'A long-deserted drive-in, waiting for a rerun of the one story that might give it life; a child who discovers his identity in a photograph hidden in his parents' room ...
'Stephen Orr's stories are happy to let you in, but not out. In Datsunland, his characters are outsiders peering into worlds they don't recognise, or understand: an Indian doctor arriving in the outback, discovering an uncomfortable truth about the Australian dream; a family trying to have their son's name removed from a Great War cowards' list; a confused teenager with a gun making an ad for an evangelical ministry.
'Each story is set in a place where, as Borges described, 'heaven and hell seem out of proportion'. There is no easy escape from the world's most desperate car yard, or the school with a secret that permeates all but one of the fourteen stories in Datsunland. Here is a glimpse of inner lives, love, the astonishment of being ourselves.' (Publication summary)
'Stephen Orr is an Adelaide-based writer and teacher with several books to his name. Two of his works, Time’s Long Ruin (2010) and The Hands (2015), were longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary award. His latest work, Datsunland (2017) is a compilation of short stories, mostly set in Adelaide and country South Australia.' (Introduction)
'If nothing else, one thing guaranteed in any Wayne Macauley work of fiction is that its surface is just that: a vehicle inside of which the real messages are carried. What makes Macauley’s novels exceptional is these messages are always vital — they are the messages we’ve been asking ourselves for millennia, in one way or another — but also the surface story-vehicle that carries these messages is compelling in its own right.' (Introduction)
'The short stories in Datsunland strike notes of moodiness and dark irony.'
'The short stories in Datsunland strike notes of moodiness and dark irony.'
'If nothing else, one thing guaranteed in any Wayne Macauley work of fiction is that its surface is just that: a vehicle inside of which the real messages are carried. What makes Macauley’s novels exceptional is these messages are always vital — they are the messages we’ve been asking ourselves for millennia, in one way or another — but also the surface story-vehicle that carries these messages is compelling in its own right.' (Introduction)
'Stephen Orr is an Adelaide-based writer and teacher with several books to his name. Two of his works, Time’s Long Ruin (2010) and The Hands (2015), were longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary award. His latest work, Datsunland (2017) is a compilation of short stories, mostly set in Adelaide and country South Australia.' (Introduction)
