“Too Much Lip” by Melissa Lucashenko is a surprisingly ugly novel about an fictional indigenous family with a narrative driven mostly by Kerry Salter, an indigenous “Goorie” woman running away from a crime that landed her lesbian partner in jail. She is in Bundjalung country, visiting her dying father, and associated dysfunctional family.

• Published: 2018
• Completed: 25/2/2026
• Pages: 318

There is so much going on in this novel. It spans generations of trauma and operates from the personal and domestic all the way through to the political. The characters both indigenous and non-indigenous, have terrible altercations and commit crimes in a struggle to find their place in the world. I imagined many of the violent conflicts as Jerry Springer type affairs, set in the lonely squalor and poverty of remote Australia.

By design, the besieged “Ava’s Island” is a beautiful natural oasis. Around this, the Salter family rally together to protect a place of profound spiritual significance from development into a prison by the local Mayor.

I can appreciate that the language in this novel would have made this a hard read for some. This language contributes to both the gritty ugliness of the world and could possibly be confounding, as many indigenous terms are used without much explanation and only the surrounding context as a clue to their meaning.

More generally, Lucashenko has such a unique voice. She is able to pass the narrative from character to character in such a seamless way. Additionally, this novel is a fantastic and rough mixture of many different styles that I forget if what I’m reading is mystery, historical fiction, romance, porn or drama.

A very well written book that I would not want to revisit. 

Quotes

• “They say every child grows up in a different version of the same family. Perhaps it was Donna’s disappearance that had tainted her own childhood. Maybe before Donna left, Pretty Mary had been happy to live and let live, a veritable little ray of sunshine like the one now gazing adoringly at her eldest daughter. But no, that wasn’t what she remembered of Pretty Mary’s drinking years, those times before Donna went away. There had been laughter, yes, but plenty else too. Take them memories out and the picture would be Swiss cheese.” P242
• “Don’t come the raw prawn with me, son.” P265

Questions

• What is “hamper”? What sort of meal?
• This is quite pornographic

New Words

• Constabulary
• Hot tin of meat
• Tickets on herself
• Corncob pipe
• Kingplate
• Crack fats
• Gammon = fake 
• Dugai = white person
• Jahjams = children
• Gunjies = police
• Goorie = indigenous
• Womba = crazy
• Junoo = vagina? P138
• Bungoo = money
• Juhm = smoke
• Jinung = blood

Restaurant

The Rocks Marino Restaurant

(Due to the water themes associated with Ava’s Island)