The author of the novel Imago (1996) moves between memoir and fiction in this new work, and the interweaving of the two modes creates a refreshing structure. Part fable, part fact, it illustrates Rendle-Short’s literary prowess, while also taking us on a tour of archives that reveals her mother’s actions as a moral crusader, and memorabilia from a childhood when ‘Queensland was innocent … the going was pineapple-sweet’.

Glory, the novel’s heroine, is profoundly influencedby the actions and feelings of MotherJoy Solider. Domestic harmony is conveyed when MotherJoy, at the piano, accompanies her hymn-singing daughters; when Glory, on her own spiritual journey, seeks her mother’s approval and acceptance; and via small acts of kindness and engagement with this no-nonsense woman. Readers will find it hard to forget MotherJoy’s grotesque cooking lessons.

The capital of Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s conservative Queensland was a city ‘asleep, asleep in the sunshine before things became reactionary, before Little Glory lost her tongue’. A pivotal scene involves Glory’s nineteen-year-old sister, Elsie, who is photographed taking part in a civil liberties march at a time when activists in Australia’s southern states are publicly decrying Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War. The whole family witnesses MotherJoy’s reaction, which is vitriolic and dramatic. She takes to her bed and won’t even attend church the next day.

MotherJoy resolves to act nobly, to right perceived wrongs, to ensure that her children, the ‘jewels in her crown’ – in fact, all of the children in the state – are protected. Glory and her younger sister, Gracie, become involved in their mother’s pamphleteering crusade. Onward Solider, the girls’ creationist father, who ‘always leant towards the technical, if he said anything at all’, does express some reservations about this foray, but these are soon quashed by MotherJoy. ‘She knew what was right and what was wrong, where others erred, and considered she had the right to lecture them, the right to protest their fallen, heathen ways. She could make a difference …’

And protest she does. She ensures that a feminist radio station’s beginnings are thwarted, she writes letters pushing her hard-line views, voices them on talk-back radio, and presents a paper at an inquiry into education, all the while instilling in her daughters ideas that she believes will admit them to heaven. This is an insight into a time and a place that sanctioned such behaviour and tolerated anti-intellectualism and religious fanaticism.

MotherJoy is no ‘Marmee’ from Little Women. She has an epic war on her hands; this is what animates her. ‘She told the Little Girls to put on the armour of God, to gather up swords of truth, don breastplates of righteousness.’ A telling comment from one of the characters doubtless reflects the author’s desires: ‘Your mother is quite a warrior, Glory. She’s clever, doesn’t miss a trick … I like her independent thinking. If only she put all that energy – all that gumption she has for this campaign of hers – put it to better use, to things that really mattered and could make a difference, she could do a lot of good.’

With the controversial release in the early 1970s of The Little Red School Book, written by two Danish teachers to assist students with matters relating to sex, drugs, and homework, MotherJoy finds the ammunition she needs to embark on her next major crusade. She compiles a list of one hundred books that she deems worthy of banning and burning, and tries to have them removed from school reading lists. ‘Dr Joy’s Death List’,a very real catalogue that is listed at the back of the book, included The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, Howards End, and Lolita.

Life becomes more complicated for Glory when she enters high school. Much of her adolescent trauma is played out in an emotionally devastating way due to her mother’s self-absorbed grandstanding. At the same time, Glory begins to write a ‘daybook’, or diary, ‘growing herself a ribcage and lungs with writing’. Through the pursuit of words, her own and those of the authors her mother derides, Glory discovers her freedom and her voice as she delves lovingly into books that were formerly prohibited. The work is divided into one hundred sections, a conscious rewriting of the author’s history to make amends for damage done.

Francesca Rendle-Short has written a courageous book, one of acceptance and perhaps even gratitude for this powerful figure who, through strictures and denial, planted a yearning for truth and understanding, beauty, and sensuality in that which was prohibited and shunned. For those seeking the transformative powers of literature, Bite Your Tongue will not disappoint.

CONTENTS: FEBRUARY 2012