Anonymity Jones

James Roy (author)

read by Stephen Pease

Louis Braille Audiobooks: 2010; 3CDs

Genre: realistic fiction

Issues: abuse, change, identity, relationships

Anonymity Jones is in Yr11. A good art student with a gift for photography, she is one the verge of sleep one night when she is startled into wakefulness by the sound of a shouting and a loud thump as something heavy hits the other side of her bedroom wall. Suddenly life as she knows it is falling apart - her father leaves the house that night to move in with his new girlfriend. While Anonymity's friends are sympathetic for a few days, they're mostly absorbed by their new boyfriends. When her post-HSC sister declares her intention of travelling overseas for an unspecified time, Anonymity finds herself alone with her grief, her mother and her mother's new, somewhat sleazy boyfriend. Can she find the strength to hang on or does she need to make some changes of her own?

In this subtle, disturbing, challenging short novel, James Roy has once again demonstrated his capacity to create concise, powerful prose peopled with complex characters and situations. Examining the nature of abuse and powerlessness, Roy also uses Anonmity Jones to explore some of the consequences of our society of increasingly self-absorbed individuals. Another of his discussion-starters, the nuances of this novel merit close reading/listening.

Phoebe Leonard reads well, achieving the difficult task of creating different voices for the many female characters, mostly by pitch and tone, rather than accent or pace, developing believable similarity between characters of the same family. Anonymity Jones cannot have been an easy novel to create through voice alone - there are so many nuanced scenes - and Leonard manages to capture the full spectrum of issues and emotions, as well as allowing Anonymity's personal growth to shine through. She truly ‘projects' the character, allowing listeners to ‘see' all aspects of Anonymity - her inner turmoil, hopes, dreams and fantasies; the turbulence of events around her; how other characters see her. It is quite a remarkable performance, marking Leonard as a reader to look for in future audiobooks.