A Language of Limbs
Dylin Hardcastle
Pan Macmillan, 2024
A Language of Limbs is split into two halves – Limb One and Limb Two, who go through life in a parallel manner. Starting in the early 1970s and covering the course of nearly 30 years, the novel begins with two teenage girls in love, neighbours in their Newcastle suburb. They are discovered having sex in the back shed by Limb One’s parents on a fateful summer evening, whereupon Limb One is beaten, thrown out of home and disowned, never to return. She is taken to Sydney by a sympathetic gay truck driver and finds a home at Uranian House, made up of a range of different queer people who love her and embrace all those who come their way. Through the household’s experiences, the bourgeoning queer culture of Sydney is outlined, as they live through the nascent Mardi Gras and the AIDS crisis, having a range of relationships and developing equality until the dissolution of the household.
Limb Two takes a more conventional path, finishing her schooling and eventually travelling south to Sydney University where she studies English Literature. She meets and falls in love with a man, but her feelings for Limb One never truly vanish, often reasserting themselves in her dreams. They are often in close proximity, retelling the same event from different perspectives. Eventually, after separate experiences of tragic loss, bereavement, and grief, they are brought back together by their shared love of self-expression, literature and the written word.
Their future is unknown – it is not the story that Dylin Hardcastle has written here – rather, how the choice of being true to yourself or taking a more conventional path shaped the experiences of queer people in the past and present. Hopefully, in the future, living the life that you want will not require such painful sacrifices. A very enjoyable and compelling read.
