image of person or book cover 3781107509338489506.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Home Time selected work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1985... 1985 Home Time
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Following on from her debut collection, Milk, Beverley Farmer continues to explore the tension, violence, and estrangement that fracture inter-personal relationships in these short stories.

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Dedication: For Taki
  • Epigraph: 'let the soil at your feet be thin so that you will have nowhere to spread root and have to delve in the depths continually.' Odysseus Elytis To Axion Esti from Genesis

Contents

* Contents derived from the Fitzroy, Fitzroy - Collingwood area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,:McPhee Gribble ,Penguin , 1985 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Place of Birth, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 1-25)
Caffe Veneto, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 27-40)
The Harem, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 41-52)
A Woman I Visit A Woman with Black Hair, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 53-60)
Market Day, Beverley Farmer , single work short story

In "Market Day" a blind woman discovers accidentally that she is now grey and old, but this woman transcends her tragic past and self-interest to serve the cause of her niece's love. This little brown Aunt who has patiently endured physical and emotional suffering is almost deified because of her capacity to love a world she cannot see. She accommodates the loss of her own youth, and by the end of the story her hair is no longer the focus of her despair but, appropriately, has the appearance of a bronze crown. This narrative is also interesting in that Farmer recreates the particular textures and sounds of Elpida's environment as the reader shares the blind woman's dependence upon aural or mnemonic experience.

(Source: 'Against the Grain: Beverley Farmer's Writing')

(p. 61-69)
Home Time As Time Goes By, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 71-80)
Note: With title: Home Time
White Friday, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 81-90)
A Man in the Laundrette, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 91-101)
Fire and Flood, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 103-123)
Marina Mother and Child, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 125-134)
A Girl on the Sand, Beverley Farmer , single work short story

Dimitri is a middle-aged Greek now living in an Australian coastal town. His friend, Jim, comes up distraught, and describes how he found a corpse on the beach: a teenage girl, pregnant and missing a hand.

From this incident, Dimitri recalls a girl he met in Greece when he was fourteen: Dimitroula, who had come to Thessaloniki to have an abortion. Dimitroula's hand has been undeveloped since birth, with only a few stubs like fingers. Dimitri helps her find a doctor and falls in love with her, but she never comes back once she leaves.

(p. 135-153)
Matrimonial Home, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 155-168)
Pomegranates Pomegranate Time, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 169-177)
Our Lady of the Beehives, Beverley Farmer , single work short story (p. 179-204)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Fitzroy, Fitzroy - Collingwood area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: McPhee Gribble ; Penguin , 1985 .
      image of person or book cover 3781107509338489506.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 204p.
      Reprinted: 1986
      ISBN: 0140086773
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Untapped , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 450585677758236789.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781922730725

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

[Review] A Long Time Dying [et al] Helen Daniel , single work review
— Review of A Long Time Dying Olga Masters , 1985 selected work short story ; Loving Daughters Olga Masters , 1984 single work novel ; Home Time Beverley Farmer , 1985 selected work short story
Beverley Farmer's Embrace of the Mirror Janice Shaw , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 25 no. 2 2011; (p. 151-159)
Janice Shaw examines Beverley Farmer's A Body of Water. Shaw states that the Farmer's term 'embrace of the mirror' is a motif that 'characterises Farmer's writing in terms of the relationships she presents. The gender issues revealed through these relationships are characterised by feelings of coldness, otherness, and love, being a reflection of the self which only serves to emphasise its 'selfish nature...' (p. 151)
Story and the Effacement of Story : Beverley Farmer's The Bone House Chester Eagle , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Well in the Shadow : A Writer's Journey through Australian Literature 2010; (p. 273-292)
y separately published work icon Against the Grain : Beverley Farmer's Writing Lyn Jacobs , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2001 Z895457 2001 selected work criticism Discusses both Farmer's poetry, fiction and criticism against the background of recent "dynamic revaluations of language and contexts" and examines the ways in which Farmer's writing leads readers "beyond familiar thresholds." Includes a chronology of Farmer's life, xi-xiv and bibliography 249-255.
Beverley Farmer : A Retrospective Kristin Hammett , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , Autumn vol. 56 no. 1 1996; (p. 92-105)
Bearer Of Our Tales Rosemary O'Grady , 1986 single work review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , February no. 22 1986; (p. 25-26)

— Review of Home Time Beverley Farmer , 1985 selected work short story
Home is Where the Art Is: Beverley Farmer and Marion Campbell Eden Liddelow , 1986 single work criticism
— Appears in: Scripsi , November vol. 4 no. 2 1986; (p. 281-294)

— Review of Alone : A Novel Beverley Farmer , 1980 single work novel ; Home Time Beverley Farmer , 1985 selected work short story ; Lines of Flight : A Novel Marion Campbell , 1985 single work novel ; Milk : Stories Beverley Farmer , 1983 selected work short story
Short Stories are Tough and Stylish Katharine England , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 September 1985; (p. 7)

— Review of A Long Time Dying Olga Masters , 1985 selected work short story ; Home Time Beverley Farmer , 1985 selected work short story
[Review] A Long Time Dying [et al] Helen Daniel , single work review
— Review of A Long Time Dying Olga Masters , 1985 selected work short story ; Loving Daughters Olga Masters , 1984 single work novel ; Home Time Beverley Farmer , 1985 selected work short story
Unflinching before Truth : Woman as Writer as Woman Kate Ahearne , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 75 1985; (p. 12-14)

— Review of Home Time Beverley Farmer , 1985 selected work short story
Story and the Effacement of Story : Beverley Farmer's The Bone House Chester Eagle , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Well in the Shadow : A Writer's Journey through Australian Literature 2010; (p. 273-292)
Beverley Farmer's Embrace of the Mirror Janice Shaw , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 25 no. 2 2011; (p. 151-159)
Janice Shaw examines Beverley Farmer's A Body of Water. Shaw states that the Farmer's term 'embrace of the mirror' is a motif that 'characterises Farmer's writing in terms of the relationships she presents. The gender issues revealed through these relationships are characterised by feelings of coldness, otherness, and love, being a reflection of the self which only serves to emphasise its 'selfish nature...' (p. 151)
Beverley Farmer : Interview Daniel R. Willbanks (interviewer), 1992 single work interview
— Appears in: Speaking Volumes : Australian Writers and Their Work 1992; (p. 72-86)
Loss and Reassurance: Beverley Farmer's Fiction Cassandra Pybus , 1986 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island Magazine , Summer/Autumn no. 25/26 1986; (p. 36-38)
Travellers' Tales Gay Raines , 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , November no. 6 1992; (p. 68-80)
Last amended 6 Dec 2021 11:23:41
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