Review: Tom Pagdin, Pirate by E. J. Brady

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It was settled. When Tom Pagdin became the captain of a pirate ship, Dave would be his first-mate.

The two thirteen-year-olds escaped the tyranny of their parents to pursue a career in piracy. They didn’t have a ship. As the pirate crew, they had only each other. Tom had found a stray boat and had hidden it somewhere along the riverbank. The two runaways decided to escape in that boat. Before they sailed off, they accidentally overheard two mysterious men hatching a plan to rob a bank. Seemed like their boat had been discovered by these robbers, who now wanted to ‘borrow’ it for the occasion. After the robbery was carried out, one of the criminals stabbed the other and threw the body into the river.

Tom Pagdin and Dave Gibson, hidden behind a bush, watched it all. Little did they know, the murderer was none other than the vicious, French outlaw Jean Petit, who had escaped from jail, had sailed across Pacific in a small boat. George Chard, the bank clerk was unjustly accused of having involvement in the robbery. Would the two teenage pirates be able to save George? Would Jean Petit, who had walked his way over dead bodies of innocent men, manage to escape once again?

Tom Pagdin, Pirate by Edwin James Brady is a wonderful book that is sure to entertain both a child and an adult alike. E. J. Brady was an Australian poet educated both in the United States and Sydney. In his early life, he had worked as a wharf clerk, a farmer, and a journalist. His familiarity with the landscapes of rural Australia has its unmistakable impressions on the pages of Tom Pagdin, Pirate. The major characters of Tom, Dave, and Jean Petit were made alive mainly through conversations. Tom had a thick, Australian rural accent,

“Pick up your swag an’ foller me,” ordered Tom. “I’ll take yer right away.”

while Jean Petit spoke the sibilant English of a Frenchman.

“Ah! Zen vere shall ve meet – you an’ I, eh?”

Some, especially today’s mentors of creative writing, recommend against using dialectical dialogues. The cluster of apostrophes, misspellings – they say – distracts readers away from the plot. In a prose laden with conversations, they probably do. However, there is a certain advantage of this style; the readers don’t just read the conversation, they can actually hear the characters talking among themselves.

Readers will probably notice that there’s a hierarchy of characters in Edwin James Brady’s Tom Pagdin, Pirate. Importance was given to individual characters according to their roles in the main plot. Jean Petit, the uber-villain, was like a shadow of a predator lurking behind the thicket. He was nowhere, at the same time everywhere. He appears and disappears from the scenes, leaving behind him a trail of blood. Though his identity was not revealed until much later, his evil presence was felt right from the beginning. Tom and Dave, being the main characters, lead the story to its destination. George Chard though he was one of the many who benefitted from Tom’s adventure, remained in comparative obscurity. Jacob and Maria, the farmer -couple, in whose house Tom had stayed for a few hours, appeared on the scene and then quickly passed by.  A similar thing happened with the character called Hans Holterman, the wine-maker. He fell in the way of Jean Petit and was disposed of. Jean Petit’s kissing the knife after he murdered the poor old man, however, left its mark. Jean Petit’s total absence of conscience, his ruthless efficiency in crime, and his treacherous tactics made him a formidable adversary of Tom Pagdin.

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