Book Club - Steve MinOn’s First Name Second Name

Steve MinOn is the winner of the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer 2023. Stephen Bolin lies in a coma in a Brisbane hospital.  In the hours before his death Stephen awakens long enough to write a cryptic message to his sisters. They are to carry his body north to the town of their birth. Stephen’s sisters ignore this bizarre request and so some time later Stephen awakens in a mortuary, stiff with rigor mortis. His now dead brain animated by a single desire, to complete the trip north to Innisfail. If that synopsis sounds like a lot, that’s because it is a lot. First Name Second Name completes an ingenious sleight of hand in being one of the more bizarre, yet compelling heartfelt novels you are likely to read in long time. First Name Second Name grew out of Steve MinOn’s discovery that his surname was an amalgamation of two Chinese first names. This discovery compelled him to explore the history that could lead someone to give up something so crucial to their identity. The narrative twists itself between the contemporary story of Stephen, now a Jiangshi or  Chinese hopping vampire, and the generational story of the Bolin family, beginning with the meeting of Pan Bo Lin and Bridget Wilkie; One a migrant from China and the other from Scotland. The historical narrative charts a story of determination as both Bo Lin and Bridget must overcome others perceptions to carve out a life in the colony of Queensland. The reader is privy to the imbalance between men and women, but also between anglo and chinese and how the colony’s British origins see Bo Lin’s identity chipped away even as Bridget’s children and grandchildren come to embrace more of their Scottish heritage. The generations trace their way down to Stephen who as a young man in the eighties struggles to come to terms with a host of identities. Stephen feels the difference between himself and his family all the more acutely as he realizes that neither his cultural, nor his queer identities are things they want to hear about. Alive and dead we follow Stephen’s journey through the landscapes of Queensland and the chapters of his life. As a Jiangshi he is drawn to lifeforce even as he’s overwhelmed by the pull that takes him into his past. This journey was compelling and slightly horrifying as we come to realise that the animating force of Stephen’s undead existence seems to be drawing him to discover some kind of space. It’s perhaps not clear whether this is meant to be a peaceful resting place or simply a destination that brings together all the disparate elements of his identity. First Name Second Name is a wild ride. This is without a doubt a very thoughtful, literary novel but it blindsides the reader with moments of horror and humour.  While the author acknowledges a wish to explore cultural loss and the pressures that migrants feel in a society that can be hostile to their existence, the text invites its own exploration of this question for the reader to discover.