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False Start
It is the early 1980's. With and arts degree in one hand and no job prospects on the other, Mark O'Flynn's working career is kick-started in a quarry in ouback Australia.
Overwhelmed by the 40-degree heat, barrage of flies, never-ending parade of snakes and a steady diet of meat and beer, he encounters a group of men the likes of whom he has never seen before in his city life. Men who work only as hard as they need to but play as hard as they can get away with. Soon Mark realises that thee men are under the false impression that he is some sort of 'expert' and decides the best-and only-thing to do is go with the flow.
So begins Mark's adventures in being an 'accidental expert', a situation he finds himself in on a recurring basis, whether as a rock specialist, an actor who repeatedly forgets his lines or as a special agent charged with smuggling a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary to Ireland. These hilarious and droll accounts of three career paths that go 'horribly wrong' continue the rich tradition of the great Australian yarn-and will appeal to readers who appreciate the unexpected wrapped in a laconic sense of humour.
Overwhelmed by the 40-degree heat, barrage of flies, never-ending parade of snakes and a steady diet of meat and beer, he encounters a group of men the likes of whom he has never seen before in his city life. Men who work only as hard as they need to but play as hard as they can get away with. Soon Mark realises that thee men are under the false impression that he is some sort of 'expert' and decides the best-and only-thing to do is go with the flow.
So begins Mark's adventures in being an 'accidental expert', a situation he finds himself in on a recurring basis, whether as a rock specialist, an actor who repeatedly forgets his lines or as a special agent charged with smuggling a life-size statue of the Virgin Mary to Ireland. These hilarious and droll accounts of three career paths that go 'horribly wrong' continue the rich tradition of the great Australian yarn-and will appeal to readers who appreciate the unexpected wrapped in a laconic sense of humour.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
Mark O'Flynn
23 books4 followersMark O’Flynn’s novel The Last Days of Ava Langdon (UQP) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2017. A collection of short stories, Dental Tourism (Puncher & Wattmann), appeared in 2020. His recent collections of poetry are Undercoat (Liquid Amber Press, 2022) and Einstein’s Brain (Puncher & Wattmann, 2022).
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 14, 2013
Extremely well writted and unduly hilarious.
Displaying 1 of 1 review