Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1993... 1993 Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam
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y separately published work icon Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Steve Rodgers , 2018 13970630 2018 single work drama

'What would you do for your children? This is a haunting tale about families, the love and bond between a parent and a child. Which way does the moral compass turn?

'An evocative, haunting, moving tale about loss and familial relationships, a husband and wife, parents and children, brother and sister. It explores the nature of an ideal family, and their quest to define their lives through each other, isolating themselves from the outside world. The play is rumination on a kind of suffocating love.'

Source: National Theatre of Parramatta.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Little Deaths Peter Goldsworthy , Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1993 Z378609 1993 selected work short story Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1993 pg. 89-136
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , Pymble : HarperCollins Australia , 1999 Z315680 1999 selected work short story poetry criticism biography (taught in 1 units) Pymble : HarperCollins Australia , 1999 pg. 11-83
    Note: Revised and extended.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Australian Long Story Mandy Sayer (editor), Camberwell : Hamish Hamilton , 2009 Z1629549 2009 anthology short story prose novella autobiography (taught in 2 units)

    'In this collection, acclaimed writer Mandy Sayer brings together nine of the best Australian examples of the long story - tales that combine the intensity of the short story with the complexity of a novel.

    In these stories, characters grow up, hook up and break up, endure calamitous loss and discover delectable love, travel to faraway places and fifi nd themselves right back where they started. From the exotic to the familiar, the sensuous to the dangerous, these soaring flights of the imagination boldly traverse the vast terrain of human experience.

    Showcasing the talents of some of our most loved and awarded authors, this invigorating collection is an excellent introduction to an often overlooked art form, promising to enchant all lovers of Australian fiction.' (From the publisher's website.)

    Camberwell : Hamish Hamilton , 2009
    pg. 77-130

Works about this Work

Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription Noel Henricksen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273)
'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract).
Life and Death Near and Afar Katharine England , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 118-119)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Death of a Middle-Class Lady Peter O'Connor , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 120-121)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Death in the Suburbs Mirrored in Irony A. P. Riemer , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 115-117)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Death Sentences Philip Hodgins , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 122-123)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Life and Death Near and Afar Katharine England , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser Magazine , 13 November 1993; (p. 21)

— Review of Letter to Constantine Joan London , 1993 selected work short story ; Little Deaths Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 selected work short story ; Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Death Sentences Philip Hodgins , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 122-123)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Death in the Suburbs Mirrored in Irony A. P. Riemer , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 115-117)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Death of a Middle-Class Lady Peter O'Connor , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 120-121)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Life and Death Near and Afar Katharine England , 1999-1989 single work review
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 118-119)

— Review of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam Peter Goldsworthy , 1993 single work short story
Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription Noel Henricksen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273)
'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract).
What Comes Next? A. P. Riemer , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Ironic Eye : The Poetry and Prose of Peter Goldsworthy 1994; (p. 103-123)
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam : Introduction Amanda Lohrey , 1999-1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 1-10)
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam : Afterword Peter Goldsworthy , 1999-1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam 1999; (p. 87-91)
Peter Goldsworthy Cath Kenneally (interviewer), 1993 single work interview
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 156 1993; (p. 18-19)
Last amended 30 Sep 2009 10:18:18
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