Violence is the norm

Iris - Fiona Kelly McGregor

464 pages, Paperback, First published September 27, 2022

Iris Webber is a woman trying to find a way to survive in the brutality that is Australia in the 1930s. There is a recession, there is rampant domestic violence and crime is an entrenched way of life. We follow Iris from her childhood in rural New South Wales, where poverty is the norm. Iris does the norm, she finds a man, she marries and for a long time she tries to be a good housewife. As the relationship progress Iris comes to understand how her husband has been fleecing her and the family. In a fit of rage, she shoots her husband and finds herself incarcerated at Hay Gaol. After her release, Iris heads to Sydney where she is quickly drawn into the world of prostitution, sly grog and running scams for cash.

There is nothing romantic about what McGregor has put down on the page, this is an ugly story of Sydney in the 30’s and how women were the punching bag of society. Iris is based on a real person from that era and there are plenty of other real characters woven into the story. For those who know the Razor Gang era, the likes of Tilly Devine, Kate Leigh, Nellie Cameron, Frankie Green will be known to you. In this novel, McGregor has taken the historical and made it lift off the page. Not just the people but Sydney and its suburbs are vividly brought to life. The descriptions are superb, and you can literally smell the stench rising off the streets. McGregor’s research is extensive, but it does swamp you, it is folded seamlessly in to really enhance your appreciation of just how rough those times were.

Parts of this book are not easy, the violence is just that, violent but it needs to be there for those were the actual times. McGregor’s Iris is remarkable.