. With another boy, Rocky, they are trapped in Carousel for over a year. They eat and drink the food in the shops, wear the abundant clothes, ride bikes around the long corridors, write music together, develop a garden, and nurse Rocky when he is ill. There are resources galore. From Target to Toys R Us we travel the main drag.
There are sporadic attempts to open the doors, but no-one seems frantic to get out. They have conversations about the films and videos they watch, and have a brief interaction with a cleaner who comes and goes after a day or two. Nox writes a short story about a boy on a bus, they discover a car in an enclosed car park attached to the Mall, shed a few tears now and then, and do not seem at all curious about what is going on outside.
In fact, nothing much happens in Carousel, despite a tragedy that seems almost casually accepted by the group, a couple of storms that crash the Mall’s dome, and a dead body in an office. They never run out of food, and sleep well and comfortably on purloined beds.
Characterisation is not strong. The twins, Taylor and Lizzie are indistinguishable, Rocky is inexplicably mysterious, and Nox is self absorbed. The situation is not claustrophobic: the young people seem happy enough to stay in their cocoon forever. To be trapped in a shopping mall may be your idea of a nightmare, but to these characters it is almost an extended holiday.
It is an interesting scenario, but perhaps less shopping and more curiosity about why the characters have been sequestered in the Mall, or what is happening in the world beyond may have livened the plot.
Teaching Notes are available on the Fremantle Press website.
reviewed by Stella Lees
