AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Too much lip, her old problem from way back. And the older she got, the harder it seemed to get to swallow her opinions. The avalanche of bullshit in the world would drown her if she let it; the least she could do was raise her voice in anger.
'Wise-cracking Kerry Salter has spent a lifetime avoiding two things – her hometown and prison. But now her Pop is dying and she’s an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley.
'Kerry plans to spend twenty-four hours, tops, over the border. She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of grabbing on to people. Old family wounds open as the Salters fight to stop the development of their beloved river. And the unexpected arrival on the scene of a good-looking dugai fella intent on loving her up only adds more trouble – but then trouble is Kerry’s middle name.
'Gritty and darkly hilarious, Too Much Lip offers redemption and forgiveness where none seems possible.' (Publication summary)
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For AC: Senior Secondary English (Unit 2) – could also suit Unit 3
Duration10 weeks
Curriculum Summary
Find a summary table for Australian Curriculum: Literature content descriptions and NSW Syllabus outcomes for this unit.
Themes
Aboriginal history and culture, belonging, Books by Indigenous creators, colonialism, connections to Country, identity, Indigenous, Indigenous culture, Language, racism, resilience, Stolen Generations
General Capabilities
Ethical understanding, Intercultural understanding
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
Notes
-
In August 2019, it was announced that Too Much Lip had been optioned for film by Cenozoic Pictures (option taken in May 2019): the film is set to be scripted by Veronica Gleeson with Melissa Lucashenko as co-writer.
-
Dedication: For my brother David, who swam a river to save my life.
-
Epigraph:
She was charged with shooting the accused, who in giving
evidence against her, made no secret of what his intensions
were towards the woman. She, he said, was only a gin, and he
could do what he liked with her.
'District Court, Criminal Sittungs',
Brisbane Telegraph, 31 January 1908
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
-
The Australian Book You Should Read Next : Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 July 2020;
— Review of Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel'A rare and powerful voice of a woman who has been poor and rich, with a lived understanding of the fickleness of each.'
-
y
Melissa Lucashenko : On 'Too Much Lip'
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
Melbourne
:
Bad Producer Productions
,
2020
18812028
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Melissa Lucashenko is a multi-award winning Goorie writer. Her novel Too Much Lip received the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. It was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the Australian Book Industry Association Awards.
'Her 2013 novel Mullumbimby was awarded the Deloitte Queensland Literary Award for Fiction, won the Victorian Premiers Prize for Indigenous Writing, and was longlisted for both the Stella and Miles Franklin awards as well as the Dublin IMPAC Literary Prize 2015.
'Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, as well as a founding member of the prisoner’s human rights group, Sisters Inside.'
Source: The Garret.
-
Australia’s First Nations Poets Map Possible Path of Atonement
2020
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Irish Times , 25 January 2020; -
Melissa Lucashenko : Too Much Lip
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , January 2020;'Melissa Lucashenko’s latest novel reveals the impact of history on contemporary Indigenous lives, and richly deserves its Miles Franklin Award.'
-
'Quite Incredible' : Demand for Indigenous Literature Goes Global
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25 November 2019;'Indigenous literature has been one of the top-performing categories for local booksellers in 2019, and international publishers are noticing a similar increase in interest for books written by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander authors.' (Introduction)
-
Caitlin Wilson Reviews Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
2019
single work
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , March no. 23 2019; Mascara Literary Review , December no. 24 2019;
— Review of Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel'If this book were a sound, it would be the roar of a motorcycle down an empty road; bold, and for the moments when it’s in your path, dominating of all your senses. This book swallowed me and churned me in its guts and, as all good books should, spit me back out, a little bit different.' (Introduction)
-
Six Books that Shock, Delve Deeply and Destroy Pieties : Your Guide to the 2019 Stella Prize Shortlist
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 8 April 2019;
— Review of Little Gods 2018 single work novel ; The Bridge 2018 single work novel ; Pink Mountain on Locust Island 2018 single work novel ; The Erratics 2018 single work autobiography ; Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel ; Axiomatic 2018 single work prose -
And Still the Birds Sing
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 78 no. 2 2019; (p. 188-191)
— Review of The White Girl 2019 single work novel ; Terra Nullius 2017 single work novel ; Catching Teller Crow 2018 single work novel ; Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel'As some recently published works have shown, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers are continuing to embrace fiction-writing as a vessel for speaking truth to power. Constantly branching out into new genres—experimenting, fusing, transforming—there’s a noticeable increase in First Peoples speculative fiction being published in Australia.
With each line across the page, the colonial grip on the continent loosens. Fingers unclasp, story by story. Not all of these stories are from deep time—some are reimagined or even newly born—but they all carry power. Story-trails weave across paper and screen towards a common destination: truth-telling.' (Introduction)
-
The Australian Book You Should Read Next : Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 July 2020;
— Review of Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel'A rare and powerful voice of a woman who has been poor and rich, with a lived understanding of the fickleness of each.'
-
Melissa Lucashenko : Too Much Lip
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4-10 August 2018;'It’s the beginning of a Western: an outlaw on the run from police rides into town with a bag of ill-gotten loot. In Melissa Lucashenko’s wonderful Too Much Lip, the outlaw is Kerry Salter, her ride is a stolen Harley and she’s returned to her hometown, Durrongo in northern New South Wales, because her Pop is dying, her girlfriend’s copped five years for armed robbery – and also because Kerry herself needs a place to lie low. But with her demanding family, crooked politicians, sleazy property developers, dodgy estate agents and a hot, six-packed whitefella leaving her “burbling-jumping-fizzing on the inside”, Kerry soon finds small-town life is one big headache.' (Introduction)
-
Crossroads
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 405 2018; (p. 46)'A stranger rides into a one-horse town on a shiny new motorbike. Cue Ennio Morricone music. Except it’s not a stranger, it’s that skinny dark girl Kerry Salter, back to say goodbye to her Pop before he falls off the perch. The first conversation she has is in the Bundjalung language (translated for our benefit) with three cheeky crows. One bites a dead snake in the head and its fangs get wedged onto the bird’s beak, fastening it shut. Chances are it’ll starve to death, thinks Kerry. ‘The eaters and the eaten of Durrongo, having it out at the crossroads.’' (Introduction)
-
Taking Back the Island
2018
single work
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2018;'Melissa Lucashenko’s new novel Too Much Lip is a dark comedy about ordinary people. Set in the fictional Australian town of Durrongo, stories of generations of an Aboriginal family living on Country are shared through a fast-paced plot. Secrets are unravelled, character flaws are revealed. Traces of settler-colonial violence and intergenerational trauma weave through their lives. What Lucashenko leaves readers with is a sense that the family members will heal themselves by protecting Country and supporting each other.' (Introduction)
-
Grief, Racism and Uncertain Futures: Your Guide to the 2019 Miles Franklin Shortlist
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 30 July 2019;'I think it’s fair to say that each year the selected novels on the Miles Franklin shortlist manifest the zeitgeist, reflecting on some of the issues that are troubling society.' (Introduction)
-
With Wit and Tenderness, Miles Franklin Winner Melissa Lucashenko Writes Back to the ‘Whiteman’s World’
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 30 July 2019;'Too Much Lip joins the other prizewinning volumes in Melissa Lucashenko’s trophy cabinet. Her first-ever novel, Steam Pigs (1997), was shortlisted for or won several major prizes, and in the past two decades her books have racked up 26 awards.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2020 shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award
- 2020 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Indigenous Writer's Prize
- 2020 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2019 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2019 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — Fiction Book Award