The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
oatmeal cake. brown sugar. coconut.
Who i recommend this for: mamas boys who hate punctuation, anyone who sympathized with Arthur in Red Dead Redemption II, fans of westerns and/or DIY armor
Background sounds: I cannot resist the thunderstorms and spaghetti western twang of the Red Dead Redemption I soundtrack, as demonstrated in Gaptooth Breach Hideout
What to eat: a true man of the people, oatmeal cake with brown sugar and coconut is modest yet crowd pleasing. Way better than anything you’d get in gaol, though not as good as copulating with your true love.
If you like this, you may also like: The Border Trilogy by Cormac Mccarthy, particularly if you are seeking an existential reckoning. The first installment, All The Pretty Horses, is one of McCarthy’s more approachable works. For non-fiction about the Kelly Gang, author Peter Carey suggests Ned Kelly: A Short Life by Ian Jones. I’m a fan of “An Illustrated History of the Kelly Gang” by Alec Brierley
Content Warnings: Death, including death of a child. Police brutality. Homophobia. A pretty brutal account of animal abuse.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that what i truly desire in books is a good run on sentence and to be devastated. “True History of the Kelly Gang” by Peter Carey delivers both criteria. Bearded men, baleful yet fastidiously loyal, are the icing on the brown sugar cake. Doesn’t hurt that they fare rather impressively in gunfights, neither.
This historical fiction is based on the true story of Ned Kelly, a poor Irish-Aussie boy, and his equally poor family, getting fucked repeatedly. While the American west was dying, the Kelly gang was winning hearts in the Australian bush. With a police force, legislature, and judicial system run by wealthy landowners who had no reservations about taking what they wanted, be it your land or your sister, it was natural for the public to sympathize and support Ned Kelly’s struggle for justice.
As Alec Brierly puts it in “An Illustrated History of the Kelly Gang:”
Our school days were joyful and interesting since, though we didn’t have Robin Hood and Friar Tuck, we had Ned Kelly… We saw ourselves as victims of authority and injustice as the Kelly gang were victims of injustice and persecution and in our school playgrounds we fought many a battle with the police.
You don’t have to read the cover flap or possess knowledge of Australian history in order to realize that Ned Kelly won’t get a happy ending. Yet, Ned’s hope shines so brightly that it’s easy to forget the shadow until the ending sneaks up on you, until you’re already a little bit in love with each member of the gang, just in time to lose them.
All traps are bastards.
I can’t help but roll my eyes at futuristic sci-fi jargon, a personality trait that holds me back from enjoying many a good story. Yet i delight in adding 19th century slang to my vocabulary. Here are a few of my favorites:
Cobber: close male friend. ya know. ya bro.
Trap: the sorts of people who assault your sister and lock up your mother, also known as “the police.”
Gammon (British): ham
Gammon (Australian): fake; to lie or deceive
I do not know if these words are still in use, but i feel better knowing them.
Carey’s prose captures Ned’s deep frustration at the injustices against his people paired with his idealistic longing for a cure. I was particularly taken with passages depicting encounters with his lover, but ultimately decided to share this bit, early in the book, about his father:
Up to that point I had been his shadow never losing a chance to be with him. In the bush he taught the knots I use to tie my blanket to my saddle Ds also the way I stand to use a carpenter’s plane and the trick of catching fish with a bush fly and a strip of greenhide these things are like the dark marks made in the the rings of great trees locked forever in my daily self.
Don’t it just break your heart?
The Recipe
This Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Caramel Glaze is from Chloe Flavor by Chloe Coscarelli.
Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 c flour or GF flour (my favorite is Bobs Red Mill Cup for Cup, the kind that does not have chickpea flour)
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 c canned coconut milk (mix before using)
1/2 cup vegan butter
2 tbs apple cider vinegar or coconut vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c shredded coconut
Glaze ingredients:
1/2 c vegan butter
1 cup light brown sugar
up to 1/4 c canned coconut milk (mix before using)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch cake pan with oil and dust with flour. You may also line the bottom with parchment paper.
Beat together sugar and butter. Add in vanilla extract.
Mix the coconut milk and vinegar in a measuring cup (or a bowl if you want to make more dirty dishes). In another measuring cup or bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking power, and salt. Add a little coconut milk mixture to your butter/sugar, beat, add some flour mixture, beat, repeat until everything is added. Fold in oats and coconut.
Pour batter into cake pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. your oven will vary. The best way to tell if a cake is done is to poke it with a toothpick. It should come out clean with only a few crumbs, and bounce back a little when you poke it.
To make the glaze, beat the butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat beat beat. Add coconut milk by the tablespoon until it becomes spreadable. In the summer, you may only add a tablespoon or none at all. It should be spreadable but hold its shape without running all over the place.
Once the cake is cool, remove it from the pan. or don’t. Spread the glaze on top and sprinkle with more coconut.
