Gone Guru - Nadine Browne (2026)

 

Rating: Admirable

I’ve often said to my book club groups that if you don’t hate an assigned book, that you actually enjoy it, even marginally, then that author is a good writer. Many assigned book club books are ones that you wouldn’t normally read, as most are beyond your usual preferred genre, subject matter or type, so if the author manages to win you over, then you should give credit where it is due. Gone Guru is definitely one such book and Nadine Browne won me over with her enjoyable story about a Perth woman, Noni Barlow, who wins a place in a prestigious writing course in New York and is faced with winning over a taciturn Joyce Carol Oates with her memoir detailing her upbringing in a Christian doomsday cult, her life as a runaway, to work as a social worker in the wilds of an outer Perth suburb Horrie Swamp (AKA Midland; hello to the very real urban legend, ‘Mad Dog’). Meanwhile Noni has a problem on her hands, due to her flat-mate, Vincent (the ‘guru' in question), going missing without paying rent. Befriending nosey neighbour, Merelis, who is a friend of Vincent and tight with Juander, the uptight janitor; Noni seeks out former social worker, Danny Kronfeld, who knew Vincent back in the day. Consequently, Gone Guru goes from being about the challenges of adjusting to a new home and fitting into an elite writing course, to something like a cozy-crime narrative. The novel is also actually based on Nadine Browne's real-life experiences attending a writing course in New York, having previously escaped a Christian doomsday cult based near the Wheat Belt, just outside of Perth.

Due to its inspiration coming from Browne actually really being told by Joyce Carol Oats that her doomsday cult memoir was a ‘dead baby’ that she’d been carrying around with her and that she needed to pursue something new, the term Meta Fiction has been applied to Gone Guru. The novel details the process of its inspiration and its actual writing; the end result does include autobiographical elements, but then also co-ops Browne’s real experience of not knowing where her New York flat mate had gone, into a fictional situation involving former child actor and new age practitioner, Vincent, going missing for months, with an expanding list of possibilities and potential culprits. Noni’s search for Vincent is mostly good fun, although not much tension is generated along the way, as the narrative becomes a bit unfocussed at times. Noni’s friendship with Danny is touching and authentic, proving to be both a father figure and a co-detective. The central plot builds to an unlikely denouement that is somewhat unbelievable and anticlimactic, but you are rewarded by finding out what has really been going on. Essentially Gone Guru is good popular fiction, and it is nice to read something by a local author that is also quite an achievement considering her background and her struggle to produce a workable novel. A good start to her career as a novelist then, forged in the heat of put-downs from Joyce Carol Oates, the turmoil of New York and the mean streets of Midland.