AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Damian Sharp's rich, hypnotic stories explore the harsh, but often beautiful and mystifying, effects of the Australian bush on those who live there. With a gift for evoking this rough scrub country, Sharp transports the reader into the land of relentless sun, red sand deserts, and rushing muddy rivers of his own youth. His characters inhabit this rugged landscape graced by kangaroos, screeching cockatoos, ants that derail trains, and great goannas. Admirably bold, and blindly determined, these men and women confront themselves as they struggle to deal with issues of race, desire, family, and destiny. Larger than life, yet dwarfed by their dramatic surroundings, they are people whose passionate lives are punctuated by reckless acts of violence and of love. Ena, angrily inhabiting the faded rooms of an abandoned farmhouse, is visited by the persistent ghosts of her many departed lovers. A young boy befriends his father's hired band and learns the violent secret of the aborigine's rite of passage. Two quarrelsome traveling companions wrestle with love and infidelity while crossing the Simpson Desert. An American woman, sent in to investigate a suspected Nazi, has a mystifying encounter in the bush. A father and son test the limits of a strained relationship shadowed by an unspoken past. In a dusty shantytown an old woman lies dying, and Alan Bedford, witness for his father, finally learns the tale of the legendary Big Flo and the Flying Kangaroo. (Libraries Australia record).
Notes
-
Dedication: This book is dedicated to Jan Sharp and Phillip Noyce, Alice Lodge, Lucia Noyce, Lucas Benjamin Sharp, Fong Chong, and to the memory of Dorothea Oppenheimer.
Contents
* Contents derived from the
San Francisco,
California,
c
United States of America (USA),c
Americas,:HarperCollins West
, 1994 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.- Ena Waiting, single work short story (p. 1-14)
- A Native Son, single work short story (p. 15-25)
- When a Monkey Speaks, single work short story (p. 26-50)
- The Defeat of Big Flo, single work short story (p. 51-78)
- The Garden, single work short story (p. 79-87)
- Boxing, single work short story (p. 88-124)
- The Interview, single work short story (p. 125-145)
- Mastering the Inner Leap, single work short story (p. 146-161)
- Carter's Creek, single work short story (p. 162-187)
- The Reign of Frogs, single work short story (p. 188-192)
- The Quiet Murmur of the River, single work short story (p. 193-213)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Ghost Tales Good and Bad
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 September 1994; (p. 12A)
— Review of When a Monkey Speaks and Other Stories from Australia 1994 selected work short story -
Artistic Despair of Young at Heart
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 September 1994; (p. rev 5)
— Review of Wilful Blue 1994 single work novel ; When a Monkey Speaks and Other Stories from Australia 1994 selected work short story
-
Artistic Despair of Young at Heart
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 September 1994; (p. rev 5)
— Review of Wilful Blue 1994 single work novel ; When a Monkey Speaks and Other Stories from Australia 1994 selected work short story -
Ghost Tales Good and Bad
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 September 1994; (p. 12A)
— Review of When a Monkey Speaks and Other Stories from Australia 1994 selected work short story
Last amended 5 Nov 2007 16:54:52
Settings:
-
cAustralia,c
Export this record