Inside story on life gone wrong
Saturday, July 26th, 2008Paul Toohey; 26/7/08; Paul Toohey is a senior writer on The Australian and author of the most recent Quarterly Essay, Last Drinks: The Impact of the Northern Territory Intervention.
The Tall Man; Chloe Hooper; Penguin
The north has chosen to reveal itself to Chloe Hooper, even though the primary players in her tale were unavailable. One was Palm Islander Cameron Doomadgee, dead in the ground. The other was police officer Chris Hurley, who appears to have taken the view that co-operating with Hooper — or anyone else — would not serve him well.Well might Hurley take that view. He was the recipient of a predictable miracle when an all-white jury last year acquitted him of Doomadgee’s manslaughter. He’s back in the police force; he’s innocent. What’s there to add? Hurley, who stands 2m tall, is the subject of the title, as are the elongated creature spirits of the north, who move in the night sky and steal the breath of the living.
There is another spirit more localised to Queensland, the Quinkan, long-limbed and malevolent. They do their evil, then fold back into cracks in the sandstone. Hooper is not subtle about her motifs, saying Hurley was “like an evasive spirit, hiding in the legal cracks”.
