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Harry's success as a footballer is predestined, the territory that comes with a superstar father, and all the Club asks in return is loyalty and the occasional code of silence. But when his home-town media scrum dredges up an old scandal of his father's, and Harry becomes embroiled in one of his own, he starts to question the reality behind the glittering facade of the trophies he wins and the pretty young things who mob him.
With piercing insight, The Family Men subverts the usual choices between winning and losing, guilt and innocence, courage and cowardice. Is true honour to be found in forging your own path or staying loyal to your pack?
'The Family Men is an intense distillation of the darkness that falls after the Friday and Saturday night lights have been turned out. This novel is shocking because it is so believable. Sometimes you hear football insiders mutter about a scandal in the game, 'It's worse than you think.' Catherine Harris has cut right through to that shadowy truth, and come back with horror, yes, but also a sign of hope.' —Malcolm Knox
'The Family Men unfolds like a slow-motion car crash... [It] is a nuanced indictment of a sporting culture that forgives appalling behavior in our heroes, and it is as 'true' as the best journalism.' —Bookseller + Publisher
'Regardless of your interest in sport, The Family Men is a starkly brilliant and uniquely Australian novel that stays with you long after reading.' —Readings Monthly
'Sex, alcohol and the AFL. The three often come together in an unholy trinity and Catherine Harris' novel explores such a combination to devastating effect.' —the Age
'Revealing spotlight on football's dark side ... The Family Men [is] compelling and provocative reading.' —Herald Sun
'Compelling and provocative' —Daily Telegraph
'Slick, brutal and evasive where it needs to be. The novel builds like a slow striptease.' —Spectrum
'Catherine Harris' timely novel on football culture after dark [kept me up late] – and you don't even have to like footy to read it.' —Books of the Year, the Age
'A compelling look at the intersection between the media and sporting celebrity in Australia.' —Wheeler Centre, Best Books of 2014
Catherine Harris's short story collection, Like Being A Wife, was shortlisted for the 2011 Age Fiction Prize, the 2011 Barbara Jefferis award and as a manuscript for the 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. She won the 2009 Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize and was shortlisted for the 2013 Fish International Short Story Prize and the 2013 Bridport Prize. She lives in Melbourne.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 27, 2014 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781922231666
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781922231666
- File size: 843 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 19, 2014
A month after a post-season celebration, footballer Harry Furey still can’t remember what actually happened at the team’s men-only Sportsman’s Night—but he knows it was bad. Harry comes from an AFL dynasty. His father is a disgraced legend whose off-field behaviour led to the death of an underage girl. And it seems that little has changed in the culture of the game since then. Young players are worshipped like stars, their sins still forgiven as long as they observe the rules—loyalty to the team, their supporters and the media. The Family Men unfolds like a slow-motion car crash, as the sordid events of that night slowly become clear, but this is not a black-and-white story of predatory behaviour and an innocent victim. In following the unnamed girl’s journey, this outstanding novel also examines the line between innocence and naivety. Despite his actions, Harry remains a sympathetic character. The book could be considered a fictional counterpart to Anna Krien’s Night Games. It also has much in common with Paul Carter’s Vogel Award-winner Eleven Season—another striking novel about masculinity, sex and football. The Family Men is a nuanced indictment of a sporting culture that forgives appalling behaviour in our heroes, and it is as ‘true’ as the best journalism.
Lachlan Jobbins is a freelance editor
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