Released February 2011, Jacks War written by Tasmanian author Ant Dry looks at Jack Henninng whose life is about to change. At eighteen years old he is on the verge of becoming a man, which in Rhodesia in the late 1970s, means getting a girlfriend and going to war.
Jacks War is a coming of age story that is at times brutal, at other tender, and at all times very real. A fascinating insight into what we know as Zimbabwe, the nivel shines a light on privelged society and a divided country, telling a story that few know.
Jack War by Ant Dry
Published by Sid Harta Publishers
RRP $24.95
Review
Ant Dry has written the story of Jack Henning in rapid mode, not a day wasted and in the space of six
weeks the story’s told. However, the result is a book that will take more time than that to leave you.
Jack Henning is a post school national service recruit intent on living his life to the full. He is living in
the midst of a brewing socio?political scenario that will create much bloodshed and chaos in the
years to come and indeed still continues.
Yes, it is a rites of passage story it could almost be from the age of Boy’s Own Journals, if it were not
for the underlying, mostly denied, brutality and horror, of the black – white tension.
So the reader sees the multi?layering in this story, for it is also an historical document, detailing the
descent of an economically successful Rhodesian society into a turbulent Zimbabwe. Throughout
the youthful narrative you see the loss, the grieving, and the brutality of an unendurable war with
unimaginable consequences.
Ant writes clearly using language sparsely, in the manner of a barracks, all is in order and minimalist.
This assists the reader to maintain a clear perception; perhaps this is an interesting cultural
transference to the reader from the author, who in strong Rhodesian style maintains a ‘cool head’
throughout.
However you perceive it, the story is vastly more than a tale of derring?do. It is another world.
Ant Dry is a forceful writer.
Del Nightingale
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