Cairo (Chris Womersley, Scribe)

Tom Button is a country lad who comes to Melbourne to study, but never gets around to enrolling. Over the course of the summer that idea is soon overtaken by the allure of a bohemian existence and the beckoning artistic life that he encounters in this novel of a sentimental education, Cairo. ‘Cairo’ is the name of a nearly 100-year-old apartment building in Fitzroy (still standing today), where Tom finds digs after the death of an aunt. The inhabitants he meets there, and their associates, become the characters we meet in this book. I wouldn’t have thought it possible to write a historical novel based around the year 1986 (it feels like yesterday!), but Chris Womersley writes vividly on the Carlton and Fitzroy of the time, from folkloric billiard halls and cafes (Johnny’s Green Room, Rumbarellas) to world events in the background (the space shuttle Challenger disaster). A notable Melbourne happening of the time was the theft of a Picasso from the National Gallery of Victoria, held for ransom by a mysterious collective who were unhappy with government arts funding. Womersley has a great deal of fun providing his version of this caper, and Cairo becomes an entertaining Bildungsroman, in which Tom encounters some decidedly louche characters.

Martin Shaw is the books division manager at Readings

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews