28/10/2026
BOOK REVIEW - "Naked Prodigal" by William Dick.
William Dick is best known for his book 'A Bunch of Ratbags'.
'The Naked Prodigal' is much the same.
A story of the inner west of Melbourne and its denizens. Unusually the focus is on the lower social economic citizens.
Kenny, the protagonist, a rocker, is working on the railways unloading sacks of grain and encountering others of his ilk. Brutal heavy work. Characters of a homos*xual persuasion, and of other ethnicities are novel to him. His girlfriend is off him, and life is tough. His Dad has just been laid off work.
Kenny lives in Goodway [aka Footscray] with his parents and younger siblings, though his older brother who he is close to is in prison. The family rent some decrepit rooms at the back of a shop. Kenny is a rocker who hangs around with his mates in the pub, or at the bowling alley. Dreams of affluence seem beyond him. Fights and trouble with the police occur all too often. He finds solace in mateship. In his internal dialogue he wonders about God but is alienated from society by his situation.
The book details the relationships that occur convincingly. Casual s*x enlivens his life from time to time. Parties on pretty hard does our Kenny with drinking heavily very common. Kenny's Dad urges him to get on with life so he summons up the courage to apply for a job in the city at a large department store. One day he is sent to the more affluent suburbs as van delivery assistant. "I never knew so many nice places existed in Melbourne" he says to himself. Pushing himself and encouraged by other employees he becomes a salesman and with training and natural sales ability life is on the up.
Increasingly mingling in his old world in the Western suburbs and new work acquaintances of affluent Eastern suburbs he is torn between two worlds. His brother comes out of prison and cannot accept the changed world and flips out, fights with family, steals car and is in fatal crash, and is sent back to gaol for a long time. Kenny transitions with new hairstyle, increased earnings, and hanging out in jazz clubs in nob hill. He takes to self help books and the positive thinking leads him towards his dream of providing for his family by getting a house and car, as he tells it..
The book has numerous interesting characters and the topography details the park, river, speedway, rope factory and ten pin bowling ally of Footscray - sorry Goodway. Migrants are part of the new Australian story of the time the 'W' word is used as are other terms of the time. Much dated slang such as sly grog, bulls and sticky nose are also in the book. Attitudes of the time to women, other ethnic groups and g**s are reflected. (the 'P' word). Several scenes are semi pornographic. The book was published in 1969 but set a little earlier. How times have changed.
The men displayed in the book ie Kenny and his mates are very emotional and despite violent fights and drunkeness are somewhat prone to acts of kindness, as when they find an abandoned baby or one of the other gangs' mothers dies. Family is very important to the men described with close ties and constant dialogue between the family members, as they seek to extract themselves from lives of poverty. Fortunately for them, they lived in a time of growing affluence in Australia. Despite heavy drinking and smoking of ci******es being ubiquitous, there is no mention of drugs and people don't look to non existent welfare, but to getting another job.
Dick grew up around the gritty Western suburbs in severe poverty so writes from some degree of personal experience. After various jobs he made a career in writing from 1965 onwards. The FMI Library has two of his books amongst their collection, both donated by a member. Other local authors in our collection for your edification in no particular order, include - Kerry Greenwood, David Greagg, Diana Thorp, Jeff Maynard (whose latest off the press will soon be reviewed,) Ray Lawler, Carmel Taig, Alice Pung, Albert Facey and Enza Gandolfo. If local is your thing come on in.
Review by Neil
