Oh, words fail me when I try to describe the experience of reading this book. With no disrespect intended, I have to say that words failed the judges when they shortlisted it for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards too. This is what they said:
The publication of David Ireland’s The World Repair Video Game, his first novel to appear in almost 20 years, is something of a literary event. It confirms, above all, that the imaginative powers of this three-time Miles Franklin Award winner remain undiminished. The novel is framed in the form of a journal or diary written by 42-year old Kennard Stirling. Though born to a wealthy Sydney family, Stirling now chooses to spend his days living a modest and solitary existence, with his dog Jim, in a small coastal town in NSW. The novel covers just a few brief months in his life, recording his largely uneventful days spent planting trees, and helping out the town’s elderly residents—mowing their lawns, delivering meals, or ferrying them to medical appointments.
Occasionally, the darker side of Stirling’s character surfaces, as he pursues his unconventional scheme to regenerate the landscape of his bushland property on Big Hill. Then there is the voice of Pym, which habitually interjects itself into Stirling’s narrative, and which may be an element of Stirling’s consciousness, or may be something else entirely. David Ireland’s novel, shot through with philosophical asides, irony and dark humour, ultimately presents a bleak vision of our modern world. While Stirling’s response to the realities of economic rationalism, community breakdown and environmental degradation, is blatantly absurd, his strategies to repair the world ultimately present themselves as beyond good and evil. In a novel largely devoid of conventional character and storytelling, David Ireland has given us a complex, challenging and deeply committed work.
The judges wanted to avoid spoilers. But in doing so, they have failed to convey just how enthralling this book is. So I’m going to reveal the spoiler you will recognise for yourself by the time you get to page 2. You have been warned!
BEWARE: SPOILERS
The World Repair Video Game is the story of a serial killer, narrated by the warped mind of Kennard Stirling, aged 42, and living in a country town in NSW, doing odd jobs as a volunteer while living off the income of his wealthy family.
He’s an odd-bod and a loner, always has been, as the reader can tell from the memories he recalls in his daily diary: scenes with his parents and siblings, scenes that show that he had difficulty relating to people from the start but that (like most parents who have a child who is ‘different’) his mother and father accept him for what he is. His father is okay with him leaving school without a qualification or a desire to work in the family business; he quotes his mother saying (more than once) “You can’t help it, it’s how you are”; and his sister Simone teases him about some of his opinions. But he has no contact with them except through occasional correspondence. He has had a relationship with a woman called Leonora but it has failed, and throughout the novel the reader feels a level of anxiety about her whereabouts…
His best friend is Jim, his dog, not the only example of anthropomorphism in Kennard’s life. He also attributes emotions and intentions to his ute, Brian; to his stiletto, Ott; and Big Manna (his tree). He is obsessively tidy and very well-organised. His anarchy, he says, is orderly.
Significantly, Kennard shares the opinions and attitudes of some of our not-so-beloved political leaders. He is particularly exercised by the prevalence of a sense of entitlement and although he doesn’t use the notorious phrase lifters and leaners few readers will fail to recognise the rhetoric of a certain treasurer. Although Kennard rejects the consumerist values of his super-rich family and is concerned that we have moved beyond a market economy into a market society, he has absorbed the work ethic of his parents and believes that everyone should work or give back to the community in some way. That’s ok, most of us feel like that – up to a point, and where that point lies is a place along a moral and humane continuum. So the reader nods approvingly at Kennard using his privileged position of not needing to work, to do voluntary work in his community: mowing the lawns of the elderly, taking them to medical appointments, delivering meals-on-wheels, clearing out gutters. Although he listens to the people he helps, and recounts in his diary the ways in which they contributed to society through the work they did, he keeps them at arm’s length, never calling them by their first names.
But Kennard rejects the idea of equality altogether:
If all were equal and of equal value, there would be no movement, the population would set like concrete. No one with eyes to see can maintain the fiction of equality as actuality. (p. 120)
And he has an absurdist solution to the problem of society having to support people who have no value:
Markets, careers, bureaucrats, solidarity with others, none of these are for me. Free society can never be perfect, busy conscientious humans must be allowed their imperfections. My modest aim, while keeping mostly to myself, is to repair the world around me in small ways. Make it better. Adjust it, so it’s better to live in. Not perfection, but more tidy around the edges. (p.15)
His method of ‘adjusting it’ is to dispose of the wastrels who drift into his town, getting rid of the outliers. He identifies them by the birds he sees sitting on their heads, encourages them to reveal how they manage the welfare system so as to avoid work, and justifies what he does to them by rejecting their ‘entitlement’ view of the world:
I reflect about yesterday and Turpie. Here is another follower of the mendicant Jesus, without the doctrines. He lobs somewhere, anywhere, and all is paid for. Like Jesus he has no property or possessions and no dwelling place. Is this social justice? Ryle‘s fairness? He’s coddled for doing nothing, he takes, never gives. This is not a fair go to all the others who make an effort to keep the social machine in motion. Where is Donald H. and his Avenue of the Fair Go? I exist for myself, persons like Turpie are outliers on the world’s graph. (p. 112)
(You might say, with some justification, that denying welfare benefits to young unemployed people for an entire six months, would inevitably result in some of them dying, if not of illness or malnutrition, then from suicide. So absurdist solutions to reducing the welfare budget do exist, at least in the minds of some politicians).
Yes, this is a creepy book, not least because Kennard has some attractive characteristics. He is kind to the old people he works for, even anonymously providing a substantial loan to help one of them. He has the habits of cultured people: he listens to Mozart and Berlioz; he recognises quotations from Heraclitus; he references Lucian Freud and Emily Dickenson; Montaigne and Magritte; Hobbes on vegetarianism and even President Obama. He is at home on his bush block, lovingly describing the bird and animal life, exulting in the sunsets and the changing weather, and spending long hours working hard at regenerating the soil damaged by careless overstocking. He doesn’t hesitate to join in fighting a grassfire that endangers the town (where the reader discovers that there are more than a few conspiracy theorists amongst the townsfolk).
Kennard himself is very anti-government, and goes to some personal inconvenience to be able to continue to help his old folk once new regulations for volunteers come into force.
Tomorrow is meals day. I’ll need to alter my method of delivery, since government bureaucrats have clamped new regulations on us volunteers. We’ll need to provide photocopies of licences, registrations, read a manual, attend training sessions, sign statements, pass tests, sign codes of conduct and confidentiality. That’s for the birds, I’ll put on no government chains, the folk can ring me. I’ll take them to the charity building, they can pick up their meals and I’ll take them home.
What genius came up with the revenue-shrinking madness? How many staff will be hired to handle the paperwork but do nothing productive? (p. 185)
With a mounting sense of horror, the reader learns to recognise Kennard’s signs of ‘restlessness’ but also to note the occasional hint that the justice he regards as an ‘inconvenience’ might be closing in. As the pages turn towards the end of the book, there’s a sense of hope that this madness will come to an end. You’ll have to read the book yourself to see how Ireland resolves it.
Absurdist as this novel is, Ireland, it seems to me, is suggesting that when political rhetoric abandons humanitarian impulses, there is a chilling inevitability about devaluing some lives. There is a horrible moment when Kennard observes a child who is intellectually disabled, and ponders his options…
I am very much indebted to Tony from Messenger’s Booker for the opportunity to read this book, a limited edition hardback publisher by Island Magazine. When it was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (*chuckle* surely without the PM reading it!) Tony very kindly sent me a copy.
Author: David Ireland
Title: The World Repair Video Game
Publisher: Island Magazine, 2015
ISBN: 9780994490100, copy 277 of 350
Availability
Now sold out. But Library Link’s Zportal reveals that there are 10 Victorian libraries that had the foresight to buy a copy. (Mine, alas not among them). So in Victoria at least, copies are available through inter-library loan.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
[…] but it was a limited edition and with postage as well, too expensive for my budget) #update 1/12/16 see my review, thanks to the generosity of Tony from Messenger’s Booker Quicksand, Steve Toltz, Hamish […]
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By: 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 1, 2016
at 2:51 pm
[…] with postage as well, too expensive for my budget), see the review at the SMH. Update 1/12/16, see my review, thanks to the generosity of Tony from Messenger’s Booker Quicksand, Steve Toltz, Hamish […]
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By: 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards winners | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 1, 2016
at 2:55 pm
You’ve sold me! *heads to the library*
As is often the case, wanting to say all you can about how great a book is leads into spoiler territory – that’s where we rely on the good judgement and endorsement of other bloggers.
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By: Kate W on December 1, 2016
at 3:18 pm
I can’t wait to see what you think of this!
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By: Lisa Hill on December 1, 2016
at 3:31 pm
I was once a big fan of David Ireland, especially his earlier works, so I’m willing to give this a go, though I might borrow it rather than risk my own hard-earned.
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By: wadholloway on December 2, 2016
at 8:27 am
Well, in the spirit of sharing my good fortune, I’ll lend you mine. I’ll hand it over when you come to Melbourne, ok?
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By: Lisa Hill on December 2, 2016
at 9:17 am
:)
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By: wadholloway on December 2, 2016
at 9:31 am
[…] Kindly loaned to me by Lisa at ANZLL, her review here. […]
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By: The World Repair Video Game, David Ireland | theaustralianlegend on March 10, 2017
at 8:47 am
I have just finished the book and enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed “The Glass Canoe” – a lot. But why the limited edition? I paid quite a lot of money to someone who had bought a copy and was selling it on at a profit, so Mr Ireland saw none of my cash. Why doesn’t he publish this book and also “Desire” on the Web? That way he would at least get some reward and his readers could have easier access to his works. Anyway I very much hope he continues writing.
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By: Paul on April 12, 2017
at 3:04 am
Hello Paul, I think he couldn’t find any other publisher who was interested, and Island Magazine is a very small outfit and probably couldn’t afford to take a risk on a bigger print run. I’m sad to hear that people are profiteering on it.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 12, 2017
at 9:18 pm
Hi Lisa, I read “The Glass Canoe” in a Kindle edition, so I don’t understand why “Desire” (and “World Repair”) couldn’t be published the same way and avoid printing costs. Or, if Island printed say 500 copies of “Desire”, I’m sure they would sell out quickly. If any of you are in touch with Mr Ireland, I wish you would put it to him.
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By: Paul on April 13, 2017
at 4:10 am
Hello again, Paul, I don’t know about these decisions at all, I’m afraid. I do know that The Glass Canoe was published as a Text Classic, and they are a bigger outfit than Island, and Text routinely do eBook editions of their publications. I don’t understand why Island didn’t go down that route when The World Repair Video Game was nominated for the Miles Franklin, and that would have been the time to do it, in the wake of all that publicity.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 13, 2017
at 7:28 am
Hi Lisa I’ve not read any of David Ireland but I have Bloodfather sitting on my shelves and am about to begin. It’s not one you’ve reviewed so fingers crossed.
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By: Margy on January 2, 2019
at 10:20 am
Ooh, I have that one on my TBR! That’s a bit of a chunkster, maybe I’ll get to it this year…
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By: Lisa Hill on January 2, 2019
at 11:15 am
Hi Lisa
before I read all the interesting comments that have come since I mentioned Bloodfather I have read it now and yes it is a ‘chunkster’.
It was fascinating and sometimes frustrating. I’ve never read a Bildungsroman that begins at a child’s birth and has such an incredible insight into what is going on in the child’s mind even at toddler age.
I can only think it is David Ireland himself that he is describing.
If Ireland came from a religious Dissenting sect I would say it was definitely complete autobiography but I don’t know.
His descriptions of the young Davis Blood drawings brought Bruce Petty’scartoons to mind. Astonishing descriptions.
A difficult read, but I was determined to find out what happens after he grew through adolescence. However that is where the story ends.
The Sydney bushland and bays and ocean in the south of the city is beautifully evoked.
His aunts are amazing characters and his mother is a saint of sorts. His father is a zealous disappointed patriot who believes he knows what Australia should be like.
I see on reading what I’ve written that it was ‘one of those memorable books’ for me.
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By: Margy on August 18, 2019
at 3:32 pm
Well now I absolutely must read it, but not until I’ve read A Woman of the Future (even though *chuckle* Bill is doing everything he can to put me off!)
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By: Lisa Hill on August 18, 2019
at 3:59 pm
(Margy, I’m the Bill of Lisa’s comment) I have The Chosen but not Bloodfather. Assuming I’ll only manage one more Ireland review before the end of the year, I’ll do The Flesheaters, which I have, or The Chantic Bird, his first, if I come across it.
Based on Margy and Paul’s comments I might wait to read The Chosen until after I’ve found and read Bloodfather. Someone else can do Archimedes and the Seagle, I’m not sure I feel like going there again.
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By: wadholloway on August 18, 2019
at 4:21 pm
Bill, sounds like you’re a DI aficionados. Maybe Bloodfather was a good beginning for me. I can’t find my copy now but remember the blurb having a quote from Geoffrey Dutton which said it was his most accessible but profound book. I think profound yes but accessible, that would be hard to say. His writing was only accessible because I found the subject fascinating.
I do want to read The Chosen and The World Repair … I wish I was still a fast reader but am now the opposite… I do a lot of pondering and also get distracted by social media.
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By: Margy on August 19, 2019
at 2:01 pm
Margy, thanks for responding. I’m reading Ireland again this year because I used to be a fan and now I’m not so sure. If you want to have a look you can start here –
And I certainly know what you mean about getting distracted!
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By: wadholloway on August 19, 2019
at 2:10 pm
Thanks! I had just gone to read your review of A Woman of the Future. It sounds VERY Seventies – the era when every man’s dream became a semi reality because of the sudden freedoms that women had. Freedoms which at that stage mainly benefited men and still had women in second place although they didn’t realise it. Will now read about David Ireland on your blog.
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By: Margy on August 19, 2019
at 3:59 pm
Bloodfather is probably Ireland’s most “conventional” novel, a coming-of-age story about a boy growing up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney. The boy, David Blood, reappears as the narrator of his novel “The Chosen”.
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By: Paul on January 2, 2019
at 12:19 pm
Thanks, Paul, This prompted me to look it up at Wikipedia, because I assumed it would be an early work, but no, according to WP it’s third last of his most recent titles.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 2, 2019
at 1:00 pm
Hi Lisa, I can’t check my own copies of Ireland’s novels because I’m not at home at the moment. But I found a few dates on bookshop websites: “The Chantic Bird” and “The Unknown Industrial Prisoner” were published in the early 1970’s, “Bloodfather” in 1987, and “The Chosen” (his last published novel until “World Repair Video Game” in 1999. But it’s true that “Bloodfather” was published after eg “A Woman of the Future” and “Archimedes and the Seagle”. Like you I thought it was an early work, but apparently not.
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By: Paul on January 2, 2019
at 1:24 pm
What little I know about Ireland is that despite his Miles Franklin credentials he has struggled to find publishers in more recent years. Maybe a more conventional novel was an attempt to circumvent the problem? It would be so interesting to know more about him.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 2, 2019
at 3:23 pm
I was a major DI fan years ago. I have The Unknown Industrial Prisoner (1971) – one of my top ten Oz novels, The Flesheaters (1972), Burn (1974), The Glass Canoe (1976), A woman of the Future (1979) and (had) Archimedes and the Seagle (1984). He is a great writer but … So, for instance, Burn is a fictionalised account of the life of a real Black soldier and I was too disgusted to finish it.
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By: wadholloway on January 2, 2019
at 4:48 pm
Well, as you’ve said before, I have struggled to like some of Ireland’s novels, but I did like Video Game, and I should read more…
How about you run a David Ireland Week at TAL, and that would prod me into it!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 2, 2019
at 5:08 pm
Maybe! But I have to survive Gen 2 week first! Do you have plans for an individual writer this year, I need notice once I restart work.
(Hey, I saw 42 deg in the Age. We didn’t go that high).
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By: wadholloway on January 2, 2019
at 5:13 pm
I’ve been mulling that over… Thea Astley is a bit neglected on this blog, so is David Malouf…
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By: Lisa Hill on January 2, 2019
at 5:52 pm
Defeated by indents again. I’m thinking I might do a DI year, get through all the books with some guest reviews. Then there’s my SRB professor – she must be good for a guest review. And if you did TA that would give us good coverage of the same period.
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By: wadholloway on January 2, 2019
at 6:51 pm
Paul, my name’s Bill, I blog mostly about Australian books. If you would like to join in this year and contribute a David Ireland review or point me to any you’ve already done, that would be great. My A Woman of the Future review is here –
Comment if you’re interested and I’ll be in touch.
Then you’d better hide before Lisa asks you for a Thea Astley review as well.
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By: wadholloway on January 3, 2019
at 8:08 pm
*chuckle*
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By: Lisa Hill on January 3, 2019
at 8:55 pm
Paul, knowing that makes me want to read The Chosen.
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By: Margy on August 18, 2019
at 3:36 pm
Well, Thea Astley’s dates are b 25 August 1925 – d17 August 2004 so that looks the ideal week for it, eh?
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By: Lisa Hill on January 2, 2019
at 9:26 pm
[…] The Unknown Industrial Prisoner Lisa/ANZLL (here) Burn I found intolerably racist and could not finish. The Glass Canoe Lisa/ANZLL (here) A Woman of the Future (here) see Bonny Cassidy Sydney Review of Books (here) The World Repair Video Game (here) Lisa/ANZLL (here) […]
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By: David Ireland | theaustralianlegend on February 1, 2019
at 12:06 am
[…] The Unknown Industrial Prisoner Lisa/ANZLL (here) Burn I found intolerably racist and could not finish. The Glass Canoe (here), Lisa/ANZLL (here) A Woman of the Future (here) see Bonny Cassidy Sydney Review of Books (here) City of Women (here) The World Repair Video Game (here) Lisa/ANZLL (here) […]
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By: The Unknown Industrial Prisoner, David Ireland | theaustralianlegend on August 15, 2019
at 8:41 am
[…] Other David Ireland posts/reviews: Fourtriplezed’s David Ireland shelf on Goodreads (here) David Ireland (here) The Unknown Industrial Prisoner (here) Lisa/ANZLL (here) Burn I found intolerably racist and could not finish. John writes: I am of the opinion that Ireland, as a writer is not right wing, nor left for that matter. I take on-board your thoughts about Burn but must respectfully disagree. Burn as a novel morphed from a play he wrote called Image in the Clay. He wrote of that play “No opinions are presented: my interest in aborigines is no more than anyone else’s, except that they are people. That is my interest” and in my opinion that was the same for Burn and all his other works. He, from what I have read elsewhere, was describing a situation that he witnessed while working out west [in NSW] just after WW2. Burn is a strange novel in that it is more conventional in delivery than the rest of his output. The Glass Canoe (here) Lisa/ANZLL (here) A Woman of the Future (here) see Bonny Cassidy Sydney Review of Books (here) City of Women (here) The World Repair Video Game (here) Lisa/ANZLL (here) […]
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By: Bloodfather, David Ireland | theaustralianlegend on April 30, 2020
at 3:26 pm