 Title: Careful, He Might Hear You
Author: Sumner Locke Elliott
Publisher: Text
Year of Publication: 2012
Originally published: 1963
ISBN: 9781921922244
Pages: 299
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Street library in Beachport, South Australia
where a copy of this book was spotted
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In August this year, Writing NSW and the State Library of NSW hosted a panel discussion on the work of Sumner Locke Elliott. It was one of a series of public celebrations of lesser known Australian writers who had been somewhat overlooked.
Careful, He Might Hear You is one of ten novels by Sumner Locke Elliott. He also wrote screenplays for Hollywood and for television after writing his first play at the age of twelve.
This book was his first novel and it won the Miles Franklin Award in 1963. Sumner Locke Elliott lived most of his life in New York and panel members at the State Library speculated that his living abroad was the reason he did not not receive the literary attention he deserved in Australia.
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Sumner Locke Elliott was the son of a writer, Helena Sumner Locke, who died giving birth to him. He grew up in the care of one of his mother’s sisters until another aunt launched a court case for his custody. She won the case and took him with her to live in America. The novel, told from the boy’s point of view, has a different ending, happier in one sense but sad in another.
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The image on the cover of the Text edition of this book tells it all. Careful, He Might Hear You is outstanding in its evocation of the emotions of a lonely young boy, powerless without the protection of his feckless father, loving towards two of his mother’s sisters and fearful of the aunt who wants him for her own. As the novel progresses, the boy’s acute observation of his relatives transmutes to emotional understanding and the power, however limited by his age, to resist their plans.
I found the novel memorable for its dialogue, a way of speaking current in Australia during the author’s youth which has now all but disappeared as has the way of life in a much smaller city, a city in which crowds assembled at Circular Quay to watch the arrival and departure of the ‘piano boat’.
Careful, He Might Hear You is also memorable for its lyrical descriptions of Sydney, its sounds, smells, weather, birds, trees and gardens and the pleasures of its harbour. Most of all, the novel transports us with great authenticity into the life of a boy caught up in a family dispute and the intense sensual and emotional experience of his life. Very few books are written from the point of view of a child under the age of ten and this one is exceptional. It may have been written over 50 years ago but it retains its emotional punch and literary delights.