No Church In The Wild by Murray Middleton
No Church in the Wild (2024) by Murray Middleton is a bold and unflinching novel that doesn’t shy away from examining racism in contemporary society, animated by the urgent need to question systemic injustices. The novel interrogates contemporary Australian society and its underlying prejudices, revealing the realities for people of colour when facing ongoing discrimination.
The novel begins with the eruption of violence between young migrants and the local police in Melbourne’s inner west, leading to the arrest of Walid’s brother Hassan. Five years later, an annual hike of the Kokoda Trail led by the police becomes a yearly attempt to rebuild trust and forge companionship with the community. However, this is easier said than done with the police under scrutiny by the community amid ongoing allegations of racial profiling.
Spanning the inner suburbs of Flemington, Melbourne and the wide expanse of the Papua New Guinean jungle, the novel alternates between the tightly intertwined perspectives of four characters: wannabe rapper Ali, his classmate Tyler, young teacher Anna, and Paul, a new cop fresh to the force. The first half of the book lays the foundations of each character, representing different facets of the cultural and racial landscape:
“She knows he doesn’t care about the kids from the flats. For all the uproar that comes with flagrant racism, often it’s the unspoken, embedded biases that are a million times more sinister.”
The title of the book stems from Jay-Z and Kanye West’s rap song of the same name which challenges fundamental structures of power, faith and morality. The same can be said for Middleton’s book as it deals with the flawed systems of policing, education and societal expectations. Ali’s dream of becoming a rapper is also a subtle parallel with the song, as both explore a rejection of societal norms and the pursuit of self-expression in the face of oppression. This can be seen in Ali’s in-progress verses:
“We talkin white flight
I’ll give u my sight
Take a long flight
Ta make this city wake right
Makin prizners bake nights
Sizzlin from them scrape heights
Hate ta break ya fake light
I never seen a day bright (uh!)”
I found the characterisation in No Church in the Wild to be very natural, with Ali’s banter and interactions with his mates reflecting the contemporary Aussie high school experience. Meanwhile, Anna is trying to move past her boyfriend’s affair while challenging the school system that fails her students.
Middleton deftly builds up rich layers in his characters as they each grapple with their sense of self and where they belong in contemporary society. This is balanced with bold dialogue that is raw and honest, revealing the deep-seated resentment and pain within each character. In Tyler’s case, his sarcastic and explicitly racist thoughts emphasise how normalised racism has become:
“All the people getting busted on Border Security have brown skin or darker. Big surprise.”
Additionally, the bluntness of exchanges – like Ali’s reflection on police brutality – forces readers to confront the reality of everyday racism:
“Ali wishes the women listening to AJ talk shit could hear some of the real stories, like how Musa says when you’re in the back of a police van, they deliberately drive faster over speed bumps, or how a policemen cracked Mukhtar’s front teeth with a torch, and how the only punishment for the policemen who did it was that he had to move to a different station, or how Hassan lost his entire personality in one night for a crime that never even happened…”
I found Paul and Tyler’s characters contrasted well with Anna and Ali’s. Although Paul is a cop, he realises the effort that needs to be put to fix relations with the local youth beyond community policing. It takes time for him to confront his own personal biases, yet it’s hard to fault him when he ultimately does want things to get better.
Although I expected the Kokoda Trail to take up most of the story, it only really occurs towards the end, while the lead up puts the dichotomy between the police and youth into the spotlight, with corny trivia games, intense training at the St. Bernards football oval and interactions that show Paul’s efforts in rekindling the trust of the youth. The imagery also becomes more vivid and intricate in the Kokoda Trail portion, allowing the reader to visualise the distinctive landscape.
“Clouds of cotton wrap around the mountains beyond the airstrip, below orange and violet vapours that’re lingering from the late-afternoon thunderstorm…[with] every psychological thread ribboning out in front of you, like the trail itself, beckoning to be explored.”
I found the novel could often be a difficult read due to how confrontational it is, especially with the racist remarks included in sections such as Tyler’s. It’s clear that Middleton does not tone down to appease, but in doing so shows how embedded racism can become, and how it can affect those raised in that space. In the acknowledgments, Middleton admits to conducting immense research including interviews with dealers, users, police, teachers, and former students in order to represent the world “realistically, and unflinchingly…with scrupulous sensitivity.” This highlights Middleton’s considered efforts to portray the reality of such a world.
No Church in the Wild is a harsh reminder of the racism that still takes place today. Even though it can be confronting to read through, that’s what makes it work. The novel is an extremely timely and necessary exploration of race, identity and power in contemporary Australia.
Simran Shoker is a communications student based in Sydney with a deep passion for storytelling through hobbies such as video games and books. Her works reflects the power of narratives and immersive worlds that drive her to explore diverse forms of creative expression. Aspiring to become a writer, Simran is beginning her published journey, with some of her work featured at Central News UTS.
You can connect with her on Instagram: @_simran_shoker.