Kerry Greenwood - Cocaine Blues

Her heart was beating appreciably faster, and she took more rapid breaths, but she was enjoying herself. Adventuresses are born, not made.

~ Kerry Greenwood, Cocaine Blues

Finally, I started reading the books about The Honourable Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood. The first one is, like the pilot of the TV series called Cocaine Blues (1989). I have talked so much about the TV series and how great it is in previous entries to this blog and I will try not to repeat myself to much.

The first "real" post I wrote was about Phryne. Book Phryne is slightly different than TV Phryne, but just as great. (I still cannot help picturing Essie Davis, as I read and I will probably be doing it while reading the other books as well.)

From reactions on TV Phryne on the internet I realise that she is quite uncommon for a female character in pop culture of today and in a recent fan questioning on his website, the actor Nathan Page (who plays Jack Robinson on TV) said: "It’s about bloody time women characters take the lead roles." It makes me quite sad that popular culture does not entirely trust women to carry plot lines in all sorts of media, because to me it is very obvious that they can. In fact growing up in Sweden I was kind of spoon-fed female characters similar to Phryne from a very early age. Astrid Lindgren has written quite a few of them, for example Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking), Madicken and Ronja rövardotter (Ronja, the Robber's Daughter). I think they are all similar to Phryne, a topic which I have also touched upon before.

Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher in Cocaine Blues

The book is, obviously, about the Honourable Phryne Fisher who travels back to her native Australia. Unlike in the TV series, she does not have a sister who went missing when they were children, but she has been sent by a retired Indian Colonel (who's name you do not get to know other than "the Colonel"). She is to investigate why his daughter Lydia (married Andrews) has been sick so often.

When Phryne gets to Melbourne, she gets herself involved in much more trouble with drug dealers and illegal abortion. The plot is made up of, mostly, the same ingredients as the TV episode. However, they are arranged somewhat differently and I think that is great because now the story felt fresh. I missed Hugh Collins and Aunt Prudence though and Jack Robinson was a little too passive and most of the time non-present and I could not help wondering why they have changed Dot's name. In the book she is called Dorothy Bryant and on TV Dorothy Williams.

There are more themes to talk about in this book and I promise to get back to them in later posts. However, I feel the need to share some thought I have about abortion rights and how it is problematised throughout both books and TV episode. Obviously it was illegal in Australia in 1928. According to Jack Robinson in the TV episode, it could give the woman 10-15 years in jail. (If I have understoood it correctly it is still not legal everywhere in Australia even today.) In Sweden it has been legal since 1938 (The law has been through some changes. The most recent one in 1974.). What I thought interesting was that Vladimir Lenin made abortion legal in the Sovjet Union in 1920 (A fact that "the red-ragger" Bert is soon to provide to Jack in the TV episode and that I had to look up and can say it is true.).

"This was the factory foreman's idea, not mine"

~ Mary, Unnatural Habits, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

To me it is pretty obvious that a woman who gets pregnant unwillingly always will try to have an abortion even though it is illegal, which Cocaine Blues also illustrates. There will always be "bad men" like Butcher George that will exploit women "in trouble", sometimes in the most gruesome ways. They are fully aware that the women cannot complain or go to the police because they are commiting a crime just as much as the abortionist. It is really a society that creates tragedies, especially since it was very frowned upon if the women gave birth to a child after having got pregnant against her will (even if she had not willingly participated in the sexual act).