Hooky the Cripple

By Mark Chopper Read And Adam Cullen, Annandale: Pluto Press, 2002, 60 pages, paperback, illustrated, $19.95. Reviewed by Deborah Hunn in the Aug/Sep 2003 issue.

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The transformation of ex-con Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read - notorious, albeit apparently reformed, crook and hitman - into a successful writer may strike some cynics as yet another of those bizarre triumphs of celebrity over substance that have become all too familiar in our surface obsessed late-capitalist culture. Such a response, however, does not do justice to the skills of Read, whose forays into crime writing repay some serious consideration. In turning from conman to penman, he is certainly no rival for Jean Genet, but his 'Chopper' books - an idiosyncratic series with such crassly memorable titles as Chopper 3: How to Shoot Friends and Influence People and Chopper 7: The Singing Defective - have obtained cult status for reasons other than the author's public profile. They are pithily styled, flamboyant tales that draw readers into a colourful (some may argue perhaps a little too colourful) expose of the criminal underworld. Now, in his most recent publication, Hooky the Cripple, Read has turned to the seemingly unlikely genre of fairy tale, to produce what might be, nominally and controversially, considered a children's text, although one certainly more suitable for the upper end of the juniors' market. Adults too, as the general tenor of the work's subtitle - The Grim Tale of a Hunchback Who Triumphs - indicates, will find here the disturbing blend of dark humour and perverse personal morality that characterises the 'Chopper' world-view.

Powerfully framed by the gargoyles of Adam Cullen's bold, unsentimental illustrations Hooky is a short, punchy exercise in prose that spins the basic stuff of the Brother's Grimm, et al into a classic Australian theme: the defence of a little battler beset by bullies and wowsers. Set in Medieval times in the Italian town of Catania (a fictional terrain which, in Read's hands, is resonant of what might happen if the Grimms met The Godfather) the story focuses on the manifold injustices which confront the eponymous hero, little Hooky, the hunchback son of 'Madonna', a beautiful village whore with the inevitable heart of gold who, after her son's birth, is forced to become a washerwoman. The special gifts that have lead to Hooky's Mum's downfall are firmly established at the outset of the story: 'The whore of Catania was no longer on her knees convincing priests and noblemen she was not a witch with a mouth made by the devil'. There is a frankness here - and elsewhere - that suggests that this is one tale that should not perhaps be selected for nap-time reading to the kindergarten cohort. Nevertheless, Education Minister Brendan Neilsen's reported outrage over talk of setting this text for secondary school reading in Queensland seems hard to fathom. Hooky strikes me as unlikely to damage a generation raised on the unsentimental razor wit of The Simpsons, and it is certainly considerably less offensive than anything on show in Big Brother Uncut. Equally, unlike the latter opus horribilus, Read's text does actually have (whether you agree with it or not) a clearly defined ethical standpoint. Hooky's miserable lot exemplifies small town hypocrisy in all its nastiness. Framed by the activities of the Inquisition, an ignorant bourgeois populous, flush with the dodgy ideological support of a distorted Christian piety, persistently torment Madonna's boy for his mother's past and his deformed looks (the latter being thought to be evidence of God's punishment of the former). The naming of the hero's mother points the reader in the direction of the obvious irony by which such prurient thinking inevitably succeeds in unwittingly critiquing itself: we can only conclude that these very same devote Christians would have greeted the maternal expectations of another Madonna in similar uncharitable ways.

Instructed by his Mum 'to turn the other cheek and pray that God would shine his light' Hooky, eventually and spectacularly loses patience with pacifism and, after years of gratuitous beatings, he finally turns on his principle tormentor, the villainous butcher and powerful merchant, Manuello and stabs him to death. The real highlight of this little book, however, is not Manuello's suitably hideous comeuppance, but the ensuing court battle to defend Hooky. Here, despite the unnecessary distractions of a rather unwieldy attempt to explore the murky waters of the Medieval church/state binary, Read (presumably drawing on his own experiences of the judicial system) orchestrates an entertainingly didactic vindication of Hooky via his Judge-tormenting lawyer, Giovanno from Milano, whose antics fall into the 'put yourself into someone else's shoes and walk around in them' line of defense.

Hooky's revenge on Manuello - given full technicolour treatment from illustrator Cullen, via a bold red background - and his subsequent triumph, will no doubt be interpreted by some as evidence that the 'Chopper' world-view has tainted the innocent ground of fairy tale. Those actually familiar with the traditions of the genre will be well aware that its lines stretch back to the terrors of the Gothic and beyond to the moral cautions of fireside myths and legends rooted in the gargoyles of the pagan universe. It is the candy coating of Disneyfication that - despite its persistent naturalisation as the standard- is actually the recent additive to the mix. One of the pleasures of Hooky is that the text draws upon - and indeed appears conscious of - this genealogy; a knowingness signified perhaps in the double resonance of the adjective 'grim' in the subtitle.

Citation

• Deborah Hunn. 'Review: Hooky the Cripple by Mark Chopper Read and Adam Cullen' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), Aug/Sep 2003. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 19 June 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• Hooky the Cripple is a dark and violent tale for our times. Set in 16th century Italy, it tells the story of a young hunchback who, persecuted beyond endurance, fights back against his tormentor and then must face the grim consequences.
  
  With striking illustrations by Adam Cullen, Mark 'Chopper' Read's tale will shock, amuse and inspire.

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