Michael Toomey presents Dig at Mentone Public Library on August 12, 2022

Elsie Johnstone blogs on Michael Toomey after he presents on his book 'Dig' at Mentone Public Library

Saturday August 12, 2022

Does every person leave a mark on this earth?

At what stages of life does one make these marks?

Is the mark that each person leaves of equal importance in the scheme of things?

These were the questions pondered when first-time author Michael Toomey addressed a full house at Mentone Public Library last Saturday.

He was discussing issues raised in his novel, ‘Dig’ a tale about young boys trapped in a society that had not long emerged from WW2 and was now involved fighting a civil war in Vietnam that had little or nothing to do with them.   


At the time our politicians were ‘all the way with LBJ’ and when America decreed that war was necessary Australia followed her obediently into the offensive.  Young men’s names were drawn from a barrel to decide the life and death lottery of conscription.  They were troubling and uncertain times.


Toomey set the novel in Bayside Melbourne – Mordialloc, Chelsea and Patterson Lakes when Patterson Lakes was merely Patterson River, a place for fishing and launching boats and young men could wander freely amongst the swamp lands.


The target population of the story is adolescent boys but for anybody who likes a good yarn in a nostalgic setting it traverses the culture of the time with the freedom and the saltiness of simple bayside living. 


Thankyou Michael Toomey for an entertaining and well delivered presentation.  We enjoyed it.

 

Blog by Elsie Johnstone, photo editing by Nathaniel Davies


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