A not-so-good man profiled

Sons of a Good Keen Man: The Crump Brothers

By the Crump Brothers, Penguin Random House, $38

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.. .. .. There was a time when Barry Crump was the archetypal much-admired Kiwi bloke — rugged bushman, brilliant writer, teller of great yarns. But he was also a “violent, sadistic coward, a selfish, obnoxious arsehole who could be extremely cruel to animals and people”.

He was a drunk, a womaniser, a misogynist and his six boys (by four different mothers) all knew they were unplanned and unwanted.

He was a product of the time when men could be men, bully women, who knew their place with him, and get away with being blokey and nasty.

The six sons have all become very different people. They are all frank and open about their father, and this is a book about them and the legacy of a brutal, but famous and beloved man.

They reveal him to be a sexual predator, a believer in his own myth, plagued by substance abuse and constant abandoning of them all.

Some didn't know about the existence of their own brothers. There are the five boys who died on a bush camp led by Barry.

Revealed is Barry's monster of a father, the root of his own violence, and their own struggles to find their way after early trauma.

They are all honest about their own shortcomings too.

In many ways this is a cautionary tale about putting a mythical Kiwi bloke on a pedestal.

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