A Few Right Thinking Men - Review

Lindfield Bookshop - Sydney

Fuelled by the desperation of the Great Depression, loyal right wingers or “right thinking men” (as they called themselves) were convinced in the early ‘30s that Premier Jack Lang was leading NSW down the communist path. They openly opposed the government and even made secret made plans to overthrow it and rescue the State. This is the political milieu in which Sulari Gentill has set her first book, a pacey historical novel of politics and intrigue which even incorporates a murder mystery. Its protagonist, Rowland Sinclair, comes from a well-to-do family that has retained its fortune despite the economic uncertainty of the times. The somewhat bohemian though apolitical Rowly , an accomplished portrait painter, shares his Woollahra mansion with three outspoken ‘leftie’ friends - a poet, a painter and a brassy sculptress for whom he holds a flame. After the bashing murder of his uncle, Rowly is determined to find who is responsible. He and his entourage are thus catapulted into the conspiratorial world of radical NSW politics, infiltrating the ‘New Guard’ movement of Eric Campbell and Captain Edward de Groot.
 
Gentill has done her research well and Sydney life in 1931/32 is evoked with clarity and fascinating detail. The action culminates in the opening of the Harbour Bridge and the unwelcome slashing of Lang’s ribbon by de Groot.  

With its well rounded and charismatic characters, the palpable real-life politics behind the fiction of this engaging story is what makes A Few Right Thinking Men a welcome and highly recommendable addition to the genre of Australian historical fiction. A new Rowly Sinclair novel is planned for 2011. Bring it on!
 
Scott Whitmont
Lindfield Bookshop

328 Pacific Hwy, Lindfield NSW 2070

Phone: (02) 9416 8956‎