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A Man Melting
A son worries he is becoming too perfect a copy of his father. The co-owner of a weight-loss camp for teens finds himself running the black market in chocolate bars. A man starts melting and nothing can stop it, not even poetry.
This terrific collection of stories by an exciting new talent moves from the serious and realistic to the humorous and outlandish, each story copying an element from the previous piece in a kind of evolutionary chain. Amid pigeons with a taste for cigarette ash, a rash of moa sightings, and the identity crisis of an imaginary friend, the characters in these eighteen entertaining stories look for ways to reconnect with people and the world around them, even if that means befriending a robber wielding an iguana.
This terrific collection of stories by an exciting new talent moves from the serious and realistic to the humorous and outlandish, each story copying an element from the previous piece in a kind of evolutionary chain. Amid pigeons with a taste for cigarette ash, a rash of moa sightings, and the identity crisis of an imaginary friend, the characters in these eighteen entertaining stories look for ways to reconnect with people and the world around them, even if that means befriending a robber wielding an iguana.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published July 2, 2010
About the author
Craig Cliff
7 books13 followersCraig Cliff’s debut collection of short stories, A MAN MELTING, was published in July 2010. It was named as one of the best books of 2010 by the New Zealand Listener and the Sunday Star Times, and went on to win the overall Best First Book in the 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize. According to the judges, A MAN MELTING “is of the moment, and is rightly at home on a global platform. Cliff is a talent to watch and set to take the literary world by storm."
Craig wrote a column for the Dominion Post newspaper from 2010-2014 about his double life as a writer and a public servant (and, later, as a father).
THE MANNEQUIN MAKERS, a dark and wide-ranging historical novel, was published in August 2013. According to the New Zealand Listener, "it’s tremendous, darkly entertaining and original from start to finish." Editions have also been published in Romania (2016), the US (2017) and the UK (2019).
NAILING DOWN THE SAINT, a novel about Hollywood, fatherhood and levitation, was published in 2019.
Craig wrote a column for the Dominion Post newspaper from 2010-2014 about his double life as a writer and a public servant (and, later, as a father).
THE MANNEQUIN MAKERS, a dark and wide-ranging historical novel, was published in August 2013. According to the New Zealand Listener, "it’s tremendous, darkly entertaining and original from start to finish." Editions have also been published in Romania (2016), the US (2017) and the UK (2019).
NAILING DOWN THE SAINT, a novel about Hollywood, fatherhood and levitation, was published in 2019.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 29, 2013
Having awarded Craig Cliff's 'The Mannequin Makers' (2013); a solid four stars, I was hoping to equal or better this with his 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Book 'A Man Melting'. It was almost - almost! - just three stars, as some of the stories were a little weak, but it was the poignant 'Copies' that was strong enough to anchor a fourth star to the rating.
'Copies' is about a man who, as a child, watched his father (now dead) create artwork by photocopying photocopies of significant images -500 times. The 500th was the final artwork. He photocopied the Mona Lisa, The Scream ('until it stopped screaming, but it never smiled' [25]), his parents wedding photo ('until it looked like two people facing away from each other' [26]). The emotions were so beautifully rendered I could see the narrator sitting on a box of copier paper in the corner of his Dad's workshop, the light of the copier illuminating his fascinated face, over, and over.
I know, I know, the author and the narrator are supposed to be different entities, but sometimes a story is so honest, so close to the sound of a human heartbeat, that it must be at the very least, formed from copies made from the author's own life. Like Nabokov's concept of time as a folded "magic carpet" the narrator sees his existence as "a series of imperfect repetitions" (35). The only way he knows how to get close to his father again is to echo him. Beautiful.
Cliff explores some interesting concepts, in two stories in particular. In the title story 'A Man Melting' a man is literally dripping his body's water content away to nothingness. I love Cliff's use of humour in the face of death: on the phone to a friend: "I want to cry but I'm on water restrictions" (107). And in 'Facing Galapagos' Cliff uses diary style entries to narrate the story of a man who begins to receives emails from Charles Darwin.
Other stories of note were 'Manawatu' (as Kiwi as Raro) and 'The Sceptic's Kid'. My least favourite were 'Parisian Blue' and 'Orbital Resonance'.
Good read!
'Copies' is about a man who, as a child, watched his father (now dead) create artwork by photocopying photocopies of significant images -500 times. The 500th was the final artwork. He photocopied the Mona Lisa, The Scream ('until it stopped screaming, but it never smiled' [25]), his parents wedding photo ('until it looked like two people facing away from each other' [26]). The emotions were so beautifully rendered I could see the narrator sitting on a box of copier paper in the corner of his Dad's workshop, the light of the copier illuminating his fascinated face, over, and over.
I know, I know, the author and the narrator are supposed to be different entities, but sometimes a story is so honest, so close to the sound of a human heartbeat, that it must be at the very least, formed from copies made from the author's own life. Like Nabokov's concept of time as a folded "magic carpet" the narrator sees his existence as "a series of imperfect repetitions" (35). The only way he knows how to get close to his father again is to echo him. Beautiful.
Cliff explores some interesting concepts, in two stories in particular. In the title story 'A Man Melting' a man is literally dripping his body's water content away to nothingness. I love Cliff's use of humour in the face of death: on the phone to a friend: "I want to cry but I'm on water restrictions" (107). And in 'Facing Galapagos' Cliff uses diary style entries to narrate the story of a man who begins to receives emails from Charles Darwin.
Other stories of note were 'Manawatu' (as Kiwi as Raro) and 'The Sceptic's Kid'. My least favourite were 'Parisian Blue' and 'Orbital Resonance'.
Good read!
October 11, 2012
Review of A Man Melting by Helen Hagemann
A Man Melting is Craig Cliff’s debut collection of eighteen short stories, and with much acclaim has won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize for First Best Book. In the frontispiece of the book, Cliff appears as a high achiever and a globetrotter. Born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, he has accumulated three university degrees, lived in Brisbane & Melbourne, experienced office life in Scotland, swum in piranha-infested waters, slept at 4,200 metres above sea level, tried to write a million words in one year, and learnt there’s not much to do in Liechtenstein.
A Man Melting, the title story, is about a man shrinking to his skeletal form after his total body percentage of water melts away. According to the scientist (a man he seeks help from), ‘the body is ninety per cent water at birth, decreasing when an adult to seventy per cent water. The elderly are about fifty per cent.’ Unlike the horror film The Incredible Melting Man (William Sachs 1977), who after radiation melts away in a grotesque ooze of blood, skin and liquid, Cliff’s “man melting” is more like a slow, pristine trickle of water. He has to constantly drink from his water bottle with a straw to stay alive. As well, he has to carry a paddling pool around to catch the effluent. There are many points in the narrative when you recognize the author’s black humour, yet there is a serious undertone - a character’s identity crisis; in his other stories the exempla of the underdog or weirdo kid who gets picked on. Evolution or more poignantly “the struggle for existence” (Facing Galapagos, eg getting Darwin’s emails) are unique and interesting main themes. While many stories are a mixed genre of science fiction/ fantasy /surrealism, in others the author satirizes real life scenarios, especially a failed suicide. In Manawatu a young man jumps off a building to catch the attention of his brother, only to find that from one level up, he lands safely on his auntie’s lawn; no bones broken, glad he can still feel his blood pumping.
Other highlights of this collection include Copies, about a young man recalling his late father’s obsession with photocopying images until they shrink beyond recognition. Fat Camp's minor character Barry is endearing, but would have like more of him. Another Language and The Sceptic's Kid are by far the best stories in the collection. A theme of sadness and non-communication show the effects of migration from tyranny. Themes of hidden pedophilia are subliminal in The Sceptic’s Kid when a boy doesn’t like his adopted uncle touching him, and where the same boy researches his mother’s ideology as a "TV sceptic". Juxtaposed with what is believable vis-à-vis what may be unbelievable, the children witness an extinct Moa; a flightless bird that the mother argues does not exist.
Some of the weaker stories are possibly Cliff’s pet projects on childhood and school days; an imaginary friend named Groucho in Seeds, and the idiots and school gangs in The Tin Man , but this is only a minor criticism. A Man Melting is well worth a look from a new author.
Helen Hagemann (c) 2012
A Man Melting is Craig Cliff’s debut collection of eighteen short stories, and with much acclaim has won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize for First Best Book. In the frontispiece of the book, Cliff appears as a high achiever and a globetrotter. Born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, he has accumulated three university degrees, lived in Brisbane & Melbourne, experienced office life in Scotland, swum in piranha-infested waters, slept at 4,200 metres above sea level, tried to write a million words in one year, and learnt there’s not much to do in Liechtenstein.
A Man Melting, the title story, is about a man shrinking to his skeletal form after his total body percentage of water melts away. According to the scientist (a man he seeks help from), ‘the body is ninety per cent water at birth, decreasing when an adult to seventy per cent water. The elderly are about fifty per cent.’ Unlike the horror film The Incredible Melting Man (William Sachs 1977), who after radiation melts away in a grotesque ooze of blood, skin and liquid, Cliff’s “man melting” is more like a slow, pristine trickle of water. He has to constantly drink from his water bottle with a straw to stay alive. As well, he has to carry a paddling pool around to catch the effluent. There are many points in the narrative when you recognize the author’s black humour, yet there is a serious undertone - a character’s identity crisis; in his other stories the exempla of the underdog or weirdo kid who gets picked on. Evolution or more poignantly “the struggle for existence” (Facing Galapagos, eg getting Darwin’s emails) are unique and interesting main themes. While many stories are a mixed genre of science fiction/ fantasy /surrealism, in others the author satirizes real life scenarios, especially a failed suicide. In Manawatu a young man jumps off a building to catch the attention of his brother, only to find that from one level up, he lands safely on his auntie’s lawn; no bones broken, glad he can still feel his blood pumping.
Other highlights of this collection include Copies, about a young man recalling his late father’s obsession with photocopying images until they shrink beyond recognition. Fat Camp's minor character Barry is endearing, but would have like more of him. Another Language and The Sceptic's Kid are by far the best stories in the collection. A theme of sadness and non-communication show the effects of migration from tyranny. Themes of hidden pedophilia are subliminal in The Sceptic’s Kid when a boy doesn’t like his adopted uncle touching him, and where the same boy researches his mother’s ideology as a "TV sceptic". Juxtaposed with what is believable vis-à-vis what may be unbelievable, the children witness an extinct Moa; a flightless bird that the mother argues does not exist.
Some of the weaker stories are possibly Cliff’s pet projects on childhood and school days; an imaginary friend named Groucho in Seeds, and the idiots and school gangs in The Tin Man , but this is only a minor criticism. A Man Melting is well worth a look from a new author.
Helen Hagemann (c) 2012
November 5, 2012
Everything I knew about New Zealand up until reading -A Man Melting- I knew by way of N. and L. (and The Lord of the Rings). Things I gleaned from these dear friends: flip-flops are jandles and sweaters are jerseys, voting for your favourite bird is Very Important, singing the anthem in Maori for the Zealandish is more important than singing the anthem in French for Canadians, Wellington is windy, the method of electing ministers to parliament is much more civil and rational than in Canada, there are mountains and ocean, exports include sheep and fish, there were some gold rushes, the New Zealand rugby team is a Big Deal, N. wore a uniform to school and might have been the Prefect (I hope he was), cookbooks are better in NZ than here, eggplants are aubergines, walls accrue mould because it is Damp, it is preferable to say “dodgy” and (my favourite) “heaps” than the Canadian “sketchy” and “lots.”
After reading Craig Cliff’s -A Man Melting- I can now report on similarities between Canada and NZ: a certain colonial defensiveness re: America that is manifested in a quiet insistence that Things Are Different Here, an admission that many people are from elsewhere (but dammit we’re still unique) and the all out angst of the 20 something hipster/suburban youth.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed -A Man Melting- and its take on the challenges of figuring out who you are, what you want, what makes you special, what you’re meant to do with your life: these are the questions that preoccupy me (that is, *cough* when I actually stop to think about them) and I expect preoccupy many of my fellows in my cohort. And for the most part Cliff gives fresh, imaginative and inspiring explorations of these questions. Hilarious plot events, unsuspecting character voices, interweaving thematic questions about heredity, aspiration and failure.
I suppose my complaint is one I hold for most (if not all) short story collections and that is that I wish it was a novel. This is entirely my prejudice (and very likely the outcome of a terrible memory that cannot hold disparate plot lines long enough in my head to connect them) and so shouldn’t be read as discouragement for picking up -A Man Melting-. On the contrary the collection offers some zinger sentences of exceptional originality and beauty and some thoughtful character studies. But I was, on the whole, rather disappointed (as I always am) that these characters were so swiftly introduced and then denied me. So hear this, Mr. Cliff, write me a novel, okay? Because you’re one bang up writer with heaps of talent.
After reading Craig Cliff’s -A Man Melting- I can now report on similarities between Canada and NZ: a certain colonial defensiveness re: America that is manifested in a quiet insistence that Things Are Different Here, an admission that many people are from elsewhere (but dammit we’re still unique) and the all out angst of the 20 something hipster/suburban youth.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed -A Man Melting- and its take on the challenges of figuring out who you are, what you want, what makes you special, what you’re meant to do with your life: these are the questions that preoccupy me (that is, *cough* when I actually stop to think about them) and I expect preoccupy many of my fellows in my cohort. And for the most part Cliff gives fresh, imaginative and inspiring explorations of these questions. Hilarious plot events, unsuspecting character voices, interweaving thematic questions about heredity, aspiration and failure.
I suppose my complaint is one I hold for most (if not all) short story collections and that is that I wish it was a novel. This is entirely my prejudice (and very likely the outcome of a terrible memory that cannot hold disparate plot lines long enough in my head to connect them) and so shouldn’t be read as discouragement for picking up -A Man Melting-. On the contrary the collection offers some zinger sentences of exceptional originality and beauty and some thoughtful character studies. But I was, on the whole, rather disappointed (as I always am) that these characters were so swiftly introduced and then denied me. So hear this, Mr. Cliff, write me a novel, okay? Because you’re one bang up writer with heaps of talent.
January 10, 2012
Wonderful imagery & command of language. Can't wait for the novel.
August 3, 2018
A great mix of interesting and somewhat "wacky" short stories
August 10, 2016
Great stories throughout this collection, makes the challenging skill of writing short stories seem quite easy.
January 23, 2016
These are clever, original, well written, entertaining, thought provoking ...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews