Anybody who reads this book and isn’t instantly a fan probably wasn’t paying close enough attention. Rocks in the Belly is both a masterpiece and a very challenging piece of writing—both to read and to do justice to in a review. The reader is introduced to a nameless young man—the neglected only child of a serial foster mother. Haunted by a terrible secret in his past, he returns home to confront the dying mother he feels never loved and understood him. The story is written from two perspectives: from the eight-year-old boy who felt pushed aside and who acted up in order to gain his mother’s attention; and the 28-year-old man who is caring for his terminally ill mother. Not only is it interesting the way Bauer chooses to flout the traditional stereotype of the spoilt only child, also intriguing is the way he takes the most basic character relationship, that of the mother and son, and turns it on its head. By reversing their roles, the protagonist is given the chance to reciprocate his mother’s treatment of him in his childhood. With this beautiful novel, Bauer teaches us the meaning of ‘too little too late’, with an ending that is sure to bring a tear to even the most stoic reader’s eye.
B Owen Baxter is a bookseller and aspiring young writer from the Central Coast of New South Wales. This review first appeared in the July 2010 issue of Bookseller+Publisher. Also see Baxter’s interview with Jon Bauer here.
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