Boy on a Wire comments

Boy on a Wire is about boarding school life in 1960s West Australia, depression, bullying, rites of passage, revenge, coming of age, fathers and sons, siblings, loss of faith, heavy metal poisoning.

Here are some reader comments.

Just finished your book this morning and wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed it. It’s very well written and entertaining; made me cry a couple of times too!

I finished the book a couple of nights ago, and I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it. The style is just lovely, the James Joyce/ Winton way with the dialogue being a seamless part of the narrative, the honesty, the humour…you should be very proud of it.

Jon, I found the story dark, cruel, upsetting, desperate, funny, and sad, I wanted to cry, I wish I had never been sent to a boarding school.., ….now I am crying….stupid me.

One of my friends today told me that boy on a wire was ‘one of the greatest books EVER’. Woo!

Jon - Well done mate. A beautiful and searing read. I look forward to the mini-series or movie and hope that Lad On A Wire - where stand up comedy replaces stand up fist fighting (to some extent) kicks in.

Previously Poster Comments:

I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed reading it, so much so, that I just sat and read it to the end.  Being of approx the same age I can vividly recall many of the situations you described eg the conversation with parents on seeking permission to Rotto, the sadness with school friends and the confusion.  The expectation they had of us and we were just walking around getting mixed messages. It made me laugh a lot and of course shed a tear.  Your writing skills are enviable.

  • Just finished your book (I’m a slow reader) and have to say how I can empathise with Jack and how brilliantly you’ve put into words that crazy tormented head stuff which goes on in the teenage mind. I too had very talented older brother (and sister), and was expected to perform as well or better than them academically, musically and in sport. I wanted to kill myself in Year 11 because I thought no-one understood the torment going on in my head and I didn’t have the verbal skills to answer back or express my feelings. Jack’s parents could be my parents too: Dad never praised, only disapproved of any weakness or failure. My Mum also suffered depression, would shriek hysterically and run to her room crying and we kids never knew what the matter was, and were told “Don’t upset your mother”. She too had a late child 15 years after me. (She was told having a baby would help her mentally) So Jon, thank you for writing Boy on a Wire, it must have been painful but releasing.

I bought your book, best 25 bucks I’ve ever spent. No joke. I cried through parts of it and wet myself laughing through others.

  • Just finished reading the book. Congratulations! It captures the essence of what boarding school was all about. I could identify with many of the issues and dramas of what it was like. Powerful, funny and I feel like sending it to every rural mate of mine that made it through five years of secondary schooling and since then has not died in an accident in a ute or committed suicide. Your book is a real treasure.

Finished the book
a while ago now
didn’t want it to end
so sat on the last few chapters
to drag it out
Grand stuff
the stuff that makes good books
all in there.

I really enjoyed it. In fact I couldn’t put it down. Terrific. I’m so glad you survived all the beatings. When’s your next book coming out?

  • Thought I would pass on to you how I enjoyed reading your book.As a person who doesn’t read a lot, I appreciated the insight of what it might be like to be a boarder at any school.Kept me interested and was fascinated at what happened to students.

Ah…what can I say? Thank you for writing your book, I enjoyed it immensely.  I could have easily kept on reading…….

  • Finished reading your book a few weeks ago. It was a great read! I found it so funny and painful at the same time-wanted to give Jack a big hug! I hope he finally recovered from the “pinks disease”!

I just wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying Boy on a Wire. The voice is disarming, fresh and engaging, so well sustained throughout, and I imagine young Mr Muir would find a wide audience for his balancing act. I’ve heard the book is doing well and long may that continue.

Review by Kerryn Goldsworthy
Sydney Morning HErald
18 April 2009
PICK OF THE WEEK
BOY ON A WIRE
By Jon Doust
Fremantle Press, 240pp, $27.95

Jack Muir is a boy who believes in honesty and God but his hot temper and sense of humour often get him into trouble, especially after he is sent away from his country-town home to board at a grammar school in the city. It’s Perth in the 1960s and casual violence - slappings, punchings, beatings, bullying and brawls - are a way of life, not only in boarding school but within the family itself. Even Mrs Muir is a hothead and frequently needs to be led away to a darkened room by her husband in order to calm down. Only Jack’s serene older brother, Thomas, openly his parents’ favourite, seems to rise above the family drama.
The story is told from the point of view of a boy bewildered not only by the apparently senseless eruptions of family violence but also by the more chillingly deliberate punishments of the schoolyard, the dormitory and the headmaster’s study. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this character is the way he survives to the end of the book without sustaining any permanent physical damage. It’s startling for a reader who remembers the ’60s to realise how much has changed since then in our perceptions of children, of violence and of the definitions of what constitutes abuse and assault, and there are hints that the abuse of the previous generation was even worse.
Jack tells the story himself, in a slightly incredulous voice that suggests he can’t quite believe the events that he is recounting and he certainly doesn’t understand them. One of the things that puzzles him most is the heat of his own temper and the way it gets away from him; it’s clear that in a physical fight he can give as good as he gets and more.
The novel is apparently autobiographical and is being publicised as such but Doust has done with his material what so many autobiographical novelists fail to do: he has turned it into a shapely story, with no extraneous material or diversions and with an absolutely consistent and convincing narrative voice.

To buy “Boy” go here:BUY

Boy on a Wire: Synopsis.

Jack Muir is a religious, feisty and sometimes funny young boy from a small country town. His brother has an accident, nearly dies and Jack blames himself. Soon he is ensconced in a private school in Perth, West Australia, and things seem to get better, then worse, maybe a little better, then even worse.

He can’t find Jesus, or make real contact with his sibling or parents. He does make contact with the bully Fez, the Swarbian Tamas Nemet, the sad Sack and the violent Briggsy.

His mother has a dark past no-one mentions and his father is a very busy man. Jack fights, struggles, surfs, makes stands and, in the end, drinks. There is no one to talk to outside his head, not a brother, not a father, just a naughty boy called Brett Jones.

It’s a tale set in a boarding school in the early sixties. It’s a book about loss of faith, revenge, depression, icecream, puberty, betrayal and a boy needing a guide, a hand, a father.