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The Delinquents: Text Classics

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Brownie and Lola are young and in love. But the odds - not to mention their mothers, the cops, welfare officers and the stifling conventions of 1950s Brisbane - are against them. When they are forced to face adult responsibilities, will they rise to the challenge, or fall apart?

The Delinquents, Criena Rohan's classic novel of rock and roll, youthful rebellion and big dreams, is a love story for the ages.

Deirdre Cash, who published under the pseudonym Criena Rohan, was born in 1924 in Melbourne. She grew up in South Australian and Melbourne, and went on to attend the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She married twice, had two children and worked variously as a singer and ballroom-dancing teacher. Ill-health inspired her to pursue her love of writing in the late 1950s. She published her first novel, The Delinquents in 1962. It was followed by Down by the Dockside in 1963. Cash passed away from cancer that same year at the age of thirty-eight.

'A back-street Tristan and Isolde.' Daily Mail, 1962

1 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1962

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About the author

Criena Rohan

4 books4 followers
Criena Rohan was the pseudonym of Deirdre Cash. She grew up in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, and in South Australia. Her mother, Valerie Cash, was a professional singer, and her father Leo a minor poet. After a Catholic education, she studied singing at the Albert Street Conservatorium for a year. Later she worked as a singer in night clubs and taught ballroom dancing.

Rohan married twice, with a child from each marriage, before being diagnosed with cancer in 1961. While undergoing treatment, Rohan wrote her two novels: The Delinquents (1962) and Down by the Dockside (1963), the latter of which was published posthumously after her death at age thirty-eight. An alleged third novel, The House of the Yellow Door was reportedly completed in manuscript, but has never been found.

Rohan's novels depict the lives of young people growing up in the slums and backstreets of Melbourne, with elements drawn from her life and those of her parents. She experienced a revival in popularity during the 1980s, when The Delinquents was made into a major film, and is now considered an important member of the school of Australian social realism that flourished in the two decades after World War II.

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5 stars
33 (21%)
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for zed .
599 reviews156 followers
July 3, 2019
Kylie Minogue, Joseph Conrad, the fascist state that was Queensland and how I came to realise that the star rating system may not be appropriate for this book.


At a Lifeline Bookfest in Brisbane a while back I picked up battered copies of both this book, The Delinquents by Criena Rohan and The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, both for only a dollar. Conrad’s classic was known to me and had always been on my TBR. The Delinquents on the other hand was a spur of the moment purchase based on the cover blurb. Brisbane being the location was a lure. I also realised, after a look at the www, that the pop diva Kylie Minogue has played the lead in a movie based on the book. Not that I am particularly a Kylie type of fella but what did that matter.

Both of these short books I earmarked for a 12 hour flight I was making mid last year. After taking my seat I half slept just about the entire trip so read little. On leaving the flight I proceeded to leave both battered books on the plane.

I was a little annoyed with myself so once back in Brisbane I purchased new copies of both and decided to start with The Delinquents. With that let’s be utterly brutal. The Delinquents is a badly written book. The writing has the appearance of being rushed and with that the need of a good editor. It was almost juvenile in delivery at times. The romanticism was so poor at times I imagined a high school kid writing this after too much Mills and Boon such was some of the narrative. Events blended into each other so rapidly that it was almost as if the author had had so many ideas to tag to the story but knew not how. Some parts are so badly written as to be almost funny. At one point, completely out of character to the way the story is told, we get several sentences of possums peeking into a room deciding as what were the actions of either Lola or Brownie, the main characters of the story, in deciding as to who had cleaned the room they were in. The sympathetic style towards the pair of “delinquents” was also just a little too much. It lacked, for me, the grit required.

But! And a big BUT.
Written in 1962 this novel may be a bit more observant of street life in Brisbane in the 50’s than my complaints about poor writing and delivery deserve. The author is observing the subculture that was Australia at the time called Bodgies and Widgies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodgies...
Being Queensland, historically the most reactionary state in Australia, the authorities frowned upon this subculture just as much as the emerging Punk culture of my youth in the late 70’s. The tale itself covers under age sex, contraception and abortion, living on the street and squatting amongst others themes. Migrant communities are a big part of the narrative. These, I would suggest at the time of writing, were radical in terms of what Qlders (and maybe Australians in general) were reading in the early 60’s. The Bush was seemingly the ideal topic with the only critical writing being by likes of the brilliant Thea Astley writing about the reactionary bourgeois middle classes. Books on subcultures? I know of none and if there are any out there can someone let me know please?

I was once witness to a policeman beating up a punk rocker in King George Square in the heart of Brisbane in the late 70’s and hearing the cop say to the boy that he should not “be allowed to dress like that.” I heard the same at a gig I attended. “They shouldn’t be allowed to listen to stuff like this.” said a big burly policeman standing next to me. It gets no more innocuous than the pop pap of a band that is called Mental as Anything but they may have been subversive for all I know. Perhaps he thought the nips were pornographic as opposed to alcoholic!
Interestingly the government at the time was elected via gerrymander and had at best a 30% popular vote. They were authoritarian and used to discuss how they did not like southerners (people from NSW and Victoria I kid you not) and as late as 1989 they raided a record shop over supposedly obscene record covers. From the Rocking Horse Records Facebook we get the following.

“On this day in 1989 - Police raid long time 4ZZZ supporters Rocking Horse Records, then located at 158 Adelaide Street in the city. An undercover officer from the Licensing branch, came into the store seeking out rude records for a “wild valentine’s day party”, followed later that day by four uniformed police who raided the store. Owner Warwick Vere was charged with exhibiting and selling obscene material under the Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act, but ultimately found not guilty. Albums included The Dead Kennedys “Give me Convenience” (featuring the classic ‘Too Drunk to Fuck’), Guns n Roses “Appetite for Destruction” (available at many major chain stores at the time), the Hard-Ons “Dick Cheese” and The Champs “Do the Shag” (an instrumental album from the early 60s). In an interview with Gavin Sawford for Time Off Magazine, Dead Kennedy’s Jello Biafra commented: “if these attempts to shut down record stores because an instrumental band mention a type of carpet on their record helps to galvanise people to vote out the present administration, then by all means let’s see some more raids”. That government went soon after such was their lack of understanding that the world was the late 1900s and not the mid-1600s.

For me for all the poor writing and delivery that the book delivered it is a very important piece of writing. Let’s be utterly brutal again, Brisbane and Qld in general was verging on a reactionary fascist state from birth until the early 90’s no matter the side of politics that governed. The 50’s were no different from the past and the future. For all the ham-fisted writing, poor delivery, lack of character development etc. this is probably an early observation of the fascist state that was Queensland and maybe a plea for help.

Strangely at times the author showed some literary smarts. We got the following after boyfriend Brownie had come back from a stint in the merchant navy.
“it puzzled her that a little seaman, with all the wonders of the wonders of the world just a voyage away, in a manner of speaking, should take an interest in the impossible marvels of the more lurid type of historical fiction – what Brownie called ‘lusty busties.’ ‘Wouldn’t you think they would read Joseph Conrad?’ said Lola innocently. She had just discovered Conrad, and had decided he was her favourite Author. ‘Who’s he?” said Brownie. Lola explained. Brownie snorted. He said that if Joseph Conrad was a sailor he should have known better than to go writing about the sea – and who wanted to read about the sea anyway”

We also get a great line that resonated right up until the early 90’s considering Qld’s police state credentials. “‘If you ask me, all Brisbane’s full of coppers and all of them are bastards,’ she said expressing in one concise sentence the full theory of central government in the sunshine state”.
For me this sentence from a relatively obscure 1962 novel was an astonishing observation considering what was to come once the corruption in the Sunshine State was exposed during the Fitzgerald Enquiry of later years.

Interestingly I was telling a work college about this book the other day. He laughed and told the yarn of when he and 3 mates were making a short film for their studies while at Art Collage when the film of this book was being made in the late 80’s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Del...
In a lane in the middle of the central business district they were setting up their cameras. When he was asked what they were doing he being a smarty said they were filming a scene for the movie The Delinquents and expected Kylie to be along later. Next thing there were about 100 people watching and waiting for Kylie to appear. He had to lie later and say they had word that she could not make it that day. Kylie is still very popular in this part of the world and as I write she plays in Brisbane this weekend. Let’s hope the rain holds of for her and the fans.

So a couple of things. Would I recommend this to others? I recommend it to no one. It is poorly written. Does it deserve to be read? Yes if one has an interest in Queensland literature and needs to understand its youth subculture and that it was a cultural backwater that the authorities were keen to keep that way. Thank goodness we have moved on from the days of watching a kid with a funny haircut get bashed for being just a kid with a funny haircut. With that I need to read Conrad’s Heat of Darkness. If 1950’ delinquent Lola was impressed I will be disappointed if I am not.

Star rating? No idea. How about five for the fun of it all.
Profile Image for Lynx.
198 reviews114 followers
October 5, 2016
Australian author Deirdre Cash (pseudonym Criena Rohan) was certainly ahead of her time. In The Delinquents we follow young lovers Lola and Brownie as they deal with teen pregnancy, abortion, abandonment, prostitution, corruption and poverty. Not exactly a light read but certainly a worthwhile one that will stick with you long after you've put it down.

*Thank you Text Publishing & Edelweiss for this review copy.
Profile Image for Kade Gulluscio.
975 reviews64 followers
November 21, 2022
Hm, interesting read but a tad...blah.
The Delinquents is set in the 1950s in Brisbane. We meet MC characters - Brownie and Lola.
The story is their journey and their relationship dynamic. The worldbuilding in this book was great, but I wasn't a huge fan of the characters to be fair. It felt like Lola was a tad.... irritating. Her decision-making was horrid...... which led to some plain stupid decisions. I just didn't and couldn't enjoy her character.

It was an easy, quick read. But I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
8 reviews4 followers
March 29, 2012
I read this book when i was 17 or 18. This is the book that set my path in music, fashion and the girls I would like for the 20 years. I loved the movie so much I Bought the promtional leather jacket that came with it for $500, my first weeks pay on the mines in 1990. Still got that leather jacket, still fits heh heh. If you like thie this I recomend A Buch Of Ratbags by William Dick. A lot more brutal but I remember after my father read it he said it was excatly like he grew up. Scary.
Profile Image for Saturday's Child.
1,492 reviews
July 30, 2020
Way back in 1989 a movie version of this novel was produced staring Kylie Minogue and Charlie Schlatter, and I recall watching it because I thought he was cute. At the time I had no idea that it as based on a novel. When I recently happened upon a copy of it on a library shelf I decided to give it a read. I have now discovered another “classic” Australian novel.
Profile Image for Jacinta Barrow.
1 review
May 23, 2014
My favourite all time novel. 2 teenagers in love in post war Australia, trying to survive just about anything life throws at them & it's a lot. The description of the different cities is very nostalgic; the talk of weather, puts you there. Women doing what they had to do in order to get by.
11 reviews
June 30, 2025
i mean it was somewhat interesting but i feel like i just didn’t care enough about the characters to actually enjoy the story

i liked the setting though
Profile Image for Jasmine.
61 reviews6 followers
August 6, 2012
I found this in a hurt books bin several years ago and read my copy to bits. It's about teen love in Brisbane in the 50's. All I can remember is the characters being so flawed, real and vivid that I just couldn't put it down and had to read it several times. I think it's time for a re-read.
Profile Image for Alison.
40 reviews2 followers
December 22, 2014
A forgotten classic that deserves a wider readership.

I had to read this book in Year 12, and while I didn't hate it as much as some of the other prescribed texts, I didn't really like it either, and I mostly associated it with Kylie Minogue, who starred in the movie version int h late '80s. I was inspired to re-read it when I read Nick Earles' introduction to the re-issued edition, where he praised it as the most Brisbane of books.

The plot is pretty simple and almost reads like a series of short stories. But Criena Rohan's wit is sharp and dry and her observations are spot-on. She doesn't need many words to skewer the insular puritanical world of mid-50s Queensland, and her descriptions of Brisbane are beautiful and evocative.

The book does feel a little dated in parts (what people used to believe about contraception and fertility is astonishing; and all the women over thirty are either dissolute sluttish wrecks or horribly uptight matrons) but it is still an excellent novel and a great read.
Author 24 books22 followers
August 25, 2019
Two young lovers in Brisbane. The writing is not too bad but I'm not sure if it's the "quntessential Brisbane book". However the Brisbane settiong does come alive very nicely in the book.

It's a dirty side of Brisbane, with the prostitution and poverty but I honestly didn't find it heavy to read, probably because at no time did I find myself overly emotionally invested in the characters. I never felt really well-engaged with them, I always felt like an observer and that Lola in particular was more of a slightly annoying character making very bad decisions rather than someone I fully empathised with.

There were some nice little snapshots here and there, the cheap extravagances of Lola, her irresponsibility, the working on the ship, the pompous people who look down on Lola and Brownie's attempts at freedom and cannot understand them, some good scenes and dialogue and it was a breezy read that didn't drag but I didn't feel sorry to leave Lola and Brownie behind and didn't end up caring too much what happened to them.
Profile Image for Kate.
1,290 reviews
April 14, 2011
His love was dead. He would never love again. The terrible burden of love lifted from his shoulders for ever, he looked up at the distant hills.
5 reviews
October 23, 2011
A beautifully written snapshot in time. Depth, written so subtly, so accessibly, of teenage angst and sentiment. I could feel Australia too, so strongly, so real, so powerful. A classic.
Profile Image for Sean Kennedy.
Author 43 books1,014 followers
May 30, 2015
A classic Australian novel that really gives an evocative feel of 1950s Oz, including all of its seedier elements. This edition has an excellent foreword by Nick Earls.
316 reviews
August 4, 2019
Teenage love set in Brisbane during the 1960's. A reminder of what our treatment of women was like.
5 reviews
July 4, 2021
Such a good book! I've read this so many times over a period of twenty years. The writing is so witty and clever and I really wish Criena had lived long enough to write a few more books.
Profile Image for Blair.
33 reviews3 followers
March 21, 2015
Just finished re-reading this book... I was so glad I was able to find my copy that I jumped at the chance to check it out again.

I'm not entirely sure if I liked it quite as much this time around because to me, Lola's while stance of not wanting to work and preferring to be cared for half the time got on my nerves. Again, I admit I'm a product of a totally different time - being almost 23 in 2015 - but I really noticed it this time now that I'm roughly a decade older than I was when I first discovered this book. I also thought Brownie was a bit patronizing at times during this re-reading.

Still an enjoyable read though, as it's always kind of fun to read stories about times totally different to mine (and probably also quite important). Now I'm looking forward to watching the movie someday soon ^_^
Profile Image for Kali Napier.
Author 6 books58 followers
November 26, 2017
I saw the film of this short novel when I was a teen and have been fascinated with bodgies and widgies ever since. The story resonates more now I live in Brisbane and have started to uncover the depths of police corruption that were emerging in the early 1960s. The story of young lovers Brownie and Lola sheds light on the underclass of strugglers on Welfare and the control of women’s bodies by men and state.
Profile Image for Joel Roberts.
59 reviews
September 14, 2011
a book about love and survival and their interconnectedness. i bet many 17-year-old girls would love it. but honestly, it wasn't half bad.
78 reviews
November 12, 2015
A sweet book about the romance between Lola and Brownie in 1950s Australia. Had some very sweet, sad moments. The characters were all wonderfully alive and developed.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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