Barracuda in Aussie Readers

Apr 10, 2014 Michael Livingston rated it really liked it

I'm glad Christos Tsiolkas exists - he's a writer who sets out to tackle big themes: class, race, competition and sexuality. The Slap was very successful at wrestling with these big topics while drawing a set of fascinating (if largely horrible) characters. Barracuda tries the same thing with a slightly narrower focus, centering on Danny Kelly a young, working class swimmer whose talent transports him into a privileged world (fancy high school, elite sports squads) and whose failures (both sport ...more

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Oct 07, 2013 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, aussie-author, arc-are

"I'm the strongest, I'm the fastest, I'm the best"

Swimming is not only what Danny Kelly does, it defines who he is and who he will be. His talent wins him a scholarship at an exclusive private boy's school where, amongst his privileged rivals, he earns the nickname of 'The Barracuda'. Danny is a winner, on track to be an Olympic champion, until the day he loses and it all falls apart.

Shifting between Danny's past and the present using a first person and third person narrative, Tsiolkas drives t
"I'm the strongest, I'm the fastest, I'm the best"

Swimming is not only what Danny Kelly does, it defines who he is and who he will be. His talent wins him a scholarship at an exclusive private boy's school where, amongst his privileged rivals, he earns the nickname of 'The Barracuda'. Danny is a winner, on track to be an Olympic champion, until the day he loses and it all falls apart.

Shifting between Danny's past and the present using a first person and third person narrative, Tsiolkas drives the story towards the event that divides 'before' and 'after'. Before, Danny was a young boy, confident, aggressive and ambitious, with the talent and the drive to be a champion. After, Danny was a young man, ashamed, bitter and directionless, alienated from his family, his friends and himself.

Barracuda is a story about character, the way in which it is formed, influenced and changed by family, by friends, and enemies, by experience and knowledge, and for Danny especially, by life's triumphs and failures. It is also a story about identity and when what Danny believes about himself is proved false, he struggles to deal with the consequences. Tsiolkas exposes Danny's dreams and hopes, his vulnerabilities and his faults with unflinching honesty and keen insight into the thoughts and emotions of both the boy, and the man.

Wider themes of the novel include those of identity, class and status in modern day Australia. The Kelly's working class background, dad is a truck driver and mum a hairdresser, contrasts with the privileged lives of his wealthy classmates. Similarly Danny is half 'wog' (Greek) and half Scottish while the majority of students at C***s College are white with "their perfect smiles and perfect skin". Danny acutely feels the divide and he is both scornful and envious.

Barracuda also raises the issue of sport and it's contribution to Australia's national identity. Sport is one arena where wealth and class become irrelevant, with innate talent leveling the playing field. It is Danny's ability to out swim his peers that allows him to hold his own, and when he loses that, he also sees his opportunity to one day be of 'them' slip through his fingers.

Tsiolkas's casual use of crude language has the potential to offend but I thought the distinctly Australian dialogue to be natural and appropriate. What surprised me were the moments of poetry in Tsiolkas's writing, lyrical phrasing and evocative description contrasting sharply with the blunter passages. I do feel Barracuda was a little overlong, though I admit only rarely did I find my attention wandering.

Barracuda is a powerful novel, less sensational than The Slap, but similarly provocative and thought provoking. I enjoyed it, but I think it is a book you will either love or hate.

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Oct 06, 2013 Gerda rated it liked it

This book is not as good as "the Slap" which I enjoyed a lot. Although very well written and very honest and emotional in places, there were a few things I had a bit of a problem with.

I felt for Danny/Dan. A decent person at heart, he carries an enormous chip on his shoulder about his family back ground and the fact that they are working class. He harbours resentment towards his school of middle class boys from well-off families (most of them anyway) and wants to beat them all by being the faste ...more

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May 11, 2014 Magdalena added it

Barracuda is the nickname of young Danny Kelly, a working class boy, half Scottish and half Greek, who obtains a swimming scholarship to an exclusive Sydney private school. Danny鈥檚 whole world is focused around winning 鈥� being 鈥渟tronger, faster, better鈥� than his co-students. He feels their scorn; their rejection, everywhere except for in the pool, where he 鈥榝lies鈥� through the water and feels himself to be perfected and free of the class, race, and physical characteristics that hamper him on the Barracuda is the nickname of young Danny Kelly, a working class boy, half Scottish and half Greek, who obtains a swimming scholarship to an exclusive Sydney private school. Danny鈥檚 whole world is focused around winning 鈥� being 鈥渟tronger, faster, better鈥� than his co-students. He feels their scorn; their rejection, everywhere except for in the pool, where he 鈥榝lies鈥� through the water and feels himself to be perfected and free of the class, race, and physical characteristics that hamper him on the ground.

The story is told from Danny鈥檚 point of view, and we feel intensely the myopic and painful alienation that Danny feels as he tried to make his way in this uncomfortable world. Though we get to experience Danny鈥檚 pain, hear the taunts, and hear the accolades when he wins, we also soon realise that Danny is an unreliable narrator. His perspective is skewed by the obsession he has with proving himself through his sporting prowess. Encouraged by his coach, Frank Torma, who convinces Danny that he can make it to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Dan sacrifices everything for his training. In the water, Danny is in the 鈥榸one鈥�; he is perfect:

He dived into the water and all the pieces came together: everything was liquid and it was in being liquid that everything became clear. The water parted for him, the water caressed him, the water obeyed him. He swam, he propelled himself through the water; the muscles that moved as they should, the power of his limbs, his lungs and his heart which breathed and beat in a harmony that was clean and efficient. Only in the water were he and the world unsullied. (132)

Once he surfaces, his self-hatred and anger are so bundled up with his swimming capabilities that there is no room for anything other a complete win. His inevitable downfall comes along with a 鈥榗oming-of-age鈥� that involves a growing sexuality, a breaking down of his sense of self, and a streak of violence that undermines all of his plans.

Barracuda is at once unsettling and disturbing, not least of which because Danny is initially a rather unlikeable narrator, using his strength and heft to push around younger students and fight his way through what he perceives as a world set against him: 鈥淗e was no hero but they were scared of him. He was Psycho Kelly. None of them dared to take him on.鈥� (226) Danny grows through the ten years in which this novel is set, first through pain and shame, and later through a self-awareness that becomes understanding, compassion, and forgiveness (even when unrequited) towards himself and others. There is a great deal of poetry in this novel, from the very first words:

When the rain first spills from those egg-white foams of cloud that seem too delicate to have burst forth in such a deluge, I freeze. The heavy drops fizz on the dry grass as they hit; I think this is what a pit of snakes would sound like. And suddenly the rain is falling in sheets, though the sky is still blue, the sun still shining. (3)

Though the novel progresses in time from Danny鈥檚 childhood through a very painful transition (and incarceration) to adulthood, it is circular, moving back and forth in time, and swapping between narrative forms. Because the novel is wholly taken from Danny鈥檚 point of view, we move with him through his interior, rather than exterior chronology, finding meaning in the present through dissection and reliving the past. It would be easy to read this book, at least in the beginning, as a criticism of our definition of the 鈥榞olden character鈥� 鈥� the quintessentially white, blond, gifted, smooth Australian that Danny fears he will never be. However, Tsiolkas takes us deeper into Danny鈥檚 psyche and finds that his own eagerness to categorise and limit himself and others is more damaging than the apparently prejudices of those who surround him. Danny鈥檚 definition of 鈥榞olden鈥� is not the only one we see, and he is not the only migrant in the book. Young Danny sees winning and losing as absolutes in this book 鈥� it鈥檚 all or nothing, good or bad, sport or family.

Danny鈥檚 growth process through Barracuda raises questions about the nature of what it means to be a 鈥榞ood鈥� and self-fulfilled person, about marginality and the politics of difference 鈥� in terms of race, sexuality, and capability, about notions of 鈥榟ome鈥� and nationality (and not only with respect to migrants, though the migrant perspective is strong), how we make meaning in our life even when our dreams falter, the notion of privilege, and questions of class. All of these things are handled subtly and powerfully, through dichotomies that play out naturally through the course of the narrative.

Danny struggles particularly with the men in his life: his father and brother, his sporting colleagues 鈥� particularly the waspy, privileged Martin Taylor, the beautiful, brainy Luke, his coach Torma, and his partner Clyde, but there are also a number of females that Danny loves, abuses, objectifies, and marginalises: his friend Demet, his mother, his sister, and Martin鈥檚 sister Emma. Danny鈥檚 growth is played out through these relationships as the reader slowly watches them morph along with the protagonist. None of Danny鈥檚 perceptions of the characters are as they originally seem, challenging the reader to rethink and reposition our own prejudices. Although this is definitely Danny鈥檚 story, peripheral characters are all well-drawn, rich and complex.

The book begins and ends with water, a fluid and malleable medium that yields against Danny鈥檚 body, but ultimately wears away his shame and pain as he learns to 鈥渂reath again鈥�. The book is confronting on a number of levels, not least of which because Tsiolklas never makes Danny into a passive victim 鈥� he is always the instigator of his own pain 鈥� taking others fears, frailties and flaws, and stretching the impact to extreme outcomes. However, despite the intensity, Barracuda is a transformative novel, full of rich, exquisite lyricism that strikes at the heart of what it means, beyond all the labels we and others place on ourselves, to be a human being. ...more

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