B4 THE FREE PRESS STYLE BOOKS MAY 13, 2001 The world through the eyes of Australia's most famous bandit makes for some interesting reading, says Jason A. Keenan. Another look at an outlaw To some he was a bushranger — an Australian outlaw who terrorized the countryside. To others he was a Down Under Robin Hood, fighting a police state for freedom for the rural poor. But to award-winning Australian author Peter Carey, he was a captivating character for years and years. It took a long time, but now Carey has breathed novelistic life into the Ned Kelly story in True History of the Kelly Gang(Random House, 356 pages, $34.95). Having become interested in Kelly’s life after reading the letter he wrote to list his grievances with the government (the Jerilderie letter), Carey found himself telling the Kelly story to American friends. Again and again. “As I told the story I sort of rediscovered it for myself,” Carey states in an interview on his Australian web site. “I thought God I’d really just like to write this as a novel and there was only one way that I really wanted to approach it. I really wanted to write it in this voice which I'd found in the Jerilderie letter.” True History is supposed to be Jason A. Keenan CAPSULE COMMENTS For the week of May 13,2001 ----- There is a great deal of drug information available everywhere. In popular magazines, some companies print whole drug monographs complete with side effects. It can make quite scary reading! Some people might even stop taking a medication because of something they read in these ads. Before stopping any medication, check with your doctor or pharmacist. We will put information you read into perspective. Some medicines are best taken “sublingually”. This means the medicine is placed under the tongue where it will be absorbed by the plentiful blood vessels in that area. If your mouth is dry, sip a bit of water first to ensure the drug will dissolve and be better absorbed. Here's another tip when giving your child a bad-tasting medicine. Let the child suck on a Popsicle first for a minute. The ice numbs the tongue allowing the child to swallow the medicine without tasting it as much. the collection of ‘thirteen parcels of stained and dogeared papers,’ in which Kelly, hiding from the police, wrote for his then-unborn and ultimately never seen by him daughter. In it Kelly tries to account for his violent and tragic life, and explain to his daughter how circumstances pushed him into his unwanted life. Kelly is a man who Fights back from pressure from corrupt authorities to become a legend to the ordinary people. Kelly, along with his brother and two friends, spent 20 months evading a massive police hunt, darting in and out of rough hiding places dotting the countryside, while robbing banks and building populist support. He offered to surrender on one condition — freedom for his jailed mother. Carey captures the character of Kelly perfectly While it takes a short bit of reading to catch the rhythm of the book — written in the vernacular of an uneducated man in 1870s Australia — it catches like wildfire in drought-parched bush. Reading True History is like reading the diaries of Ned Kelly — it’s impossible to tell that this story is Fiction. That’s a high compliment, because this story is so Finely crafted. It’s has the wild adventure of a Western. It contains elements of a detective story. But most importantly, it is packed with well-rounded and fascinating characters. While Ned Kelly is a ‘bandit’, he’s a committed family man worried about the comfort and safety of his mother and the woman who should have been his wife. Like Kelly captured the hearts and imaginations of the downtrodden Australians of his time, Carey’s True History will capture your imagination today. 3041 McGill Cres. 1467 3rd Avenue 3789 W Austin Road 964-4244 564-7147 . 962-9666 PEOPLES DRUG MART Randy Okeley 1467 3rd Avenue The 1901 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Wilhelm Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays that revolutionized the practice of medicine. Anytime is the right time to dean out your medicine cabinet. If you are unsure whether a medication is worth keeping or not, bring it into our pharmacy. We would be happy to advise you WINNERS CIRCLE Tharffflreu For Your Contmued Support! i Did You Know? 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