Dear Rappers,
Firstly, it was great to get the responses from the AISS group. Great work
guys (and girls) - I hope the exercise has helped clarify things for you.
In answer to the Blacktown Girls. Probably about 40% of the story is
actually David's experience. Toan is definitely based on him (the school
performance, acting, return to Vietnam etc). The rest is made up of real
events which happened to other efugees - some of whom David knew, and some
who were students and friends of mine. David's experiences were definitely
the inspiration for beginning the book, but we wanted really to tell the
story of the whole refugee generation.
I tend to use the multiple-narrator technique in most of my novels - for
all the reasons we have discussed over the course of the rap. It is a style
which is, I believe, ideally suited to young adult readers - who tend to be
visual in their concepts, and influenced by movies and tv.
Keep up the good work,
Brian.
