In a Common Hour (Sita Walker, Ultimo)
Dedicated to the Queensland state school teachers she works alongside, Sita Walker’s debut novel, In a Common Hour, offers readers a story with universal school politics. Over the course of a single lunchtime, readers meet a motley cast of teachers and senior students at Parks High. When outcast Cameron Ashby shares a damning post about his enthusiastic and much-loved English teacher in a public group chat, students and teachers scramble to contain the fallout. The book deftly echoes contemporary headlines about the crises plaguing Australian public schools: crowded classrooms and dwindling staff suffering from burnout, underfunding, depleted attention spans and, of course, the blight of social media. It also confronts themes of mental illness, isolation, fear, racism and intergenerational trauma. Yet, for all its gritty suburban realism, Walker (The God of No Good) emphasises the interconnectedness of her characters with one another and with the natural world. Passages involving chaos theory, art history, philosophy and religion enrich the narrative, though they occasionally feel a little overwrought. Meanwhile, lush descriptions of Australian bushland and wildlife, punctuated by a great storm, frame the novel’s central conflict. In A Common Hour champions the value of community obligation, care, intergenerational rapport and friendship, which readers of Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Winnie Dunn may appreciate. There are no villains here, only people failed by systems. The full emotional force of Walker’s well-plotted tale arrives in the final chapter, offering an ending that is empathetic to both students and teachers, and ultimately optimistic.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Jasmine Pirovic is a culture writer from Western Sydney who is currently based in London. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews
