BOOK REVIEW
Due to be released in August, Tenderfoot sees celebrated Australian author Toni Jordan return to literary fiction with a deeply affecting and nuanced coming-of-age story set in the sun-drenched suburbs of 1970s Queensland.
The writing is everything I have come to love about Toni Jordan; witty, honest, deeply introspective, with time and place so neatly woven through the narrative.
Told through the voice of 12-year-old Andie Tanner, Tenderfoot looks back at the quiet triumphs of adolescence with honesty, grace and a sharp eye for detail.
Andie’s world is shaped by the routines of her working-class family, particularly the greyhound racing circuit that forms a central part of her livelihood and identity.
There she sees the truth about greyhound racing; the gambling, corruption and bad people who still have the capacity to do good things.
This is not a novel about sport – rather, the greyhound track becomes a powerful backdrop against which the slow unravelling of Andie’s childhood plays out with mothers and fathers who fall off their pedestals in the most spectacular ways.
The novel is a meditation on change in its many forms, showing the slow erosion of family stability, the first stirrings of independence, and the inevitable confrontation with loss – a novel richly rendered.
There are Boy Swallows Universe vibes with this novel, and yet it sits firmly within a class of its own.
It shows real life rarely goes to plan, and the world is bigger and more complicated than Andie could imagine; she loses everything she cares about – her family, her friends.
Over the course of a year, she begins to perceive the complexities of adult life – its betrayals, silences, and compromises – leading to a growing sense of disillusionment, but also resilience.
What sets Tenderfoot apart is Jordan’s ability to render a child’s perspective with both authenticity and sophistication.
Andie’s journey is subtle but powerful, echoing the internal transformation that often marks the passage from childhood to adolescence.
Andie is observant and perceptive, yet still emotionally tethered to the innocence of youth.
Jordan never condescends to her narrator; instead, she allows Andie’s observations to reveal the fractured world around her, which is filled with quiet sorrow, deep loyalty and moments of unexpected joy.
Jordan’s prose is spare yet lyrical, imbued with a deep emotional intelligence that makes every sentence purposeful.
There is a quiet tension throughout the narrative, heightened by Jordan’s ability to evoke mood and place with precision.
Towards the end, some truly brutal truths about the history of greyhound racing are disclosed, and these are not easy to read but nonetheless essential to the telling of this magnificent story.
This is a novel that lingers long after the final page, not because of grand revelations, but because of its tender, unflinching portrayal of a girl learning to see the world and herself clearly for the first time.
Tenderfoot will resonate with fans of literary fiction, offering a compelling exploration of youth, change, and the complexities of family life.
Julie Chessman
