JUNE READING: LUNCH WITH A SOLDIER by Derek Hansen

JUNE READING: LUNCH WITH A SOLDIER by Derek Hansen

This novel is the fourth in the 'Lunch With' series, although is a stand alone story and does not need to be read in conjunction with the others. Each of the four books is a tale narrated by one of four friends who gather regularly to eat and drink  in a small local Italian restaurant in Sydney, Australia. The four friends are getting on in years and hail from different countries - Hungary, Italy, Argentina and Australia. This book is the story narrated by Neil, who grew up in the farming/opal mining areas of north west New South Wales and beginning, I estimate, after WWII. The story he tells is primarily that of his brother Billy - their childhood,  Billy's tour of duty in Vietnam in the 1960s, and Billy's life after Vietnam. While living as a bit of a recluse running the family farm, a woman one day appears wanting to rent a cottage on the property.  It becomes obvious early on that she is on the run from someone or something, and Billy finds himself drawn to her and whatever has befallen her.

However this story is not only that of Billy, but also of Neil and Billy. One of the rules the four friends has laid down about the story telling is that the story cannot be true. Although without having read any of the other three books, I get the impression that there are elements of a true story in each of the other tales told respectively by Ramon, Milos and Lucio. Neil states from the outset that his story is true, throwing a bit of a spanner into the works as a result, to the extent that I felt the longstanding and close friendship between the four men was seriously under threat by this not sticking to the rules. This tension is a distinct undercurrent throughout the whole book, with it becoming an absolute page turner as he reader really has no idea where it is going - how true is it really? All we know is Neil's statement at the beginning -  that he was responsible for taking his brother's life. How's that for a conversation opener.

There are a number of twists and turns in this book, and it makes for a jolly good story. The author is a truly gifted story teller as seen in his novel 'Remember Me', published 2007, which I reviewed in January 2012. This review book was published 2004 and the quality of his writing improved markedly since then. The writing in the book under review feels a bit contrived and forced. For me there isn't enough subtlety or realness in the characters and relationships of the four friends - I can't really imagine four older gents who have known each other for years having a drink and a yarn in a Sydney bar/restaurant actually talking like this to each other.

This however has not stopped me from wanting to read the other three 'Lunch With' books, and I do have 'Lunch with the Stationmaster' sitting in my enormous pile of unreads. All four books have been favourably reviewed on Amazon/Good Reads etc, but no one book stands out as the 'best' or the 'favourite'. Which I guess is the way it should be - something to suit all tastes.