Tom Murphy
by Lloyd Gretton
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Pub Date 12 Oct 2014 | Archive Date 28 Sep 2023
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Description
In the 1930s, a Jewish refugee familly, Frau Rosenblum and her two children settle in a town in the North Island of New Zealand. The children, Gustav and Maria captivate the depression era town. They are befriended by a town urchin, Tom Murphy who does "dirty tricks" for the Mayor.
Frau Rosenblum sets up a Montesorri school and gets into trouble for refusing to enrol Maria at the local Government school.
They make friends with a flamboyant gay man called Wormwood. Wormwood stages a concert for the unemployed where he nearly causes a riot as a transvestite. Wormwood later has to flee the town after his homosexuality is discovered.
Gustav, Maria and Tom have many adventures motivated by Gustav's wild imagination. They explore the town's forests and lake. Gustav designs a new water supply for the town. Gustav gets into deep water by falling in love with the Mayor's daughter. He tries to win by parapsychology at a lottery in order to buy a house where his family and Tom can live as artists and designers.
Gustav and Tom nearly die in a mountain excusion. They meet Maori people and a gold miner who give them hospitlaity.
The children watch a movie in a town movie house. Gustav responds to the movie,The Jazz Singer, by grand plans of being an opera composer in New York.
The Mayor makes Gustav an offer that he goes back to school and settles permanently in New Zealand. This offer ends in disaster and the family flee to New York.
Maria writes a Maori fairy tale and Gustav writes post cards from New York to Tom.
Tom's father is a much respected alcoholic Irish nationalist policeman.
Gustav becomes a Zionist, Maria an East German Communist and Tom a hobo. Sixty years later, Maria returns to live with Tom in their old haunts.
This novel carries an unsettling and ironical twist. In a way, it is the ultimate Jewish novel..
Gustav, Maria and Tom experience sexual awakenings on a mountain top and at a lake. They however remain innocent and "virginal". Tom after his awakening has a dream of "a dance of death".
This story is full of pathos and humour.
This novel is "a time machine" of life in the 1930s and 1990s in New Zealand, Germany and America.
This novel is suitable for young adult and adult readers.
Advance Praise
Tom Murphy is the fictional memoir of a boy who grew up in the 1930s. He is given the unusual task of being the "mayor's boy", a job that eventually gets him into deep water. This memoir is wonderfully peculiar. While fiction, it is written in a way that the story seems utterly real. The details of the fictional protagonist's memories are often odd and specific and very true to how real recollection works. This makes Tom life-like and mesmerizing. Tom Murphy is very well researched. Readers with a penchant for a fresh spin on historical fiction and for unique characters that come alive on the pages are sure to enjoy this novel- Books Go Social.
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9798439918669 |
| PRICE | US$4.59 (USD) |
| PAGES | 122 |
