short stories – Page 2 – Aussie Reviews

Green Monkey Dreams, by Isobelle Carmody

I ride this day upon the Worldroad, alone, except for courage, who rides on the pommel of my saddle fluffing his feathers. I did not dream of journeying thus as a child.

Reading an Isobelle Carmody story is a special experience, an experience which doesn’t end with the last word. The stories in Green Monkey Dreams, first published in 1996, are diverse in subject matter and theme, but each story takes the reader in a tight grip then squeezes, making you stop and consider what is real, and leaving you pondering reality, values, even life itself long after.

In the title story, which is also the last story in the book, for example, a girl dreams of dreaming, in layer upon layer of dream so that it is impossible to tell which, if any, version is reality. In ‘Long Live the Giant’ the protagonist shares her discoveries about the meaning of life and, importantly, death, having been given the chance of immortality.

The stories are each different, set in fantastical worlds and differing time periods, but some motifs do recur, particularly the image of a tower in a graveyard, said to be the burial site of a giant whoes arm pointed skywards in death and so was covered by a tower. Angels and monkeys are also mentioned more than once, and tales and characters from traditional fairy stories are used.

Suitable for young adult and adult readers, this is a collection best enjoyed one story at a time, as each story needs time to be processed and appreciated.

Green Monkey Dreams, by Isobelle Carmody
This edition Allen & Unwin, 2012
ISBN 9781742379470

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Not Bog Standard (and other Peculiar Stories) by Mark Pardoe

I’ve always hated flushing the toilet.

I know it’s mad but I can’t stand the noise and the sloshing water. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been convinced that a poo-covered sewer monster is going to come flying out of the toilet bowl and grab me with its slimy claws.

Okay, it’s stupid, I admit it. But be honest, are you really sure there’s nothing living in your toilet?

Matthew has what everyone else in his house considers to be an irrational fear of flushing the toilet, particularly at night. Now, since his tenth birthday, for some reason he needs to use the toilet every night. Every night he has the same dilemma – to flush, or not to flush. But things are getting worse. His aim, apparently, is one of them. But that’s just the beginning. Next is a story about a birthday present cat. Then there’s the chatterbox bird, and a found diary. There are twelve stories in this collection of weird and wonderful tales, each more spooky than the last. There are spooky cats, dunnies of doom, magic tricks, diabolical diaries and Santa solutions.

Do you like to be scared? This is the collection for you. There’s something to horrify everyone, and to give you nightmares. Imagine the worst nightmare you’ve ever had, where inanimate objects come to life and things return from the dead. Then take control and see what you are capable of. Will you overcome your fears, or is more still expected of you? Ideal for the reader who likes their adventures wild, and their stories weird and twisty-turning. Recommended for middle-primary and beyond. Just don’t read them at night time!

Not Bog Standard and Other Peculiar Stories, Mark Pardoe
Omnibus Books 2012
ISBN: 9781862918634

Reviewed by Claire Saxby

Children’s writer

www.clairesaxby.com

Welcome to Normal, by Nick Earls

‘Craig, hi,’ Don said, stepping forward and reaching out his hand. ‘Don Nordenstrom. Welcome to Normal.’ He said it as if Normal was just any other name on the map. Welcome to Paxton, welcome to Peoria. The weirdness of welcoming someone to normal had long ago rubbed away.

Being welcomed to Normal is just one of the wonderful quirky moments in this collection of eight short stories from Queenl;and’s Nick Earls. The settings and situations vary – often far from normal as the protagonists travel far from home to explore their own or their travel mates’ pasts, experiencing moments which could be ordinary but manage not to be. Though each story is unique, recurrent motifs of travel, self-discovery and relationship problems travel across stories. Some stories are seen through the eyes of young protagonists watching their parents’ tempted to infidelity and revisiting the places of their yuth.

A favourite story for me was The Heart of Robert the Bruce with a couple travelling through Spain, alleviating the difficulty of being mismatched with another couple as travel partners and so challenging each other to introduce outrageous yet plausible lies into dinner table conversation. Watching the lies grow at the same time as the protagonists’ understanding of their own relationship is both fun and moving, and a lie involving Karen the GPS voice was a highlight.

Welcome to Normal is a wonderful blend of everyday, quirky and thought-provoking.

Welcome to Normal, by Nick Earls
Vintage, 2012
ISBN 9781864711547

This book is available from good bookstores or online fro Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Trust Me Too, edited by Paul Collins

‘Trust Me Too’ is a second collection of stories, poetry, graphic stories and illustrations from Ford Street Publishing. Stories cover all genres, and are presented in a multitude of styles: serious, light-hearted, spine-tingling and rib-tickling. Most prose stories are around 1500 words, although there is also a novelette from Isabelle Carmody that is closer to 6000 words. There is poetry too, graphic stories and illustrations.

Deb Abela, Dianne Bates, Michael Gerard Bauer, Christine Bongers, Janeen Brian, Sue Bursztynski, Isobelle Carmody, Paul Collins, Meredith Costain, Bill Condon, Gary Crew, Margaret Clark, Justin d’Ath, Hazel Edwards, Corinne Fenton, JE Fison, Pat Flynn … the list of contributors goes on all the way to Gabrielle Wang, Sean Williams and Mark Wilson. 57 of them!

From the Forward: In the stories set in a world that is entirely familiar to us, we meet people who might be just like us – if not on the outside, then in the heart, where it counts – experiencing things that many of us deal with every day … Taking us completely out of our own world and into the world of the imagination are some of Australia’s best and most highly regarded writers of science fiction and fantasy … Yet other stories prove the maxim created by the writer LP Hartley in the opening line to his novel ‘The Go-Between’: ‘The past is a foreign country – they do things differently there’.

This collection also includes horror, humour and poetry.

There is something for everyone in ‘Trust Me Too’. Short stories, longer ones, and more. The collection can be read as a whole, or dipped into, story by delicious story. No matter your favourite genre, there’s a story for you. It’s also a fabulous way to ‘taste-test’ writers whose work you don’t know, or revisit those you’ve not followed lately. Pitched at upper-primary to lower-secondary readers, there is plenty here for teachers to explore in the classroom. This collection invites readers to pop in and meet new and familiar storymakers. It will also inspire them to seek out longer and other works by many of these wonderful Australian creators.

Trust Me Too, edited Paul Collins

Ford Street Publishing 2012

ISBN: 9781921665585

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Shooting the Fox by Marian Halligan

Would you like to see the fox I shot this morning, he said, as he opened the gate in the wall.

Would you like to see the fox I shot this morning, he said, as he opened the gate in the wall.

This is a particular form of words. It is not a question. You do not say no. It appears to be polite – would you – but it leaves no room.

I went and saw the fox. Exquisite red creature. It does not know yet that it is dead. Its eye is not dim, its brush is defiant. Soon it will droop and decay and know its own mortality.

Shooting the Fox is both the title of the collection and of the first of the short stories therein. The cover and endpapers are both beautiful and like the content portray a mystical reality. The stories examine the human experience, through love and fidelity, marriage and adultery and more. Characters do not always behave well, stories do not always have happy endings. One story character converses with the writer and attempts to control their own narrative. Another plays with verbs and sentence structure. There are women in towers, women in thrall to dishonourable men, men and women with secrets. Settings range from tropical to European, remote to urban, contemporary to imaginary.

The cover of Shooting the Fox has a dreamy, ethereal quality to it, and this reflects the stories within. Which is not to say that the stories are light – they’re not. But even the most confronting subjects are handled with lightness and deftness. Halligan invites the reader to peek through the window at the lives of others, and provides the opportunity to imagine the world from a different perspective. From the first story where a 43 old virgin weds, to the final one which reimagines Australia, there is a surprise around every corner and a glimse of how others live and love.

Shooting the Fox, Marian Halligan
Allen & Unwin 2011
ISBN: 9781742376677

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Red Spikes, by Margo Lanagan

Margo Lanagan’s previous two collections of short stories, Black Juice and White Time have won awards and received wide acclaim. Now, Lanagan has released a third collection, continuing the trend of colour-themed titles. Red Spikesoffers ten diverse stories – diverse in content, setting, theme and more. Yet what binds them is the superb quality of Lanagan’s writing.

Lanagan is a master of the short story form and speculative fiction genre. She deals with a range of themes, though an exploration of spirituality is part of several stories, including Under Hell, Over Heaven where the setting is purgatory and Forever Upward which explores the distance between worshippers and their gods, and the ways they connect. Several of the stories are set in historical settings, drawing on stories of past times for inspiration.

This is a collection with something for every reader. Whilst the stories are largely aimed at young adult readers, with teen protagonists and some teen settings and scenarios, the stories will equally please the adult reader.

Red Spikes is superb reading.

Red Spikes, by Margo Lanagan
Allen & Unwin, 2007

Vincenzo's Garden, by John Clanchy

A good short story is much more than just a story that is short in length, because such a story must impart something that goes far beyond the small number of words and pages it is allocated. It must leave the reader contemplating not just the events of those pages, or even the fates of the characters, but something more reaching – how the story relates to life beyond that plot.

John Clanchy is recognised as a master story-teller and the seven stories offered in this collection all leave the reader with that impact. They are left pondering the fate of the characters and the moral dilemmas they face, or nodding in agreement that Clanchy has portrayed life exactly as it is.

In Radinsky’s Will a woman contemplates the morality of accepting a handsome inheritance from a man she never met and whose funeral she attended by accident. When she turns it down, she is left contemplating a completely different moral dilemma. The reader, too is left making such a contemplation. What would they do in a similar situation. Is there a right answer to such a dilemma?

In Leaper a man faces another dilemma. Involved in an accident, he is unable to stop or provide answer afterwards for fear that an unrelated secret will be revealed. Again, the reader is left contemplating how a twist of fate can leave someone terribly exposed.

Whilst each of the stories is very different in subject matter and in theme, references to Vincent Van Gogh run through the collection, linking them with the title Vincenzo’s Garden. One of the stories deals directly with van Gogh, telling the story of his final days and his funeral through the eyes of Adeline Ravoux, the girl in the blue dress who appeared in many of Van Gogh’s works. In another story, the central charaacer visits the convent at Saint Remy where Van Gogh once lived. Other references are less direct, including the naming of the gardener Vincenzo in the title story. The author seems to be inviting the reader, through these links, to make other, more subtle connections.

This is a collection to be savoured. Readers will want to enjoy each story separately and to read and reread at leisure.

Superb.

Vincenzo’s Garden, by John Clanchy
Univeristy of Queensland Press, 2005

Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan

A good short story is not just a shorter version of the novel. Rather, it is something fluid – which exists both before and after the written version, both for the characters and, importantly, the reader. Whether the story is contemporary or historic, science fiction or fantasy, it should have readers eagerly turning the page, caught up in both action and emotion. Then, when it is finished, it should leave the reader thinking.

The ten stories in Black Juice achieve these criteria with aplomb. Each story captivates, even as it has the reader squirming with its ruthlessness, its glimpse into deep and dark human nature. Author Margo Lanagan makes the short story form her own, using it to provide extraordinary perspectives and insights.

Each story is unique, but the commonality which binds is the deliberate use of settings and situations which are unfamiliar, yet contain stories which reveal many familiar truths of humankind.

Lanagan’s stories are sure to be used in literature classrooms, but are also likely to find many fans among adult readers, who will find themselves unable to put the volume down.

Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan
Allen & Unwin, 2004

Grandma Cadbury's Bikie Gang, by Dianne Bates

Cadbury tells all his mates his Grandma’s getting a Harley – and loves their jealous reaction. Soon he’s off cruising the highways on the back of Grandma’s Custom Softail. It’s just one of the wild things his Grandma has done – she used to drive a big rig, and after that a mini bus to take tourists around Australia. Now she’s staying nearer to home to be with Cadbury when his mother is away. And Cadbury couldn’t be happier.

Well, he could be happier – if all the pesky girls in his class would just leave him alone. They seem to think he’s cute and they want to kiss him – yuck.

Outside of school, Cadbury and his Grandma and her biker friends have loads of fun and exciting adventures. Some are more scary than exciting. Perhaps the scariest of all is when a new girl comes to school – and turns out to be part of the gang.

Grandma Cadbury’s Bikie Gang is the third book about Grandma Cadbury and her hilarious adventures. Author Dianne Bates has a special talent for stories which are silly, adventurous and educational all at the same time. Good fun.

Grandma Cadbury’s Bikie Gang, by Dianne Bates
Angus & Robertson, 1993

The Boy Who Loved Chocolate and Other Stories, by Dianne Bates

What would happen if you loved chocolate so much that you stole some from your auntie’s sweet shop? What if she was able to turn you into a statue?And what would happen if your Mum’s new boyfriend was a vampire and crept into your room at night?

Author Dianne Bates knows the answers to these questions – because these and other questions are at the heart of the short stories in The Boy Who Loved Chocolate and Other Stories.

The eight stories in the book are as entertaining as they are different – as well as the chocolate thief and the vampire boyfriend, there are female bushrangers, magician uncles, a dog called Custard and more.

Ideal for classroom use, the stories are also great for readers who like to read just a little at a time – a complete story can be devoured in one sitting.

Published in 1990 and followed by several reprints, The Boy Who Loved Chocolate remains a great collection of short stories for 8 to 12 year olds.

The Boy Who Loved Chocolate and Other Stories, by Dianne Bates
Omnibus Books, 1990