Hoi Polloi

by Craig Sherborne

Hoi Polloi is about innocence and experience. See-sawing between low-life and high-life, it depicts a mother and father who are comical, terrifying and unique. It finds fresh and hilarious things to say about growing up. Hoi Polloi is an instant classic about raw youth and the ways of the world.
description from Black Inc. -publisher

Hoi Polloi recounts a childhood spent on race-tracks and in bars, as the author's parents struggle to climb the social ladder. Acclaimed as an 'instant classic' on first publication, and written with extraordinary sympathy and verve, it is a book that finds fresh and hilarious things to say about growing up.

description from amazon.co.uk

197 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Craig Sherborne, a Melbourne based poet and playwright, was educated at Scots College in Sydney before attending drama school in London. He worked as a journalist for Melbourne based newspapers, was a senior writer with the Melbourne Sun, and is published in literary journals and anthologies.

Sherborne's play, 'The Ones Out of Town', won the Wal Cherry Play of the Year Award in 1989. His radio play, 'Table Leg', won the Ian Reed Foundation Fellowship for new writing for radio in 1991.

The ABC commissioned work from him including 'The Pike Harvest' (1992). His verse-drama, Look at Everything Twice for Me, was published by Currency Press, his first volume of poetry, Bullion, by Penguin in 1995, and his second, Necessary Evil, by Black Inc. in 2005.

Craig Sherborne's memoir Hoi Polloi was published in 2005; it was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.. Its sequel, Muck, was published in 2007 and won the Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2008.

Craig’s first novel, The Amateur Science of Love, won the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award, and was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and a NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

Reviews

[Yehuda Aharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wondered where the Maori/ POC reviewers of his work were?
A very well written and illustrative experience of a priviliged Aus/NZ boy who perpetually offloads the repercussions of his actions onto the vulnerable or disadvantaged who are around him. The saving grace might have been if he realised that or discussed it in a more critical manner but instead I felt like the author was re-perpretrating those actions, re-applying the racism of his youth again in the book, glorifying the violence and fistfights that make up a troubled masculinity.
Still I would reccommend it as a well written case study of how racism and classism can fester in the world of a child who should be free of those pretensions.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for university, and I'm happy it was one of our assigned texts. This is a coming of age memoir, a work of truth and honesty from a local talent. Sherborne is an Australian born writer and Hoi Polloi tells the story of his early life, from the ages of 5-15. He talks about life, a good chunk of which was spent in small town New Zealand and the family pub. He speaks of life growing up trackside, a brush with religion, with suicide, with confused homosexuality and with an older woman. He beats up a homeless man, calls his mothers best friend a whore and shows a penchant for Shakespeare. He battles with his parents, nicknamed Winks and Heels, constant attempts at social climbing and belittling of every single action he has done or not done. This is a light hearted recount of a VERY interesting life, Sherborne has an amazing story to tell.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grotty and vivid and snarky. The language develops as the narrator does. And as he becomes aware of the meanness and lying. Interesting characters. Maybe more of a 3.5 not sure I really wanted to know so much about boys. Bro-lit? Definitely an insight into a different age and place and people.

[Felicity · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first of 'My Own Books' that I haven't really enjoyed. I read to the end only because I'd started it as part of a Reading Challenge, otherwise I would have put it to one side. I felt the author had a bit of a chip on his shoulder and didn't really like hearing his seedy side of coming of age.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Semi-interesting memoir of Australian life.

[Deborah Sutherland · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Memoir of the Authors boyhood, Growing up in Heritage NZ and then Moving to Sydney as a teen. Plenty of Testosterone. Comparable to John Doust's Boy on a Wire.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting boyhood