Blacktown

by Shane Weaver

'The screen door bangs shut. The silence that follows is like the collective intake of breath between the split second a guillotine falls and when it thuds home a Unable to get a clear shot, he rips the bed away from the wall. I scream as the first lick of the electric cord stings my back a' Imagine a gaggle of little children sitting down to dinner with their mother when suddenly everything goes black. You can't see in front of you but you know you must hide. Daddy's home. He's turned off the power - and he's coming for you, any one of you. As a boy Shane Weaver lived this nightmare every day. And this is where his story begins in BLACKTOWN, a raw and powerful memoir of how a boy not only lived through, but overcame the life sentence such a terrifying start usually means - through the unwavering love of his mother, a true survivor. Weaver becomes an angry young man who learns to channel his rage into boxing, going on to become an Australian champion. Haunted by his past, he embraces alcohol and drugs with a terrifying intensity, teetering on the edge of the criminal, violent world he grew up in. One day, jobless, on the run with a wife and three kids to support, all his past lives collide to help him create an inspired application for a copywriting job. The result is a new start - and a whole new life. Best of all, he finds the love of a good woman who helps him rebuild his life. Today he is the creative director of one of the world's biggest advertising brand names.

Genres: Nonfiction, Australia

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shane Weaver grew up with an abusive father. Thankfully, he also had the love of a strong woman, his mother. Shane wrote this when he was in his 40s, looking back at his childhood, his Australian boxing career, his alcohol and drug use, and how he eventually managed to turn his life around. In fact, he became the creative director of one of the world's biggest advertising companies.

3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.

[Caz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a shocking story and I'm sure it isn't the half of what that family endured at the hands of a poor excuse for a father figure. For the children and their mother to live through such a horror childhood I am not surprised that they all ended up with issues and demons to face into their adulthood.

I wanted so much to see Shane do well when 'good' things and opportunities came his way. But at the same time I could see and understand how such an upbringing can make someone so self destructive that they don't realise they have the right to something better when it comes their way. His mother was such a strong women to have put up with so much grief and pain from an abusive husband and non existent family support and to raise and try and protect her children the best she could.

What a shocking and very confronting story. I am so glad Shane was able to put his sad childhood and life of misery onto paper. Thank you.

[Ramanand · Rating 4 out of 5]

From far-off aussie life seems to be cool, loving, beautiful beach life.
This book is an eye opener and tell about struggling life of people living on dole or doing min. wage unsecured jobs. Add to this the drinking culture, drugs create havoc in a family life. Few people with brave heart & intellectual like Shane manage to escape but what about rest.
I am very keen to hear David , Anna, Bradley, Talullah views and how they doing

[Linda Burnham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, what a shocking story! What some women and children endure at the hands of abusive, violent, antisocial men is tragic and infuriating. The long reaching effects to individuals and to society in general can only be imagined but here Shane Weaver tells the story of his own family and it paints an ugly picture. Shane himself died only a year after its publication as a result of the effects of alcohol and drug abuse begun years before in that desolate suburb as an attempt to escape the reality of his home life. If ever there was an example needed to illustrate the Spanish proverb that "It is better to be alone than badly accompanied" this is it. Anyone tempted to feel sorry for themself for being single at Christmas should read the story of a mother tearfully preparing Vegemite sandwiches for her children for Christmas lunch (they were fortunate to have that much to eat that day) and telling her children that the good kids got Vegemite sandwiches for Christmas because that's what Santa's reindeer ate in Australia. Rest in peace, Shane Weaver.

[Raelene Baget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning a little bit about my own backyard was an eye opener

[Sarah Christie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really made me sick to my stomach, especially for the first 100 pages. Big trigger warning for domestic abuse and sexual assault.
This Australian memoir outlines the life of Shane Weaver, growing up in a household in which his step-father instills fear wherever he goes. In detail he recounts all of the horrific things he underwent, and then goes on throughout the novel to how this affected him growing up.
It made me question domestic abuse as a whole, I wanted to blame the mom for keeping her kids in that situation with the man she is with. I wanted to be angry at the author himself for not being a loving husband and father after the things he went through. The flow on affects were really evident and it made me so angry!
I have to say though that the book was overall just not really for me, I hated that Shane didn’t seem to change at all because I wanted him to grasp his opportunities with both hands. Memoirs can be hard to rate, but I do think I gained a lot still from reading this.

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1st 3rd of this memoir is compelling as the author grows up in an abusive, working class family in outer Sydney. I wasn't beaten by my father but grew up in a similar household so I had much to identify with. However, as Weaver becomes a young adult, & then an adult, the focus moves to boxing, violence in general, alcohol & drugs. That's where I became disengaged. The childhood abuse obviously played a crucial role in Weaver's many attempts to destroy his own life but he manages to overcome & even succeed, & for that he must be applauded.

[Maxine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I lost interest half way through

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Australian autobiographical study of growing up in Blacktown, Sydney, and at the mercy of a brutal step father. This is a biography of the boxer Shane Weaver. It is pretty brutal but well written, active and fast moving. Shane Weaver pulls no punches. He does not pretend to be any better or worse than he really is. A few times I felt uncomfortable with the things he says he has done, I believe he is telling the truth, no-one in their right mind would admit to some of the things he admits to unless it were the truth - the telling of the truth being the only way he can possibly redeem himself? Although that is not his aim. He also does not pity himself and yet the things he went through as a young boy would allow a little of that. I think this is a very satisying biography. I couldn't put it down. Apart from the very detailed and vivid picture he paints of his family relationships there is also a strong sense of a particular place and time. He writes Sydney in the 50's, and for me the book acted as a bit of a time capsule. I was born in 1953, the same year as he was, so for me there was a resonance although I am from Victoria.
Shane Weaver was blessed with a love of words - and considerable skill in wielding them. He was part of a debating society in secondary school and brags cheerfully about tearing his opponents to pieces with his tongue. He was offered a place at university but the ghosts and wounds of his childhood made it difficult for him to find much satisfaction there, though he had the skills to succeed he also had what the judgemental like to fit into the general category of 'attitude'. Buckets of it. He had a strong sense of family but was unable to give his own family much more security than he had himself, although he loved them and retained a strong sense of the importance of family ties. He had a strong and loving relationship with his mother, and a more complicated relationship with his siblings. But that can happen where there is violence and fear. In his later life he succeeded on the seminar circuit selling the idea of direct selling, ultimately running his own business. He died in 2004. According to his wife Blacktown is one of his proudest achievements.

[Sianne Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay...this one was a bit hard to define. Well written but a disturbing story of growing up in Blacktown under a cloud of poverty, abuse and violence and the fall out over the following generations of the family. Drugs, alcoholism, abuse, suicide and neglect. The first half of the book was better than the second half, but you just have to finish the book. If you like this type of story, it is a good read.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting biography although frustrating reading how some people can again and again fall into the same life traps. Shows that loyalty to a mother can sometimes be totally misguided, the mother should have removed all of the kids from this situation and the outcomes of their lives could have been totally different.

[Julie Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great biography what a life Shane Weaver tells of his childhood with an physically abusive stepfather and family living on the edge of poverty in Blacktown NSW. He is an amazing writer and his life has many chapters, careers and he is brutally honest in his account. This would have to be my favorite biography please read it

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