AustLit
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Notes
-
This work has been described as a collection of interconnected short stories and as a novel.
Contents
- Buenaventura Durruti's Funeral, single work short story (p. 1-14)
- The Great-Grandmother Replica, single work short story (p. 15-22)
- From a Bush Log Book 1 Going into the Heartlands with the Wrong Person at Christmas, single work short story (p. 23-31)
- From a Bush Log Book 2 Disobedience, single work short story (p. 32-42)
- The Grandfather's Curse, single work short story (p. 43-48)
- Drink, single work short story (p. 49-57)
- White Knight, single work short story (p. 58-70)
- Libido and Life Lessons, single work short story (p. 71-76)
- Delegate, single work short story (p. 77-92)
- Disposal, single work short story (p. 93-102)
- A Portrait of a Whore, single work short story (p. 103-113)
- Martini, single work short story (p. 114-119)
- A Portrait of a Virgin Girl (Circa 1955), single work short story (p. 119-132)
- The Story Not Shown, single work short story (p. 133-136)
- Beirut, single work short story (p. 137-147)
- Ex-Wife Re-Wed, single work short story (p. 148-164)
- Rambling Boy, single work short story (p. 165-169)
- Caves, single work short story (p. 170-174)
- The Third Post Card, single work short story (p. 175)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille and large print.
Works about this Work
-
Moorhouse and The Angry Decade
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 27 no. 1 2013; (p. 31-36) 'Shaw discusses Frank Moorhouse's early writings on Australian sociography. Frank Moorhouse's early writings, in particular the short story collections he termed "discontinuous narrative," Futility and Other Animals (1969) and The Americans, Baby (1972), are a contribution to the current of social and literary changes in Australia around the events of 1972, a year which "has become one of those dates that serve as shorthand reference to distinct periods or phases" (v), according to Kiernan in his Introduction to The Americans, Baby.' (Editor's abstract) -
On the Short Side
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1 - 2 December 2012; (p. 18-19) -
Rejected by America? Some Tensions in Australian–American Literary Relations
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Across the Pacific : Australia-United States Intellectual Histories 2010; (p. 309-322)'This chapter focuses on the period from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, a watershed period in Australia-US literary relations, which saw the publication in the US of Australian novelists Peter Carey, David Malouf, Jessica Anderson, Thea Astley, Elizabeth Jolley, Helen Garner, Tim Winton and Beverley Farmer among others, but which was also crossed by tensions and contradictions which led to confusion, disappointment, lost opportunities, and sometimes the outright rejection of important Australian authors and their books. Among these tensions, we look at three in particular: the promising but limited role played by the multinational publisher (in this case Penguin Books) offering Australian titles through its US affiliate (Viking Penguin); the intervention by literary agents in Australia - US literary publishing relations; and the difference in values between the two cultures, which served to hinder the appreciation of important works of Australian writing.' (p. 309)
-
Australian Masculinities
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 97-117) This criticism looks at the forms of maleness celebrated by Australian writers and how that 'maleness' is not just constructed by men. Women, Pons argues, contribute to this construction. -
Transgressions
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 39-59)'All serious art breaks the rules-there can be no innovation without some form of transgression. Yet the breaking of rules is not enough to produce serious art, and while the very focus of erotic writing seems to invite transgressions, these are not necessarily liberating or creative. When transgressions lie for the most part in the subject-matter, their translation into literary break-throughs is problematic, and they can in fact be undermined by writing that is bland, conventional and predictable. Literature, it bears perhaps repeating, is not the thing itself but a representation and thus a re-creation of it. Modes of representations are always ideologically loaded and, while the contemporary period has invented very little in terms of sexual practices, it has been able to innovate significantly in terms of representational practices. It remains to be seen what kind of articulation can be found between the two.' (p 39)
-
New Paperbacks
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 December 1988; (p. 88)
— Review of Australian Golden Dagger Mysteries 1988 anthology short story ; Forty-Seventeen 1988 selected work short story -
Insiders and Outsiders
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , January vol. 7 no. 4 1989; (p. 64-67)
— Review of Numinbah's Tales From The Nick 1988 anthology short story ; Mudmaps to Paradise 1987 selected work short story ; Bleeding Battlers from Ironbark : Australian Myths in Fiction and Film, 1890s-1980s 1987 single work criticism ; Inside Black Australia : An Anthology of Aboriginal Poetry 1988 anthology poetry ; Forty-Seventeen 1988 selected work short story -
An Excellent Gift for Christmas
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 November 1988; (p. 21)
— Review of Forty-Seventeen 1988 selected work short story -
Come on Moorhouse, Let's Have a Novel
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19 March 1988; (p. 74)
— Review of Forty-Seventeen 1988 selected work short story -
Literary London
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 22-23 October 1988; (p. 10)
— Review of Forty-Seventeen 1988 selected work short story -
y
Martini : A Memoir
Milsons Point
:
Knopf
,
2005
Z1222009
2005
single work
prose
Moorhouse 'muses on the aesthetics of martini lore ... and the nature of drinking.' He also 'reflects on the role of the martini in his own life in prose as dry and intoxicating as the martini itself.'
Source: Random House website, http://www.randomhouse.com.au/WEB_ASP/ttle_detail.asp?isbn=1740513126
Sighted: 31/10/2005 -
'Return' in Australian Fiction
1994
single work
criticism
— Appears in: 'Return' in Post-Colonial Writing : A Cultural Labyrinth 1994; (p. 41-49) -
Reserviors of Desire
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 11-37) -
Transgressions
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 39-59)'All serious art breaks the rules-there can be no innovation without some form of transgression. Yet the breaking of rules is not enough to produce serious art, and while the very focus of erotic writing seems to invite transgressions, these are not necessarily liberating or creative. When transgressions lie for the most part in the subject-matter, their translation into literary break-throughs is problematic, and they can in fact be undermined by writing that is bland, conventional and predictable. Literature, it bears perhaps repeating, is not the thing itself but a representation and thus a re-creation of it. Modes of representations are always ideologically loaded and, while the contemporary period has invented very little in terms of sexual practices, it has been able to innovate significantly in terms of representational practices. It remains to be seen what kind of articulation can be found between the two.' (p 39)
-
Australian Masculinities
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 97-117) This criticism looks at the forms of maleness celebrated by Australian writers and how that 'maleness' is not just constructed by men. Women, Pons argues, contribute to this construction.
Awards
- 1989 winner ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 1988 winner BLITZ (London) Can of Heinz Alphabet Spaghetti Award
- 1988 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Imaginative Writing Prize
- 1988 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year
- 1960-1989