Boom Town Snap - Book Review - Fremantle Shipping News

Boom Town Snap is set during the height of the resources boom which began in Australia in the early 2000’s, and tells the deeply felt story of thoughtful and hardworking Georgia Rusch. Georgie, as she asks everyone to call her, is a consultant with international firm, West Resources Consulting.

Author and Fremantle local Jay Martin’s debut novel effortlessly navigates two timelines; the not so distant past where Georgie’s husband Josh convinces her to leave her sister Tara and much-loved nephew Tommy in Perth so as to take up work in Karratha; and the present where Georgie finds herself in the middle of winter in Alberta, Canada, committed to the biggest proposal she’s ever worked on.

Readers will be surprised by the similarities that in fact exist between Australia and Canada – book clubs could run competitions to see who can find the most ‘snaps’, or ‘spot the difference’.

In the present, Georgie finds herself having just completed the ominously named Project Jeopardy, its final report being locked away in a fireproof government safe. As she did when several years younger, Georgie makes the choice to leave her family once again, with even more promises of important, lucrative work, and the allure of partnership. This time though, Georgie is more vulnerable than ever before. How will Georgie align her personal values with the necessity of paying off her mortgage and achieving career success?

Much is revealed in Boom Town Snap about Georgie’s inner world, and how she navigates her family, work and intimate relationships. The book also explores the complex interplay between governments and corporate interests, as well as the communities they impact, and highlights many of the challenges. Boom Town Snap invites you to consider how might these relationships be remade so as to improve people’s lives; how might we better service communities and how can the world be more just?

Boom Town Snap also invites the reader to ask questions about the choices available not just to Georgie, but also to her colleagues, husband and family. It asks, how might the incentives they all seek not be aligned with their own interests?

Boom Town Snap Book Launch at Fremantle Library with authors Joanna Morrison and Jay Martin, and Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter Credit: Gayle O’Leary

Indeed, for this born, raised, left and returned Western Australian, many of these choices and questions are familiar, and present uncomfortable truths, without offering answers. In Boom Town Snap, Martin shows much skill with nuance and complexity, and allows space for interpretation and reflection. In Martin’s own words, she asks how is it that ‘what’s right is not rewarded, and what’s not right is rewarded?’

This question brings to mind Robert F. Kennedy snr’s remarks at the University of Kansas in 1968:

‘Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage…

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.’

Just as these remarks continue to inspire a more just world, Boom Town Snap encourages us to consider challenging themes of women in the workplace, power dynamics, misogyny and the ethics of the resources industry. Remarkably, it does so with a playful, tender and hopeful touch along with many laugh-out loud moments and the odd tear to the eye.

Aside from the rich characters which include Georgie, her nephew Tommy and Georgie’s Canadian boss who is aptly named Randy, much of the allure of Boom Town Snap grows out of the enticing writing. Each sentence, conversation and thought rolls along, just like the repetitive drum of a rig drilling for oil.

Martin has an adept skill with words which makes each one count, and the prose imbues some of the harsh landscapes in which Georgie finds herself, as well as the demanding working conditions imposed on her by her bosses, herself and the social context in which she lives.

Author: Jay Martin

Early in the book, Georgie and her husband Josh are guests at a BBQ hosted at the family home of her sister, and her husband Max who works FIFO:

‘The artificial turf outside Tara and Max’s piece of Perth’s Golden Triangle suburbs was scratchy under Georgie’s feet. They’d ripped out the grass and put in the plastic alternative when they’d moved in. Didn’t need watering. Just an occasional vacuum.’

There is talk amongst guests at the BBQ of house prices:

‘ “Hindsight’s a wonderful thing,” Georgie said sipping some Margaret River sour grapes.’

Whilst this scene and much of the book may be startlingly familiar to Western Australians, there may also be some surprises which are illuminated by the extensive background research Martin undertook whilst writing Boom Town Snap. Like, did you know that Perth’s western suburbs has one of the highest rates of risky drinking in Australia?

Also, according to Canadian libertarian-conservative public policy think tank the Fraser Institute, Western Australia ranks as one of the top jurisdictions in the world for investment by mining companies taking into account the impact of both policy factors and mineral endowment.

Source: Annual Survey of Mining Companies, 2023, Fraser Institute

In contrast to many of the challenges Georgie faces in the book together with the harsh environments in the sweltering Pilbara and freezing Alberta in which it is set, Boom Town Snap is ultimately a story about love and redemption. Just as the ancient Chinese philosophical text the Tao Te Ching teaches us, ‘Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power’, Georgie eventually finds her way. At it’s heart, Boom Town Snap invites the reader to reflect, how can we be kinder?

You can get your copy of Boom Town Snap at good bookstores and from Fremantle Press right here.

* By Madeleine Cox.

Madeleine Cox was raised on a farm on Binjareb Noongar country and now, together with her New Zealand/Aotearoa husband, lives with her children in Fremantle/Walyalup. She loves exploring places and ideas, and connecting with people and nature. This has prompted Madeleine to start writing independently, after many years work as a corporate and government lawyer, and service on not-for-profit boards in the health and education sectors.

~ For more articles by Madeleine Cox on FSN, look here.

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