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y separately published work icon Stormy Weather single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 Stormy Weather
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Among the players is the Prospero-like compere, endlessly scribbling and patiently shoring up the psyches of his troupe; Balt, who carries the luggage and the props, as well as a burden of silence and sadness; and Mrs. Barrington, a weeping, middle-aged soprano, whose voice is fading but who, in one magic moment, might again find the haunting truth of her young self. Ceaselessly devising pranks that threaten the success of the performance is the mischievous, swamp-dwelling rabbiter, whose obsession, a pale English girl with a saxophone, becomes a new Ariel. They each, whether show-man or rustic, have their own stories - of illusions fostered and shattered, desires met and denied - and their own particular revelation in the course of Meehan's eloquent and beautifully descriptive narrative. Yet as diverse as they may be, they are bound together this one evening by the transformative power of art.'--Book Jacket.

Notes

  • Dedication: For Helene
  • Author's note: From the 1920s to the late 1950s, the Blind Concert travelled throughout the Australian State of Victoria, performing in country halls to raise funds for the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. The Blind Concert flourished until the introduction of television into Australia in 1956. Thereafter its fortunes quickly dwindled, together with the whole vaudevillian tradition from which it sprang. This novel is a fiction based on one day in the life of the Blind Concert, in a tiny country town in northwest Victoria in late 1955.

Affiliation Notes

  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    Type of disability Blindness.
    Type of character Secondary - the group is the 'Blind Concert'.
    Point of view Third person.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Random House , 2000 .
      Extent: 204p.
      ISBN: 0091841836
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Arcade ,
      2002 .
      Extent: 204p.
      Edition info: 1st American ed.
      ISBN: 1559706201

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Salt-Lakes and Swamps : Michael Meehan's Australian Environments Greg Pritchard , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Colloquy : Text Theory Critique , November no. 12 2006;

'Although The Salt of Broken Tears and Stormy Weather are set in the Mallee, one depicts a world of heat, dust and salt, whereas the other is an account of one day in the small town of Towaninnie on which the rain is unceasing. A major symbol of the first novel is the salt-lake, and of the second, the fecund greenness of the rabbiter's swamp. This paper will examine the way these two disparate environments affect the novels' characters and influence the narrative, and what both novels suggest about Australians' relationship with their environment.'

Source: Colloquy : Text Theory Critique, no.12 November 2006 Sighted: 12/07/2007
Second Novels David Matthews , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 219 2000; (p. 42-43)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel ; Tin Toys Anson Cameron , 2000 single work novel
A Sparse Harshness Thomas Shapcott , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , May vol. 5 no. 4 2000; (p. 22)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel ; Tin Toys Anson Cameron , 2000 single work novel
Blind Bit of Notice Laurie Clancy , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 19 March 2000; (p. 7)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel ; Tin Toys Anson Cameron , 2000 single work novel
Magical Moments in the Mallee Veronica Sen , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 March 2000; (p. 22)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel
Landscape Artistry Katharine England , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 29 January 2000; (p. 21)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel
Small-Town Dreams Michael Sharkey , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19-20 February 2000; (p. 11)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel
Blind Leading the Blind Janet Chimonyo , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19 February 2000; (p. 12)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel
Remembrance of Crimes Past Sally Blakeney , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 22 February vol. 118 no. 6212 2000; (p. 96-97)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel ; The Twelfth Dialogue Tom Petsinis , 2000 single work novel ; If the Moon Smiled Chandani Lokuge , 2000 single work novel
Better Than Wet and Wild Mary-Rose MacColl , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11 March 2000; (p. 8)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel
Salt-Lakes and Swamps : Michael Meehan's Australian Environments Greg Pritchard , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Colloquy : Text Theory Critique , November no. 12 2006;

'Although The Salt of Broken Tears and Stormy Weather are set in the Mallee, one depicts a world of heat, dust and salt, whereas the other is an account of one day in the small town of Towaninnie on which the rain is unceasing. A major symbol of the first novel is the salt-lake, and of the second, the fecund greenness of the rabbiter's swamp. This paper will examine the way these two disparate environments affect the novels' characters and influence the narrative, and what both novels suggest about Australians' relationship with their environment.'

Source: Colloquy : Text Theory Critique, no.12 November 2006 Sighted: 12/07/2007
Last amended 16 Mar 2018 13:17:36
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