“The Election”
Author: Darryl Greer
“The Election” initially started out as a difficult read for me to get into. The book is set in Australia and the author writes with a distinct Australian flair which takes a little getting used to especially as I didn’t have my Aussie to English dictionary available for some of the lingo. Crikey! It also didn’t help that in the opening chapter I was almost immediately thrust into a tragic and shockingly gruesome World War II scene which transpired on the Kokoda Track in 1942. I presumed this was an integral piece of information for later in the story but I hoped that there would not be too much more of the same throughout. However, once I started reading the subsequent chapters the tone changed and I was able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the book.
“The Election” focuses on Australia becoming a republic and the consequent campaigning and election of its first president. One of the book’s main characters, Michael Takada, is Australian-born but his father is full-blooded Japanese. These are turbulent times for Michael Takada and his family as well as anyone of Japanese decent within the country because of racial discrimination from a fanatical right-wing organization as well as a white supremacist terrorist group. While I know the story is fictional I am aware that racial discrimination is not and quite often the book took a very realistic turn because of this.
In summary, “The Election” is a well written story and the author, Darryl Greer, does an excellent job of making the characters come to life for the reader. He walks us through the complete election process which begins with an “idea” of who the candidates should be and ends with Australia successfully voting in its very first president. The ending has a rather unexpected twist which definitely leaves an opening for a sequel should the author feel compelled to write one. Lastly, Greer is descriptive without becoming verbose or boring and I feel “The Election” will definitely hold the attention of anyone who reads it. All in all a great book; an interesting read and I highly recommend it.