At 27, Benjamin Law is all set to be one of the big names in Australian writing. He already has an eager fan base thanks to his incredibly candid articles in Frankie Magazine, where nothing is taboo or sacred, particularly his family.
And now, that fan base is set to explode with the release of his first book, the incredibly insightful and frank The Family Law. As the name suggests it delves headfirst into the madcap dynamics of his Asian Australian family.
The result is a collection of stories which cover his adolescence from 12 to 17 and examines in detail his family, his parent’s divorce and his eventual coming out. Oh, and his mother’s bizarre advice, which includes such gems as ‘a girl should always wash her vagina… or else worms will grow in it’.
‘My mother is Chinese Malaysian and I think there is something about Chinese people that makes them very very frank about things like bodily functions,’ Law laughed on the phone from his Queensland home.
‘I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing but they get graphic with stuff.
‘My mother, in the first five to 10 minutes of meeting my friends, will ask them whether they are going to have children and if they say they are planning to have children she will give them pretty stark advice about the whole process of giving birth and what happens to your vagina when that happens.
‘This was the stuff that used to horrify me and I used to bury my head in my hands in complete embarrassment.’
Naturally, however, it makes amazing fodder for a first book.
For Law, the book is a biting commentary on growing up gay and Asian in Australia during the ’90s, and as such there aren’t many books specifically targeting that genre, let alone tackling ’90s adolescence… and all that 90210 hair.
‘I think it’s the book I would have liked to have read as a teenage version of myself,’ Law said when asked about the premise of The Family Law.
‘I think – like most teenagers, whatever your background is – you think that you’re a freak and you think that your family is a freak and freaky as well and you can’t imagine that other families are like yours.
‘So I think writing this book is coming to terms with that and myself and accepting my family really, and coming out of it proud. The things that I talk about in the book – my parent’s splitting up, me coming out as gay – that’s the sort of stuff you’re really horrified by when you’re growing up.
‘The book’s an exercise in saying that stuff that makes you feel like a freak when you’re growing up, that’s the stuff as an adult you sometimes come to embrace.’
As a gay Asian or ‘Gaysian’ Law has something unique to offer Australian writing.
He’s been compared to a younger version of American writer David Sedaris, albeit much better looking, and as such shares a similar cutting wit, the kind that is self depreciating in a social commentary kinda way.
They also share a mother who is prone to outrageous, potentially politically incorrect advice. One prime example of such advice was when Law came out to his mother at the age of 17.
‘I was really frightened about what my mother would say and of course her classic reaction was “Oh look, it’s not your fault, it just meant something went wrong in the womb”‘.
‘I look back at that and think it’s a pretty brilliant response to have and I think it’s important because I’ve had quite a few young gay men especially say ‘You being so open about your sexuality and talking about it incidentally as well, and not making an issue, has been important in me thinking about my own sexuality as well”‘.
‘I think there’s almost a moral responsibility to be open about things like sexuality because there are people younger who are sort of looking up to you as well.’
Law recommends that young writers interested in writing non-fiction should read authors like David Sedaris, Helen Garner, Joan Didion and Malcolm Gladwell. So if Law had to give ultimate advice to aspiring emerging writers, what would it be?
‘Read until the prescription for your glasses has to be changed!’
The Family Law is available now through Black Inc Books. For more information on Benjamin Law visit www.benjamin-law.com
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
