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Last Day in the Dynamite Factory
'Silence, Chris discovered, is easy. If nobody asks, you never have to tell.'
Christopher Bright is a well-respected conservation architect, good neighbour and friend. He has a devoted wife, two talented children and an old Rover. He plays tennis on Saturdays and enjoys a beer with his business partner after work.
Life is orderly, yet an unresolved question has haunted him for as long as he can remember: Who was his birth father?
Devotion to his adoptive parents has always prevented Chris from enquiring too deeply, but when his mother dies, information emerges that becomes the catalyst for changes he has never imagined.
As light is cast on his father, attention turns to his birth mother, but when he goes in search of the person behind the photo, he encounters a conspiracy of silence. His quest for information, however, reveals not only the truth about his mother's life but exposes the fault lines in his own, and Chris finds the price of knowledge increasingly heavy. Nevertheless, the truth must be told ...
Or must it?
Christopher Bright is a well-respected conservation architect, good neighbour and friend. He has a devoted wife, two talented children and an old Rover. He plays tennis on Saturdays and enjoys a beer with his business partner after work.
Life is orderly, yet an unresolved question has haunted him for as long as he can remember: Who was his birth father?
Devotion to his adoptive parents has always prevented Chris from enquiring too deeply, but when his mother dies, information emerges that becomes the catalyst for changes he has never imagined.
As light is cast on his father, attention turns to his birth mother, but when he goes in search of the person behind the photo, he encounters a conspiracy of silence. His quest for information, however, reveals not only the truth about his mother's life but exposes the fault lines in his own, and Chris finds the price of knowledge increasingly heavy. Nevertheless, the truth must be told ...
Or must it?
336 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2015
8 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
June 10, 2016
Chris Bright is a conservation architect. He has been married almost 25 years at the beginning of this story and is father to an adult son and daughter. He has a good business and is well off, but there is something missing in his life. What is it? He often feels it is because he as an adopted child, who didn’t know anything of his father and only a minimal amount about the mother who died when he was a baby. Adopted by his mother’s sister, Jo, and her husband, Ben, he longs for more information about his real parents.
After Jo dies and he finds out the truth about his parent through her diaries, his life is turned on its head. This is a family of secrets for he also has his own secret, stemming from the day his adoptive brother died when they were children. This is an interesting read of a family and two marriages. I thoroughly disliked Chris. He is self-obsessed and whiny. I did feel some sympathy for his wife Diane, though she is not without serious emotional flaws either. The writing is good and the characters believable if largely unlikeable. As for the ending I found it unsatisfying, although others may disagree. This is my first read by this author and I would be interested in reading another by her.
After Jo dies and he finds out the truth about his parent through her diaries, his life is turned on its head. This is a family of secrets for he also has his own secret, stemming from the day his adoptive brother died when they were children. This is an interesting read of a family and two marriages. I thoroughly disliked Chris. He is self-obsessed and whiny. I did feel some sympathy for his wife Diane, though she is not without serious emotional flaws either. The writing is good and the characters believable if largely unlikeable. As for the ending I found it unsatisfying, although others may disagree. This is my first read by this author and I would be interested in reading another by her.
December 3, 2015
Again I'm wishing I had the option of awarding half-stars, as I'd give this another half.
This is very readable account of what appears to be one man's mid-life crisis, provoked by the revelation of an old family secret which results in major impact on his life and the lives of his family and colleagues.
I found it very difficult to like Chris, the pain-in-the-bum protagonist, whom I found whiny and self-indulgent. He seems to spend most of the book thrashing about like a thwarted toddler, only thinking of himself for the most part. In the end he gets more or less everything his own way, but only after turning everyone else inside out.
Faulkner's writing is very evocative and some of her scenes are strikingly memorable. I'll be interested in seeing her next work.
This is very readable account of what appears to be one man's mid-life crisis, provoked by the revelation of an old family secret which results in major impact on his life and the lives of his family and colleagues.
I found it very difficult to like Chris, the pain-in-the-bum protagonist, whom I found whiny and self-indulgent. He seems to spend most of the book thrashing about like a thwarted toddler, only thinking of himself for the most part. In the end he gets more or less everything his own way, but only after turning everyone else inside out.
Faulkner's writing is very evocative and some of her scenes are strikingly memorable. I'll be interested in seeing her next work.
November 16, 2015
I couldn't really engage with this - the main character struck me as self-indulgent and his wife a kind of caricature - so their struggles with trauma and upheaval both past and present didn't move me much. Faulkner writes clear, readable prose and there are moments of beauty, but on the whole it all felt a bit flat to me.
September 12, 2020
I feel sorry for his poor wife !
April 20, 2016
‘Time is no buffer against memory.’
Forty-eight year old Christopher Bright has been married to Diane for almost twenty-five years, has two adult children and a successful career as a Brisbane architect specialising in restoration work. But when his adoptive mother dies, his world becomes far less comfortable. Chris reads his adoptive mother’s journal and discovers the identity of his birth father. While Chris has always wanted to know who his birth father was, once he does know it raises many more questions for him.
‘Some knowledge doesn’t add to our understanding of life, it just diminishes it.’
Chris becomes restless. He doesn’t feel that Diane is as supportive as she should be (or as he needs her to be). He wants to make some changes to his life and work, so he takes leave and goes to stay at Coolum for a while. Coolum has its own place in Chris’s history: he witnessed the death of his adoptive brother here, and almost drowned when he was just a child. Chris sees both beauty and danger in this landscape. He also finds an old friend.
Chris returns to Brisbane, resolved to learn more about his past and his birth mother. His father seems either unwilling or unable to give him much information. Christ continues his search, stressing his own relationship with Diane and his children.
I picked this novel up, and couldn’t bear to put it down. Much of my focus was on Chris: would he find the information he was seeking, would it be enough for him, could his marriage and business partnerships survive? But I also wondered about Diane, and their children: how does a family manage in circumstances where revisiting the past seems likely to overwhelm the present? And the secret that Chris has been keeping about his adoptive brother’s death – what a burden for a small child to carry. So many secrets, so many mysteries.
And, what will happen in the end? It’s well worth reading in order to find out.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
#AWW2016
Forty-eight year old Christopher Bright has been married to Diane for almost twenty-five years, has two adult children and a successful career as a Brisbane architect specialising in restoration work. But when his adoptive mother dies, his world becomes far less comfortable. Chris reads his adoptive mother’s journal and discovers the identity of his birth father. While Chris has always wanted to know who his birth father was, once he does know it raises many more questions for him.
‘Some knowledge doesn’t add to our understanding of life, it just diminishes it.’
Chris becomes restless. He doesn’t feel that Diane is as supportive as she should be (or as he needs her to be). He wants to make some changes to his life and work, so he takes leave and goes to stay at Coolum for a while. Coolum has its own place in Chris’s history: he witnessed the death of his adoptive brother here, and almost drowned when he was just a child. Chris sees both beauty and danger in this landscape. He also finds an old friend.
Chris returns to Brisbane, resolved to learn more about his past and his birth mother. His father seems either unwilling or unable to give him much information. Christ continues his search, stressing his own relationship with Diane and his children.
I picked this novel up, and couldn’t bear to put it down. Much of my focus was on Chris: would he find the information he was seeking, would it be enough for him, could his marriage and business partnerships survive? But I also wondered about Diane, and their children: how does a family manage in circumstances where revisiting the past seems likely to overwhelm the present? And the secret that Chris has been keeping about his adoptive brother’s death – what a burden for a small child to carry. So many secrets, so many mysteries.
And, what will happen in the end? It’s well worth reading in order to find out.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
#AWW2016
November 11, 2015
Last Day in the Dynamite Factory is an intriguing title, the book was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Literature and it’s the second novel of Annah Faulkner, who was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin for The Beloved. That was an interesting debut novel set partly in New Guinea (see my review) and I liked the well-rounded characterisation of a person with a disability, so I added the book to the (a-hem) ‘small’ pile on a recent visit to my favourite local bookstore…
The book does itself no favours with its rather long-winded introduction. Janine at The Resident Judge of Port Phillip got fed up with it and stopped reading, and as you can see from my somewhat impatient thoughts in my comments there, I was irritated by what seemed to be yet another insular ‘relationship’ novel, this time featuring a privileged white male having a mid-life identity crisis.
But…
I’m glad I pressed on. While I still don’t understand the preoccupation with finding out family secrets (a preoccupation that featured in The Beloved too), the novel becomes more intricate and absorbing when conservation architect Christopher Bright begins to question his own life in the light of the epitaph on his mother’s grave
To see the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/11/12/la...
The book does itself no favours with its rather long-winded introduction. Janine at The Resident Judge of Port Phillip got fed up with it and stopped reading, and as you can see from my somewhat impatient thoughts in my comments there, I was irritated by what seemed to be yet another insular ‘relationship’ novel, this time featuring a privileged white male having a mid-life identity crisis.
But…
I’m glad I pressed on. While I still don’t understand the preoccupation with finding out family secrets (a preoccupation that featured in The Beloved too), the novel becomes more intricate and absorbing when conservation architect Christopher Bright begins to question his own life in the light of the epitaph on his mother’s grave
To see the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/11/12/la...
December 1, 2015
After reading for awhile I felt this book was a self-indulgent account of an unhappy man but I persevered and began to appreciate the storyline and language. Basically it's a family tragedy about secrets and lies. Chris is a successful architect, frustrated in his job and in his marriage, who discovers shocking truths when his adopted mother dies. (Not sure why he never guessed the truth, it seems obvious in retrospect). It sets him on a path to discovering the truth but the past, as we know, is not always a happy place and lies sometimes exist because of best intentions. By the end of the book, everything is disclosed to the reader but some secrets are best kept. Good fiction by an Australian author.
July 25, 2015
I have to admit that I read this book because the author lives locally and I like to support local authors. I hadn't expected a lot. However I was very well surprised. The book is a deceptively easy read, but there are several significant issues raised that really make the reader stop and think, what would I have done under the circumstances, in that time. The characters are well drawn and interesting. Though I didn't especially like her, I did think that the characterisation of the wife was very well done- the author really got inside her complex and troubled head.
December 28, 2015
This book is well thought out and the content deals with a man coming to grips with his place in the world in light of some revelations made after his adoptive mother (and aunt) passes away. I love that it's set in Australia; Brisbane and parts of Melbourne and that it reveals the history of a munitions factory in Maribyrnong. The book is also about being happy, what you're prepared to give up for contentment in the face of true love, and about some of the hardest decisions you're ever likely to make.
December 15, 2015
A very well written book about the crisis a man faces when a truth about his family is revealed. It is not the only secret either and the family is torn apart by these discoveries. How one would react in Chris's place is interesting to contemplate, but as always, one would never know until it happened to them. I found myself sympathising with both him and his father. While I also had some sympathy for his wife, I totally agree that Chris should ask for "more".
June 24, 2017
After a short prologue this story takes a while to get going. The central character, Chris, is incredibly introspective and self absorbed, and I almost gave up on it, but Annah Faulkner's writing is so compelling that I kept on. I am glad I did, because the story becomes gripping as we watch the secrets from the past and Chris's handling of these as the tale unfolds. I am now keen to read more of this author's work.
August 30, 2015
An excellent read set in Brisbane and Coolum. Faulkner successfully gets into the head of the male protagonist and writes beautifully. Adopted by his aunt and uncle, Chris embarks on a search to find out more about his birth parents, set against his own failing marriage and disenchantment with his chosen career. This was a book I couldn't put down.
Read
January 9, 2019This Australian novel is one of those messy, mid-life crisis stories of which I have had enough. It's a good one, well written, interesting characters, good Australian setting which adds a lot to the novel, and it's worth a read if you are not in need of more cheerful topics.
I'm finding I need comfortable reading these days!
I'm finding I need comfortable reading these days!
December 29, 2015
Loved this. Great tale of self discovery, aided by lots of rewards for the local reader with locations of Brisbane and Coolum.
February 26, 2017
This is the story of a mid-life crisis but not an ordinary one. When the protagonist finds out what he wants to know quite early on, I though, 'Well, what about the rest of all these pages?' Read on; twist follows twist, the readers judgment of the protagonist twists and turns too, until all - the history and the man - are revealed. What a shame that this excellent story has been trivialised by the use of the present tense.
September 12, 2022
A coming to terms with the past sort of book - Christopher Bright knew he was adopted and that his birth mother had died. Any questions into how or about his birth father were not answered directly by his aunty and uncle who had adopted him.
The downsides to this book are that Chris seems quite ego centric and in the end seems to get his own way in everything ... but at quite a huge cost to all those around him.
The downsides to this book are that Chris seems quite ego centric and in the end seems to get his own way in everything ... but at quite a huge cost to all those around him.
January 28, 2022
If you're after an easy read (this took me just two days) then I recommend this book. One where it's easy to be attached to the characters, and the ol' cliff hanger. Every once in a while we need something not so heavy!
September 5, 2020
Unravelling relationship. Family secrets.
December 11, 2020
Christopher Bright seems to have the perfect life but it unravels after his adoptive mother’s death when information leads hm to find out about hi birth parents
June 5, 2021
Really enjoyed this book. A bit different, really good story.
January 17, 2017
The title of this book is portentous and I began reading with an expectation that something explosive would happen. It did, and sooner than I thought. On the first page a stick of dynamite is wedged into the stubborn roots of a camphor laurel tree, because despite its hacking it would not die, ‘a tiny green shoot had sprung from its stump’. A metaphor surely, of hope perhaps, or the persistence of truth. By the end of page two the green shoot is gone for good, but the memory of it lives long in the boy who ran from the blast, and it lies like a foundation stone beneath the architecture of this lovely book.
The story starts, in earnest, more than thirty years later. Chris is now in his forties and he’s mourning the death of his aunt, and adoptive mother, Jo. Her passing ignites the fuse that drives the narrative of this book. Jo was his mother’s sister, but about her, she spoke very little. She was the keeper of knowledge and the hoarder of secrets. Her death magnifies Chris’s feeling that he doesn’t really know who he is, and intensifies his longing to understand his mother, and identify his father.
It often takes a while for me to enter fully into a story. I observe it from a safe distance, making assumptions about its worth, judging its scale, the quality of its construction, the attention to detail. First impressions can set up a resistance. it’s like seeing a house for the first time; its style, its era, the embellishments on the balcony. These things have nothing to do with how habitable the building might actually be, but they can all slow your progress to the front door. It took no time at all to feel comfortable in this story. It was immediately familiar. An Australian voice perhaps, an iconic Queensland setting – the sloping block and old Queenslander recognisable no matter where in this big country you grew up.
Last Day in the Dynamite Factory draws you in. It’s not like the pull of a car crash or the voyeurism of salacious gossip. Instead it’s the kind of story you want to hear because it reflects your own concerns – identity, relationships, work, family and love. The detail may not be ours, but the larger questions are the same as those that echo through our own quiet moments.
There is a big story here, and at times it explodes and the shockwaves move it forward at a perfect pace. But the smaller stories are equally engaging. Chris’s relationship with his wife, Diane, is delicately told and Faulkner writes beautifully about sex and love and the longing for them to coincide.
Work is another theme that many readers will relate to. Why we do what we do, and what it costs us. Chris is a conservation architect who would like to be doing something else but is shackled by his expertise and good reputation.
The very domestic nature of these themes, and the human scale of their rendering, make this an accessible read. But it is the skilful writing – the sturdy frame and invisible joinery, the balance of form and function – that make this a great read.
The persistence of truth – within us, between us, and over the course of time – is like a tiny green shoot that sprouts through this book. The truth, in the end, makes a good story and I would not hesitate to recommend it.
The story starts, in earnest, more than thirty years later. Chris is now in his forties and he’s mourning the death of his aunt, and adoptive mother, Jo. Her passing ignites the fuse that drives the narrative of this book. Jo was his mother’s sister, but about her, she spoke very little. She was the keeper of knowledge and the hoarder of secrets. Her death magnifies Chris’s feeling that he doesn’t really know who he is, and intensifies his longing to understand his mother, and identify his father.
It often takes a while for me to enter fully into a story. I observe it from a safe distance, making assumptions about its worth, judging its scale, the quality of its construction, the attention to detail. First impressions can set up a resistance. it’s like seeing a house for the first time; its style, its era, the embellishments on the balcony. These things have nothing to do with how habitable the building might actually be, but they can all slow your progress to the front door. It took no time at all to feel comfortable in this story. It was immediately familiar. An Australian voice perhaps, an iconic Queensland setting – the sloping block and old Queenslander recognisable no matter where in this big country you grew up.
Last Day in the Dynamite Factory draws you in. It’s not like the pull of a car crash or the voyeurism of salacious gossip. Instead it’s the kind of story you want to hear because it reflects your own concerns – identity, relationships, work, family and love. The detail may not be ours, but the larger questions are the same as those that echo through our own quiet moments.
There is a big story here, and at times it explodes and the shockwaves move it forward at a perfect pace. But the smaller stories are equally engaging. Chris’s relationship with his wife, Diane, is delicately told and Faulkner writes beautifully about sex and love and the longing for them to coincide.
Work is another theme that many readers will relate to. Why we do what we do, and what it costs us. Chris is a conservation architect who would like to be doing something else but is shackled by his expertise and good reputation.
The very domestic nature of these themes, and the human scale of their rendering, make this an accessible read. But it is the skilful writing – the sturdy frame and invisible joinery, the balance of form and function – that make this a great read.
The persistence of truth – within us, between us, and over the course of time – is like a tiny green shoot that sprouts through this book. The truth, in the end, makes a good story and I would not hesitate to recommend it.
August 21, 2015
Last Day in The Dynamite Factory is a good read. Set in Brisbane the story examines family dynamics and how much we hide from our closest family. Christopher was adopted by his (single) mother's sister. All his life he has searched for information about his father. After his adopted mothers death he finds out who his father is and the impact on him his enormous. Christopher's marriage is lacklustre and as the story progresses his frustration at his inability to connect with his wife Diane, his frustration with his architectural career and his distress at what he learns about his birth mother and his father lead to his rebirth. He leaves his marriage and his career to start again in the hope of finding happiness. The writing style did not totally engage me but i do feel the story is about real people and the type of frustration so frequently experienced.
October 11, 2015
What a great title for a book. Really enjoyed this story. A tale of secrets, of love and lost love. A tale of deception and loss. The characters came alive to me and became very real. Highly recommended.
February 11, 2016
This was a little hard to read at times. I really disliked the main character's wife and at times I disliked him too. To be fair I think it is a 3 and a half star because the story is interesting enough but he gets a bit caught up in his own misery which is a little exhausting.
March 11, 2016
This book really feels comfortable to me. It descriptions of an Australian summer are spot on, the characters are believable, the theme of secrets and lies is well developed. A very satisfying novel on many fronts.
June 13, 2016
Not as good as "The Beloved". Chris, the main character, is shallow and self-centred. None of the characters were especially well developed or likeable. The plot was very believable either. Perhaps I should have rated it less than 3 stars? The quality of the prose was good.
September 21, 2015
Great read!
August 13, 2015
I just loved this book - it is exquisitely written, with a cast of beautiful characters. I want another of this caliber, now, please.
March 2, 2016
Easy enough to read but what a horrible selfish man.
May 24, 2016
It was OK.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews