Image: The Wheeler Centre
The idiom ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ applies to this fascinating, if melancholy, collection of short stories, as it does to most books. However, the eclectic and captivating cover of this book is an outstanding example of the art form and deserves a special mention.
With the demise in recent years of so many outlets for the publication of short stories, a collection of this quality is doubly welcome by those who love the genre. But beware: one of the strengths of the short story form is that it is a complete narrative that can be read at one sitting. Don’t spoil these stories for yourself, though, by reading them as though they are chapters in a novel just because they are bound together in the same volume.
The stories in this collection focus on interpersonal relationships. A weary parent with two young children struggles through the ordeal of a day at the showgrounds. The interaction between a schoolgirl and a favorite teacher raises alarm bells. A longer story covers many years of memories from annual shared holidays on a farm. And one story mirrors an experience that many of us have suffered, conveying the unintentionally insulting intrusiveness of a stranger.
Murray Middleton frequently uses a stream-of-consciousness style interspersed with bursts of dialogue, which grips the reader by the heart. The emotions and regrets of his characters come vividly to life – so much so that sometimes there is an urge to scream at them for doing what they do or for not doing what they should have done.
For Australians, it is a treat to read stories set locally. Middleton’s acute observations of the physical world in which his characters find themselves – or are, in a sense, imprisoned – are conveyed with relatively few words. Most of the stories are touched with sadness, with a sense of love lost, with the misunderstandings or irritations that are part of the human condition. Thus the title of the collection, which is also the title of one of the stories, is totally appropriate: when there is nowhere else to run, what is left? Without spoiling the endings, some of the stories suggest that all that is left is hope for a future which itself, like life, may be problematic.
When There’s Nowhere Else to Run
By Murray Middleton
AUD $27.99
www.allenandunwin.com
