How Far Would You Go for Your Child? ‘The Good Losers’ Review

Helping your child get away from screens and pursue excellent outdoor activities is a good thing, there is no doubt.

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But what if there is something much deeper and bigger going on, bigger than you and the people involved? Something which you don’t see but come to realise? That altruism is vast.

Meg Bignell’s ‘The Good Losers’ is set in Launceston, Northern Tasmania and centres around Callie March and her 16-year-old son Pip.

He’s addicted to screens, so she enrolls him into the local rowing club with the hope that he may find something to get involved with, enjoy and grow.

This book is a very Australian take on class structure, the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, relationships, assuming people know things and the greater good all through the Levin-Bell Rowing Club.

This book is a very Australian take on class structure, the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.

There are some very funny moments and accurate reflections on Australian life, family relationships and being a teenager.

I love the strong women and the stance they take against men who see them as lesser.

I like the frankness in the way people speak their mind on matters, directly and through the ubiquitous parental WhatsApp chat group.

It’s familiar to many of us as we negotiate with our kids on community engagement and want them to grow and flourish in sport, school, and life really.

What I didn’t enjoy was the frequent and strong swearing. This book deserves an E for explicit language.

What I didn’t enjoy was the frequent and strong swearing.

It’s full on from parents, the club hierarchy and the teenagers in the club. You have been warned.

In the end, our main characters both grow up, see a bigger picture in life and learn a lot more than they expected about themselves, and each other.

But this is not soppy personal growth story – far from it. It is about confrontation, jealousy, revenge, social media and all types of families and their relationships.

In the second part of the book, we find something completely unexpected.

Work has been undertaken for many years which is about significant and hugely important life-changing matters (no spoilers here!).

I give this book two stars out of five.

My issue is that while these deeper and significant matters are rightly addressed, because they are a blight on our world, the stories just don’t go together.

The deeper one just doesn’t really make sense in the context of the rowing club’s apparently shallow and terse relationships. Maybe that is the point.

This book made me reflect upon God’s creation and especially his creation of people. We are made in His image as Genesis 1:27 tells us.

If we say we follow Jesus, we need to reflect that in the way we treat people.

Jesus tells us that he has given us a new commandment to love one another and it’s by this that people will recognise that we are his followers (John 13:34-35).

If we say we follow Jesus, we need to reflect that in the way we treat people.

Paul also writes that the fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

These we need to display if we say we follow Jesus. I think the characters in this book have a few things to learn.

Whilst I think that the ending and the work being done that is revealed and is significantly important and should be addressed, and I enjoy the cynical take on life and stereotypes, the language and horrible relationships made it difficult to get there.

I give this book two stars out of five.

Feature image: book cover used with permission

Article supplied with thanks to David Barker.

Feature image: Supplied