Further, by all accounts, Tom Brennan is boorish and self-centred and does not redeem himself from such ego-centrism at any point in the novel. Another author would have cut the character loose and allowed his perspective to swim among the cold analytical scorn of hostile peers. An author like Austen would have forced the responder to mock Tom Brennan’s self-indulgence (as Fanny Price sets up the responder to do in Mansfield Park). Instead we are lead into the world of one who must be one of the least interesting characters in the novel. Daniel Brennan is a tear-away who is incarcerated because of a violent jealous incident which leaves heartache and turmoil in the lives of those who he has hurt. It may have been exciting to know Daniel’s life and The Story of Daniel Brennan may have been an extraordinary novel. Fin, Tom and Daniel’s cousin has to face life in a wheelchair as a result of the actions of Daniel Brennan. The Story of Fin may well have been a novel seething with raw emotion. Kylie, Tom and Daniel’s sister undergoes powerful and observable changes in the novel. Brendan, Tom’s uncle who organizes a trip to Nepal for himself and Daniel, leads as colourful and interesting a life as any in the novel but The Story of Tom Brennan? One doubts that this is a decision that, considering the rich tapestry of characters to work with, that Tolstoy would have made. In this reviewer’s opinion, The Story of Tom Brennan is a blatantly poor choice for inclusion as a novel set for senior study in the NSW Higher School Certificate or indeed in any senior English study course which includes literature. This reviewer found the prose to be bland, tedious and littered with dead or dying metaphors and similes.
By the end of the novel, this reviewer determined that if one was selecting stories in the future, that perhaps the Brothers Grimm or the works of Hans Christian Andersen may produce a more satisfying and enlightening result!
Reviewed by Al Delaunay

On page 140, when Tom and his uncle visit and are ushered into the prison’s visiting area where Daniel is seated, Daniel “banged his forehead on the laminated surface, once, then twice” (p.140). Now this reviewer is no haunter of correctional facilities but suspects that a convicted prisoner banging his head on a laminated table in a prisoner’s visiting area may give some concern to warders present in the room. No mention is made of any such problem and the novel blithely continues as if the three parties are among patrons in a café rather than among prisoners in a waiting room of a correctional facility. Apparently this isn’t an attempt at magical realism either. The reader is meant to view this incident as contextually probable. Why then, on page 274, when the same visitors visit Daniel Brennan in the same correctional facility, does the reader/responder read this: “Brendan threw up his arms. The guard turned suddenly./’No hassles,’ Daniel told him. The guard nodded but kept his eyes our way.”
Daniel Brennan is indeed in a strange kind of prison where the throwing up of one’s hands raises alarms as possible signs of danger and trouble, but when convicted inmates pound their heads on the prison property, guards are impervious. This researcher’s knowledge of correctional facilities does extend to this level, however; that violent actions by prisoners (particularly in visiting areas), are almost certainly causes of institutional concern and may need more than just a passing nod before they are ignored, while the raising of the hands in a Mexican-wave like gesture is unlikely to elicit a reaction by a prison guard as a general basis of policy if initiated by visitors to the prison. Well, maybe the above may appear over-analytical to some but such glaring faults should not be included on prescribed texts for secondary students facing their final exams, when so much good literature available for study, produces no such anomalies.

"The story of Tom Brennan" by J.C. Burke

It’s nice to know that, (as in The Story of Tom Brennan), sexual intercourse can be such a healing force for an adolescent racked with anguish after the incarceration of his brother as a result of that brother’s responsibility for maiming of one of his close relatives.
It’s also nice to know that the NSW Board of Studies here in Australia has placed this winner of a Children’s Book Council Award (for older readers), on the syllabus for study by year 11 and year 12 students studying for their Higher School Certificate.
Australian literary history often plays homage to the bush “yarn”. In stories like Henry Lawson’s famous “The Loaded Dog” short story, this notion is epitomized. The Story of Tom Brennan though doesn’t purport to be a yarn. It is a ‘story” and lacks the larrikinism of a “yarn”.
It is hard to understand what this overlong novel seeks to add to the library of English literature and thus, leads this reviewer to question the wisdom of its inclusion on an English syllabus for final year students when it may represent one of the only novels that are read by some in their lives.
The prose is bland and there are certain internal consistencies within the work. A telling example comes from pages 140 and 274 (Random House edition). Daniel Brennan, Tom’s brother has been incarcerated.