The Shearing Gun

The Shearing Gun - Renae Kaye The Shearing Gun:
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"Quackle": The best nickname and term of endearment that there ever was.

I was not expecting to love this as much as I did. I mean it's about sheep farming and sheep shearing in the middle of nowhere. 'How good could it possibly be?' says I. Awesome it turns out.

This book is a feel good book. A story about two men meeting, becoming friends and falling in love. A story that you may think you have read a thousand times before but you've never read it from the POV of an Australian farmer named Hank.

"You think I'd do this to me-self? Nah, it was them bloody mongrels from Corrigin. They can't kick a footy straight, so they hit hard to try 'n' knock you out so's you don't know which is the arse end of your dog. Them wallies jumped on me in the second quarter. Three of them. It was fucking Big D MacDonald who took me for a flyer, and then his brother and cousin used me like a trampoline. Hard. The wankers. I showed them, though. Got me a fifty-meter and thumped that red turkey through. Then three more times that quarter and once in the third before Coach yanked me because I dropped a sitter when I didn't use me sore arm."

The Doc blinked a couple of times through my explanation, but to his credit he didn't drop his eyes.

"Let me get this straight," he asked. "You were playing football against a team from Corrigin, whose skills were poor, so they tried to make up for it by rough play. One player threw you to the ground and two others sat on you. You received a penalty and a shot at scoring. You scored a goal, then four more before, until the forty minutes after your initial injury, the coach of your team made you stop playing because you didn't catch the ball cleanly?"

I frowned at him. "Yeah. Isn't that what I just said?"


This book is also really educational when it comes to sheep shearing and farming, I had a 20 minute conversation with the Boy about what a shearing gun was and he was actually interested.

I did have a few issues (when don't I eh?) but it doesn't make this book any less feel good and that's what I wanted. Skipping the details on Quackle topping was just cruel.

We get a lot of Australian television over here. I'm not really sure why, it's just always been a thing. This book brought a way oldie to mind and it's staying there.
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It's obviously just because of the whole Doctor thing as there is a distance of about 4,000km between the places where these two things are set but every time I read it I'm pretty sure that program will come to mind. And read it again I will. This book will be coming out whenever I'm feeling sorry for myself!

I just wish it hadn't ended.