Big Time by Jordan Prosser
“’I spent my entire life trying to change people’s minds the gentle way. Trying to nudge them in the right direction. Trying to sway public opinion. I tried suggestion, inspiration and incitement. I tried appealing to their taste and better nature. I tried to speak their language. I tried to hold their hand while they got there on their own. I tried and tried, and I tried, and I tried. But it didn’t work. None of it.’”
Big Time (2024, UQP) is probably the most adrenaline-infused book I’ve read in a long time – in a good way! Cinematic in scope, boldly imaginative in delivery, and worryingly close to the bone on its apparently ‘speculative’ aspects, I couldn’t put this one down.
Set in a not-too-distant future, the eastern states of Australia have become the Free Republic of Eastern Australia (FREA), the world’s newest autocracy. It’s a place where “pop music is propaganda, science is the enemy, nationalism trumps all, and moral indecency is punishable by indefinite detention.”
We meet Julian Ferryman as he’s returning to Melbourne from Colombia to record a long-awaited second album with his band, the Acceptables. On his flight home, a bored flight attendant introduces him to the latest drug on the scene, simply called F, with the ability to seemingly allow users to see a short distance into the future.
But Julian is unique. Whereas everyone else seems to be able to see only a few minutes at most ahead, Julian is able to see days in advance. He quickly learns how to build his tolerance and see further and further into the future:
“Oriana says it’s incredible. She says something about Julian being in the highest percentile. She says the duration, and the ratio, and the veracity of his visions go well beyond anything she’s personally encountered –particularly given his tolerance levels.”
Back home with his band, it's clear there are tensions to be worked out between him, lead singer Ash, and Oriana, the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ ex-girlfriend that no piece of media about a rock band would be complete without (who is, naturally, now dating Ash).
Tensions aside, the band get on with recording their new album, with a fray of creative differences, before hitting the road in their megaband tour bus, music label manager and a few additional characters in tow. As this narrative builds, we’re provided with further insights into the bands' history, FREA, and the mysterious effects of F.
“This was one of the last times Julian would play a gig without having seen it on F beforehand – one of the last times he would feel the rush of a live set, the thing that made him fall in love with making music in the first place.”
Interwoven in the main narrative are short vignette-style stories that all serve to build out this world and we’re introduced to another major concern: Extreme Coincidences. Since discovering that two football matches played decades apart were identical in every single way, the world has become increasingly aware of and tuned into such duplicate anomalies. There’s also another set of vignettes exploring the broader scientific community’s engagement and understanding of F and these Extreme Coincidences, which converge with Julian’s and the Acceptables narrative at a later point in their tour.
These vignettes are brilliant little sojourns, and I really enjoyed their placement and introduction to existential/philosophical themes around time:
“We’re presented with the likelihood that the problem does not lie with us – the problem lies with time. We can no longer rely on it to carry us steadily forwards, because who’s to say it won’t, at a moment’s notice, decide to repeat itself? Pause altogether? Or even go backwards – backwards towards chaos?”
If this sounds like a lot, the truth is it is – and there’s more that I haven’t mentioned – but it works.
Prosser has navigated the complex weaving of ideas, narratives, perspectives and storylines exceptionally well. I never lost my place or sense of what was happening when, where and with whom. This is not an easy thing to achieve, and it’s a solid nod to Prosser’s other hat as a filmmaker in his ability to bring this together on the page in such a vivid and engaging way.
One aspect that felt like it would be great for film but didn’t quite tick over in the novel for me was the narrative perspective. We’re told we’re hearing the story from a character named Wesley, the self-appointed photographer for the tour, who pops up now and then to speak directly to us as the reader but then disappears as we move onto scenes where Wesley isn’t present. I found Wesley’s direct speaking to ‘you’ (as in the reader) distracting, and (spoiler) Wesley dies about halfway through the book, so we transition fully to the omnipresent narrator, which works far better for this novel overall.
Big Time is a big rush of a read. It’s action-packed, fun, engaging, intelligent and witty. With some essential messages at its heart about the world at large, how we show up, and how we use our voices against oppression, readers will find much to enjoy and mull over in equal measure.
Check out our interview with Jordan over at our Emerging Writers Series!
Elaine Chennatt is a writer, educator and psychology student currently residing in nipaluna. She has a special interest in bibliotherapy (how we use literature to make sense of our lives) and is endlessly curious about the creative philosophies of others. She lives with her husband and two bossy dachshunds on the not-so-sunny side of the river (IYKYK). Find her online at wordswithelaine.com.
