Johnno

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Johnno (disambiguation).

Johnno
First edition
AuthorDavid Malouf
LanguageEnglish
PublisherUniversity of Queensland Press
Publication date
1975
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages170 pp
ISBN0-7022-0961-9
OCLC1461700
823
LC ClassPZ4.M25565 Jo PR9619.3.M265
Followed byAn Imaginary Life 

Johnno is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Australian author David Malouf and was first published in 1975.[1] It was Malouf's first novel.

In 2004 it was selected by the Brisbane City Council as the joint-winner of the annual One Book One Brisbane competition to find the book that best represents Brisbane. Johnno shared the honours with another, more recent, debut novel, The Girl Most Likely by Rebecca Sparrow.[2] It is one of the best known "Brisbane" novels ever written.[3]

The book has been adapted for the stage. It premiered at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre in 2006[4][5] and then transferred to the Derby Playhouse.

Plot summary and major themes

Johnno is written in the first person past tense and the narrator is only ever known by the nickname "Dante". Johnno is heavily autobiographical.[6][7] The novel is centred upon the friendship between Dante and a schoolmate known as "Johnno" in their adolescence and early adulthood in the 1940s and 1950s in Brisbane.

The subtropical Brisbane environment and various elements of upper-class Australian culture in the twentieth century recur throughout the book. There are many references to Brisbane's verdant gardens and parklands and other aspects of its urban geography such as its now-defunct tramways and the Brisbane River.

The novel takes the form of an extended reminiscence and begins with the narrator finding a photograph of Johnno among his recently deceased father's belongings. The story then begins in Dante's childhood and education at Brisbane Grammar School and then follows the development of the friendship between the staid, conventional Dante and the unruly, eccentric and frequently intoxicated Johnno through school, university and a period of Bohemian-style living in Europe. The novel ends with Johnno presumed to have committed suicide (though the reader does not know for sure) and his funeral in suburban Brisbane.

Johnno engages in shoplifting and goes to brothels, which contrasts with his friend Dante's middle class conservatism.[8]

Though both major characters reference gay experiences Malouf explicitly denies that Johnno is a gay novel.

Readers of a later and more knowing time have taken this to be a gay novel in disguise. It is not. If I had meant to write a gay novel I would have done so. If there was more to tell about these characters I would have told it.

Johnno's occasional experience that way is frankly admitted, so is Dante's relationship with his "boy from Sarina", but they do not see themselves as being defined by these involvements and they are not.[9]

Epilogue

In an epilogue written over two decades after Johnno was first published, David Malouf makes clear that Johnno's character is based on a real schoolfriend of his, John Milliner, who died in 1962.[9]

Notes

  • Dedication: "for Carlo Olivieri."
  • Epigraph: "I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging! Make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is miserable." (Shakespeare)

References

  1. ^ "Johnno by David Malouf". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  2. ^ "Austlit — One Book, One Brisbane". Austlit. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  3. ^ Vagg, Stephen (14 February 2024). "Yes, there were screen-lit gems about Brissie before Boy Swallows Universe". In Review.
  4. ^ Tompkins, Joanne (1 May 2008). "Adapting Australian Novels for the Stage: La Boite Theatre's Version of Last Drinks, Perfect Skin, and Johnno". Australian Literary Studies. 23 (3). This is not new for the theatre—Rosamond Siemon's The Mayne Inheritance was adapted by Errol O'Neill for the 2004 season, and several Nick Earls novels have been dramatised—but 2006 marks the first time that adaptations have dominated a season, with three of five plays based on novels of the same name. These vary significantly: David Malouf's 1975 Johnno, a classic of growing up in war-time Brisbane; Andrew McGahan's Last Drinks (2000), a recollection of the pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry era; and Perfect Skin (2000), another of Earls's comic novels.
  5. ^ "Johnno". La Boite Theatre. 2006.
  6. ^ Dr James Procter (2002). "David Malouf". Contemporary Writers. British Council Arts Group. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  7. ^ "Johnno" (PDF). Penguin Notes for Reading Groups. Penguin Australia. 19 June 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  8. ^ "David Malouf". British Council.
  9. ^ a b Malouf, David (September 1998). Johnno. University of Queensland Press. p. xi, xiv. ISBN 978-0-7022-3015-8. Retrieved 17 November 2009.