AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don't I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don't have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that's mine.
'1970s, Western Sydney. A boy and his mum living in a street where neighbours keep an eye on everyone else's business. A detested bully. And a family secret, barely hidden.
'Devon Destri flies under the radar. He doesn't talk to anyone, calls himself hard of speaking, and doesn't correct anyone's assumptions of his low intelligence. If no one knows otherwise, no one will expect anything of him, and maybe he won't need to expect anything of himself-that is, beyond running a highly lucrative porn-magazine racket. Only his fiercely loyal friend Tammy and old Krenek the Hungarian refugee know that Great Expectations is his favourite book, or that he can read at all. But when Devon starts to piece together his mother's secret, his intellect and charm are put to startling and devastating use.
'Stuart Everly-Wilson's Low Expectations is a heartbreaking and hilarious story of resilience, revenge and love that captures the complexity of vulnerability and bravado. Devon Destri, with his sharp wit and gift for one-liners, is a character you'll never forget.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Dedication :
For John and Lily
-
Epigraph :
'I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it.'
Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
-
Epigraph :
'Your wise men don't know how it feels-- to be thick as a brick.'
Gerald 'Little Milton' Bostock
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Taking the Temperature : Four New Novels
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 430 2021; (p. 34-35)
— Review of The Price of Two Sparrows 2021 single work novel ; Repentance 2021 single work novel ; Low Expectations 2021 single work novel ; Friends and Dark Shapes 2021 single work novel 'To survey concurrent works of art is to take the temperature of a particular time, in a particular place. And the temperature of the time and place in these four début Australian novels? It is searching for a sense of belonging, and, at least in part, it’s coming out of western Sydney in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots. All four novels are set in New South Wales, three of them in suburban Sydney. Each is concerned with who is entitled to land and the stories we tell while making ourselves at home in the world, sometimes at the expense of others.' (Introduction)
-
Taking the Temperature : Four New Novels
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 430 2021; (p. 34-35)
— Review of The Price of Two Sparrows 2021 single work novel ; Repentance 2021 single work novel ; Low Expectations 2021 single work novel ; Friends and Dark Shapes 2021 single work novel 'To survey concurrent works of art is to take the temperature of a particular time, in a particular place. And the temperature of the time and place in these four début Australian novels? It is searching for a sense of belonging, and, at least in part, it’s coming out of western Sydney in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots. All four novels are set in New South Wales, three of them in suburban Sydney. Each is concerned with who is entitled to land and the stories we tell while making ourselves at home in the world, sometimes at the expense of others.' (Introduction)
- Western Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
- 1970s
