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Harmless
Full of suspense, Harmless, is the tightly woven story of eight year old Amanda, whose father is in prison, and Rattuwat, a Thai man burying his daughter in a strange land.
Abandoning their broken-down car on the way to the prison’s visiting hour, Amanda and Rattuwat venture into the trackless scrub of Australia’s outer suburbs. As the day heats up, the sense of menace intensifies and each of them enters the no-man’s-land between safety and peril.
Praise for the Book
... the whole canvas of Australian life — its ethnic diversity, its violence, its growing divisions of class and economic status, its convoluted history of linkage with South East Asia — is made vivid in this remarkable novella.’ Janette Turner-Hospital
Abandoning their broken-down car on the way to the prison’s visiting hour, Amanda and Rattuwat venture into the trackless scrub of Australia’s outer suburbs. As the day heats up, the sense of menace intensifies and each of them enters the no-man’s-land between safety and peril.
Praise for the Book
... the whole canvas of Australian life — its ethnic diversity, its violence, its growing divisions of class and economic status, its convoluted history of linkage with South East Asia — is made vivid in this remarkable novella.’ Janette Turner-Hospital
140 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2012
61 people want to read
About the author
Julienne van Loon
9 books25 followersJulienne van Loon has written three novels: Road Story (2005), which won the Australian/Vogel’s Award, Beneath the Bloodwood Tree (2008) and Harmless (2013). Her novella ‘Instructions for a Steep Decline’ won the Griffith Review Novella Project VII and is published in Griffith Review 66. Her debut non-fiction The Thinking Woman (2019) has been hailed as “a revelation” (Australian Book Review), “surprising and resonant” (Sydney Morning Herald) and “an invitation to a thoughtful life” (Feminist Writers’ Festival). She lives in Melbourne, where she is an Associate Professor with the Writing and Publishing program at RMIT.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 22, 2016
Julienne Van Loon is an author with a taste for grim topics. Her first, Vogel Award-winning novella, Road Story, followed the ever-downward trajectory of her character Diana who runs away from a car crash caused when her drug-addicted passenger falls across her body. I didn’t read Beneath the Bloodwood Tree but Peter Pierce in the ABR found it ’faithful to the essential spirit of Australia – to its abiding nihilism’. Now there is Harmless, Van Loon’s third book, piecing together the lives of a dysfunctional family and once again leaving the question of redemption unanswered.
There is a stark relentlessness to the plot. The story begins with eight-year-old Amanda on her way to visit her father in prison. She is accompanied by Rattuwat, who has beggared himself to come from Thailand to bury his daughter Sua. At Amanda’s insistence that she knows the way, they have abandoned the broken-down car to travel cross-country, but the heat is remorseless and Rattuwat is too old and frail to keep up. Van Loon draws on the mythology of the Lost Child in the Australian bush* to sustain her readers’ interest from the start.
But Amanda is lost in more ways than one. Her father is in prison for a long time and (improbably) authorities seem not to have made provision for her welfare. This meeting at the prison is Dave’s attempt to salvage some sort of family for her. But she is not a nice child: she is ‘impatient and rude’. She does not have the respect for elders that Rattuwat is used to in his culture. She and her older brother Ant did not make him welcome when he arrived at their shabby house on Perth’s outer urban fringe; she uses filthy language; she vandalises precious orchids out of idle curiosity when she knows she should not. Yet a reader’s judgement must be withheld: there is Amanda’s tender age, and there are the truly shocking images of both her birth mother and her surrogate mother abandoning her in their different ways.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/03/20/ha...
There is a stark relentlessness to the plot. The story begins with eight-year-old Amanda on her way to visit her father in prison. She is accompanied by Rattuwat, who has beggared himself to come from Thailand to bury his daughter Sua. At Amanda’s insistence that she knows the way, they have abandoned the broken-down car to travel cross-country, but the heat is remorseless and Rattuwat is too old and frail to keep up. Van Loon draws on the mythology of the Lost Child in the Australian bush* to sustain her readers’ interest from the start.
But Amanda is lost in more ways than one. Her father is in prison for a long time and (improbably) authorities seem not to have made provision for her welfare. This meeting at the prison is Dave’s attempt to salvage some sort of family for her. But she is not a nice child: she is ‘impatient and rude’. She does not have the respect for elders that Rattuwat is used to in his culture. She and her older brother Ant did not make him welcome when he arrived at their shabby house on Perth’s outer urban fringe; she uses filthy language; she vandalises precious orchids out of idle curiosity when she knows she should not. Yet a reader’s judgement must be withheld: there is Amanda’s tender age, and there are the truly shocking images of both her birth mother and her surrogate mother abandoning her in their different ways.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/03/20/ha...
February 19, 2013
"With the right kind of mindfulness, William Blake tells us, one can behold infinity in a grain of sand." – Janette Turner Hospital on Harmless
When a writer like Janette Turner Hospital pens a back-cover blurb for another Australian author, I pay attention. What is it about Julienne van Loon’s novella, Harmless, soon to be released by Fremantle Press, which has attracted such a gifted admirer? The snippet from Hospital quoted on the front of the book states: Harmless is “suffused with a tough and totally unsentimental compassion”.
I notice, too, review words like “unsentimental”; it seems to be used often when female literary authors are praised. Sentimentality implies emotional manipulation, and a lack of subtlety and nuance. The term has been used to dismiss the work of a plethora of “female authors”, especially those writing in genres such as romance. But what does “unsentimental” mean? I’m tempted to think it’s code for “writes like a man”, or “give this book a girlie-looking cover at your peril”. It’s praise, but is it gendered praise?
Read more of this review here.
Harmless by Julienne van Loon
When a writer like Janette Turner Hospital pens a back-cover blurb for another Australian author, I pay attention. What is it about Julienne van Loon’s novella, Harmless, soon to be released by Fremantle Press, which has attracted such a gifted admirer? The snippet from Hospital quoted on the front of the book states: Harmless is “suffused with a tough and totally unsentimental compassion”.
I notice, too, review words like “unsentimental”; it seems to be used often when female literary authors are praised. Sentimentality implies emotional manipulation, and a lack of subtlety and nuance. The term has been used to dismiss the work of a plethora of “female authors”, especially those writing in genres such as romance. But what does “unsentimental” mean? I’m tempted to think it’s code for “writes like a man”, or “give this book a girlie-looking cover at your peril”. It’s praise, but is it gendered praise?
Read more of this review here.
Harmless by Julienne van Loon
April 5, 2013
one of the benefits of being sick = I get to stay in bed and read. I read this in one morning. It was rivetting. Set in the Perth hills on a Saturday but stretching back to account for blended families, life, death, and crimes of love and life. There are lots of twists through misunderstandings and a really sensitive balance of desolation and community, and finding connections in the oddest of circumstances. Some fairly violent critiques too of sexual slavery, racism, and parenting. a really intelligent and powerful novel.
November 27, 2022
Gorgeous, depressing & hopeful. The writing is breath-taking - every word carefully chosen. The actions & dialogue gripping. And while the overall theme is fairly depressing (drugs, crime, unwanted children, lost in the bush, lost in another country), it is not without hope. Simply amazing.
March 7, 2018
Long live the Novella, and people able to write from different points of view convincingly.
Really enjoyed finding this author and will be looking for more of her work.
Really enjoyed finding this author and will be looking for more of her work.
Read
February 22, 2021Legitimately brutal and set off some PTSD.
Amazingly well done but damn.
Amazingly well done but damn.
Read
February 18, 2025beloved-esque
April 4, 2013
As I got to the last page I was devastated to find that it was the last page. I didn't want it to end. I wanted more. I wasn't ready to say good bye to the people in the book.
Harmless is not an Alice in Wonderland tale with a lovely neat ending, perfectly prim characters living very ordered lives. There is no Sound of Music warm glow at the end.
What Harmless is, is a story about people that we don't want to recognise, issues that we hope to never have to face and people we don't want to become. But amongst all of that Julienne van Loon has managed to show a different slant on those situations. To make us feel empathy for these people dealing with the consequences of not so bright decisions and the effect those decisions have on everyone connected. It also gives you hope that when lost people connect that they can become whole, each using their strengths to support the other.
Harmless will leave you thinking about other peoples perspectives, one's you would not normally consider. Perspectives that left me feeling shallow for never having considered them in any great detail.
This is a great thought provoking book with a wonderful tale to tell.
Harmless is not an Alice in Wonderland tale with a lovely neat ending, perfectly prim characters living very ordered lives. There is no Sound of Music warm glow at the end.
What Harmless is, is a story about people that we don't want to recognise, issues that we hope to never have to face and people we don't want to become. But amongst all of that Julienne van Loon has managed to show a different slant on those situations. To make us feel empathy for these people dealing with the consequences of not so bright decisions and the effect those decisions have on everyone connected. It also gives you hope that when lost people connect that they can become whole, each using their strengths to support the other.
Harmless will leave you thinking about other peoples perspectives, one's you would not normally consider. Perspectives that left me feeling shallow for never having considered them in any great detail.
This is a great thought provoking book with a wonderful tale to tell.
August 4, 2013
Harmless, the third book by Julienne Van Loon, who incidentally taught me at Curtin University, is a tightly woven story that surrounds 8 year old Amanda, elderly Thai man, Rattuwat, and convict and father, Dave. It is not easy to surmise the contents of this novelette, except to say that it is an empathetic and bleak story that is a modern day fable about deals with the cultural disparity between one of our closest neighbours (Thailand), as well as love and betrayal.
It is not a book I would usually pick up, but thankfully due to my connection with the author, I did. I have read other tutor's works in the past and have been left very disappointed, particularly considering they were supposed to have been teaching me how to write. It is the second book of Julienne's I have read, the first being Road Story. I have been impressed by both titles and have was quite taken with her gritty, yet clean prose. I found the story to be fresh and brutally honest . The character's stories blended in seamlessly together and the in-depth research added to it's believably.
It is not a book I would usually pick up, but thankfully due to my connection with the author, I did. I have read other tutor's works in the past and have been left very disappointed, particularly considering they were supposed to have been teaching me how to write. It is the second book of Julienne's I have read, the first being Road Story. I have been impressed by both titles and have was quite taken with her gritty, yet clean prose. I found the story to be fresh and brutally honest . The character's stories blended in seamlessly together and the in-depth research added to it's believably.
July 8, 2013
I've always been a big fan of Julienne Van Loon's short stories and I guess this is a bit like a longish short story.
Maybe not much happens here but there's a depth to the characters and a reflection on people and their emotions that is very moving.
These are characters on the edge, small characters perhaps but made bigger by Van Loon's attention to their lives. I loved her ability to summon up the Australian landscape.
More please Julienne!
Maybe not much happens here but there's a depth to the characters and a reflection on people and their emotions that is very moving.
These are characters on the edge, small characters perhaps but made bigger by Van Loon's attention to their lives. I loved her ability to summon up the Australian landscape.
More please Julienne!
May 2, 2013
- A WA writer to watch, this is a novella about a child of 8 whose dad is a crim. This small story has a lonely, dry landscape, peopled with sad and isolated people, yet is beautifully written and strangely compelling. There is love and belonging in it too. No walk in the park. I also enjoyed her novel, Under the Bloodwood Tree.
July 27, 2013
A quick novella, but a great story. An 8 year old girl and an elderly Thai man are driving to visit her father in prison when their car breaks down in country Western Australia. What is the connection between these two? Why is her father in prison? Will they find their way to safety? Excellent!
November 10, 2015
Somewhat bleak story about love, families, misunderstandings, betrayal and regret. It came the full circle, but with nothing solved, in fact, the problems presented seemed to have no easy solutions in sight. You could not see a happy ending for any of them.
April 15, 2013
I wont this in a Goodreads first reads giveaway.
For my complete and honest review follow the link http://jazminjade.wordpress.com/2013/...
For my complete and honest review follow the link http://jazminjade.wordpress.com/2013/...
July 5, 2013
My review is at: http://amandacurtin.com/2013/04/29/bo...
January 26, 2014
very easy quick read.
a bit disappointed by the ending, but enjoyed the read
a bit disappointed by the ending, but enjoyed the read
September 9, 2014
Short, bleak and quite compelling. Reminded me of her earlier Vogel winning novel, Road Story.
March 11, 2016
Harmless sits right up there with Van Loon's Vogel award-winning novella Road Story. See my review essay, The Year's Work in Fiction, in the Australian journal Westerly 59.1.
December 1, 2016
Beautifully written, dark novella about life in the outer eastern suburbs of Perth.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews