Word On Books
with Jeremy Fenton
Author Profile - John Birmingham
Power, Politics and Bucket Bongs
John Birmingham is everywhere these days. Or at least it seems that way.
First there was the incredible success of He Died with a Falafel in His Hand - the book, the stage version and next month, the movie. It was a work that literally defined a generation's experiences of share households, and led to Birmingham receiving the dubious title of the literary 'voice-of-youth'.
 He followed up with The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco, How to be a Man and The Search for Savage Henry, as well as numerous articles and short stories. All were eagerly received by a reading public that appreciates a keen intelligence securely wrapped in irreverent humour.
Then came Leviathan, that big and dirty book on the underbelly of Sydney's history. Originally intended as a paean of sorts to 'one of the world's good time cities', what emerged - kicking and screaming at anyone within reading distance - was a dark exploration of the power and corruption that have crept through 200-odd years of city and nation building.
At the moment, John Birmingham's time is divided between researching an upcoming book, promoting the Falafel film (directed by Richard Lowenstein and staring Noah Taylor), caring for a baby, attending the odd literary festival, and, still with one foot in the 'voice-of-youth' camp, popping up on the Big Brother media orgy.
He also arranges his own interviews (not to mention gets his own takeaway food from the local shops) - a call to set up a time to speak becomes the interview.
'I've got some food ordered at a shop up the road,' says Birmingham. 'I can walk and talk right now'. He has his young daughter with him, but that shouldn't be a problem.
I resist the urge to ask whether he's ordered falafel.
John Birmingham was born in England (his parents came out as £10 Poms), grew up in Ipswich. He did an Arts degree in Brisbane and was recruited by the Defence Department as a researcher (he still likes the research aspect of writing).
'I really enjoyed the work, but didn't enjoy working in Canberra, and at the end of a year or so - after I'd paid off my student loans - I thought I'll be a writer,' he says. 'I had this totally ridiculous, mixed-up idea of what that would entail. I thought I'd live somewhere on the coast and spend most of my day in a hammock, eating fruit salad fed to me by enigmatic Japanese housemaids.'
It may not have worked out that way ('for the first four years I was writing I made about a $150 a year'), but John Birmingham's not doing badly for himself after starting to seriously write in the mid-80s. And he has reason to be thankful for those early years, as the lack of money forced him to live, as he calls it, 'the Falafel lifestyle'.
'People ask me how I managed to end up living with so many flat-mates - nearly a 100 all-up. Largely it was because I didn't have much of a choice. It was an economic thing.'
It's now been almost year since the paperback release of Leviathan - billed as the unauthorised biography of Sydney. I ask John Birmingham how the reception for the controversial book has matured.
'In some ways it's been like a second Falafel for me. It changed everything by creating a very powerful persona for me,' he says. A persona that 'wasn't going to work over the long term because you get to the age of 40 (or older) and you can't put yourself about as the voice-of-youth anymore. Leviathan has carved out a new niche for me.'
When it's suggested that it must be nice to be taken seriously (he has recently had articles published on East Timor amongst other subjects) rather than as 'that bucket-bong guy', he admits that he was never really concerned about being known by the epithet.
'If you release the books, then you should be prepared to promote them on their own ground, he says. Anyone who denies their subject matter is 'fooling themselves'.
No interview with John Birmingham would be complete without broaching the subject of drugs. It turns out the book he's currently researching positively revels in the subject.
'What I've been doing for the last year is travelling around the country - literally from one end to the other - smoking a lot of dope, writing about it, interviewing dope growers, peddlers and cops,' he says. 'Basically I'm trying to write the definitive profile of marijuana culture and marijuana economy in Australia'
He mentions the politicians, public servants and police he's 'gotten on the cones with' while researching.
'It would be unusual if you were standing in a room full of adults not to be surrounded by people who like a smoke at some point. But of course it's illegal. Most people aren't in the happy situation I am, where, if the cops busted me, my employment wouldn't be affected. It would just become part of a story.'
His favourite authors tend to be (unknown here) American magazine writers and he reveals that he always wanted to be a magazine writer.
'There's also Michael Herr, who wrote a book called Dispatches. It's about the Vietnam War. I read it eight or nine times when I was young because he just did the most amazing things with the English language,' he says.
'When I was much younger I was very taken with the John O'Grady books [published under the pseudonym Nino Culotta]. I also read an awful lot of classical literature. The Romans and Greeks - Tacitus, Suetonius, Livy and Plutarch. They eventually lead me to people like Robert Graves.'
Although Birmingham is reasonably sure that people won't expect the author of a book like Falafel to have read classical literature, it's really not that surprising when you consider that the most powerful theme in Leviathan is the way that the ranks of corruption weave inextricably through time.
'I was interested in writing about politics and power, human failing and frailty. The thing that was fascinating about those guys was that you would read them and see the exact same faults that make the world what it is today - they were there 2000 years earlier.'
It seems like an appropriate place to end our interview. Birmingham agrees, and besides, the takeaway is ready.
John Birmingham appears at the 2001 Byron Bay Writers Festival, August 2-5, at the Byron Bay Beach Resort. Call 6685 6554 for details and bookings.
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