This week I had the great pleasure of hearing the wonderful Brisbane based journalist Trent Dalton speak about the inspiration behind his novel “Boy Swallows Universe”.
If you have ever had read Trent’s profiles in The Weekend Australian magazine, you will know that he is adept at telling people’s stories. He has an extraordinary ability to communicate his joy in the human condition and the variety of different ways in which people live their lives.
It was only when Trent released his novel that I heard about his own life story in Brisbane and Ipswich. Trent and his brothers endured a broken home, regular visits from underworld figures, a mother who was in jail during his fragile formative years and being babysat by a convicted murderer. Despite these disadvantages, Trent recalls a loving relationship with his parents and brothers. He met criminal figures who spent their time in jail reading voraciously and was acutely aware of the capacity for bad people to do good.
One story that really struck me was when Trent spoke of his fear that his mother would be treated harshly at the book launch. Although the book is fiction, the parallels with the true story of his early life were obvious enough. Like the mother of the fictional Eli Bell in the book, Trent’s mother was jailed at the infamous Boggo Road Women’s Prison. He was concerned that readers would be unfair to his mother who had lived so much more in her life than her two years in prison over 30 years ago.
His fears were unrealised. Instead, one of the guests at the launch asked Trent’s mother to sign the book for him. Initially Trent drew from this that people generally are so much better than we think they are. He then corrected himself and said actually, it is not just people, it is “readers”.
He spoke of those “a-ha” moments when we realise we are not alone. Even when the characters are living lives seemingly so different from our own, a novel allows us to enter their world and see the parallels. It is this opportunity for sympathy in a safe environment that allows us to grow and prepare for our own diverse interactions with the world.
Almost every lawyer I know (including Renee and I) reads compulsively. People think I am joking when I say that I used to read the cereal box when I was a kid if I had run out of things to read.
It is a chicken and egg situation – the study of law requires reading massive volumes of case law and legislation. Anyone who cannot tolerate extensive reading simply would not go the distance. However, reading novels makes us better lawyers.
Our clients come from diverse backgrounds. Some of them have experienced hardships well outside the boundaries of our own experience. It is imperative that we have the capacity for empathy and keep an open mind about everyone we meet. It is not our role to judge our clients, it is our role to advise them of their rights.
Having said that, I firmly believe the ability for empathy is a vital skill for everyone whatever their age or occupation. My tip for the week is therefore, step away from the news cycle. We all know about the leadership spill. Pick up a novel and get lost in another world.
