Everything is newand everything is a thrill

But I want to leave itopen.'' A friend who read the book saw ''massive religious stuff and thedevil'' in it, and McGahan suspects something might have leakedthrough from his own Catholic upbringing. But no, it's notreligious, not atheist, not about good or evil, there's no moral,no philosophy, he wasn't thinking of contemporary debates about theplanet, there's no comment on mental illness. ''It's fun to suggest it has lots of meanings, that just ups thedrama. But it was just a story book idea, to go and find the weirdones tornadoes and hurricanes and stuff and let them wreak thefull damage they can do. That was the attraction. And it's all toldfrom the Orphan's perspective, it's very fresh. Everything is newand everything is a thrill. You get quite bouncy yourself.'' Wonders is so bold and different that it's bound to be abook that people either love or hate. That shouldn't be news toMcGahan, whose fiction has always divided critics: he follows theline that you shouldn't believe your best and worst reviews. Underground, a dystopian satire born of his outrage atJohn Howard's war on terror ''instead of yelling at the TVscreen, I thought I'd have to write something'' earned the wrathof Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. ''If McGahan is awinner of our top literary prize we must conclude this country hasno great novelists at all,'' he wrote. McGahan was very taken withthis: his partner Liesje wanted to make up Tshirts with Bolt'squotes. McGahan was the ninth of 10 children. The wheat farm was doingwell, and it was a great life: ''You get all the advantages ofbeing at the back end of the family, but you're not the baby. Youwere never wanting for people to do stuff with, there was always areadymade team for games. We were Catholic but not dogmaticCatholic, we went to Mass on Sundays. ''You're stuck on the farm, and when things Rosetta Stone aren't happening,it's quite a reflective life. We had a room like a library, withbookshelves. Mum was a schoolteacher. I was never aware of herbuying books but there were always new ones on the shelves and Iwas one of the more voracious readers.'' HE began an arts degree at the University of Queensland butdropped out because he wanted to write. His first (unpublished)effort was a horror novel in the style of Stephen King: ''It wasawful. I sent it off and it kept coming back, but one agent said ifI rewrote it they'd try and sell it. I didn't rewrite it, but Icame away thinking I must have some bit of ability.'' The next novel, Praise, was written in two months, underthe influence of the American writer Charles Bukowski, and it'spretty much a portrait of McGahan's life at that time: unemployed,drifting, vague literary ambitions and a lot of drinking, smoking,drugs and sex. I tell him I've been reading it, and he's curious:''Does it still stand up?'' It does, and its honesty is almostpainful. McGahan's persona, Gordon, is no Casanova: he doesn't likesex all that much, he feels awkward, he worries his penis is toosmall. Wasn't McGahan nervous about, er, exposing himself? ''Ididn't think it was going to be read.'' Then it won the Vogelaward. ''When I found out, I was, Oh well, deal with it.'' Praise came along at the right time. The publishers toldhim they had been looking for just such a book, the next MonkeyGrip. McGahan found he was even part of a shortlived literarymovement, the socalled grunge writers. Praise won muchacclaim but it also got bad reviews. ''The bad ones were so bad they were good. They called itpornography. That's a golden review! People will rush out and buythat!'' McGahan's next novel, 1988, was a ''prequel'' toPraise, written in the same flat style. Then he ran out ofsteam. ''I gave a speech at a writers' festival saying that'sprobably it, I can't write any more.'' After several false starts,''in desperation'' he wrote a crime novel, Last Drinks. Itwas well received, though he wasn't very happy with it, and it gavehim the confidence to go on to tackle The White Earth, hisepic breakthrough work, which won a swag of awards including theMiles Franklin.

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