Recommended by Dunsborough Book Chat Club
This novel is a work of creative non-fiction to avoid referencing and make it easier to read. As told by the author.
Australian Gospel is an Australian story about Michael and Mary Shelley who for thirty years travelled the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus. They stalked and threatened people wherever they went with their egocentric ideologies. Their four children were removed from them by the Department of Child Safety in Australia and New Zealand for neglect and malnutrition. They even kidnapped one of their own sons from his foster home at the age of 18-months-old. The other three children were fostered to a couple who couldn’t have any children. Tom and Lenore Blaine raised the three children as their own, as well as another child from a deceased single mother, and eventually Lenore gave birth to a son, the author of this book.
The Blaine’s were terrific parents as told by the author, and were deeply loved by all the children in their care. All four of the Shelley’s children suffered from psychological trauma related to their biological parents. Sadly, after many attempts at rehabilitation, eventually one of them took his own life. Luckily, the other three children all sought professional help to understand the mental health issues surrounding their trauma from the biological parents.
A gripping read, although the events are very repetitive. The story illustrates that biological parenting can not necessarily be better than foster parenting given the nature of the parents, particularly when violence is involved. The story demonstrates that addictions of any kind, even religious in nature, can be harmful in many ways. Sadly, the child that took his life at 28 had tried to reconcile with his parents searching for peace and love from them and was refutably told he was behaving badly by his father, insisting he was brainwashed from his egotistical ideologies. I also enjoyed listening to Lech discuss his novel on ABC Conversations podcast.
4.5/5 Stars