FrankTALK with author Paul Kennedy celebrates new book, Funkytown

Published on 10 September 2021

Join Frankston City Libraries for a FrankTALK with Paul ‘PK’ Kennedy to celebrate the release of his much anticipated memoir, Funkytown, the vivid true story of an Australian teenager leaping into manhood.

Paul’s FrankTALK features in-conversation the local teacher who changed his life.

From acclaimed ABC journalist and author Paul Kennedy comes Funkytown, an evocative coming-of-age memoir told over the course of one extraordinary year in the Australian suburbs.

It is 1993: a serial killer is loose on the streets of Frankston, Victoria. The community is paralysed by fear and a state’s police force and national media come to find a killer. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Paul Kennedy is searching for something else entirely. He is focused on finishing school, getting drafted into the AFL and falling in love. So much can change in a year.

Cast in the shadow of Australia’s culture of boys becoming men, Funkytown(so-called for the nickname Paul and his mates had for Frankston) sheds light on how the rites of passage for many Australian teenage boys – blackout drinking, simmering violence and emotional suppression – take their toll.

The year that starts with so much promise ends with Paul expelled, arrested and undrafted. But one teacher sees him self-destructing and becomes determined to set him on another path – igniting a love for words and writing that Paul still cherishes today.

Paul said: “This story has been with me for a long time. As a father of three sons, I felt it was time to tell it. Going back to that time and place was daunting but it felt good to be there again, among old friends and teachers.”

Told with tenderness and humour, and evoking the brilliant, dusty haze of late Australian summer, Funkytownis a love letter to adolescence, football, family and outer suburbia.

Please join Paul Kennedy via Zoom on Wednesday 13 October at 5.30pm. This event is free but bookings are essential as numbers are limited. For more information or to book please visit https://library.frankston.vic.gov.au/Events or phone 9784 1020.

Funkytown can be purchased on the day thanks to Robinsons Bookshop via their online store https://bit.ly/3rPLqOe

For more information about the great range of services offered by Frankston City Libraries, please visit https://library.frankston.vic.gov.au/Home