The True Colour of the Sea

by Robert Drewe

An artist marooned on a remote island in the Arafura Sea contemplates his survival chances. He understands his desperate plight and the ocean's unrelenting power. But what is its true colour?

A beguiling young woman nurses a baby by a lake while hiding brutal scars. Uneasy descendants of a cannibal victim visit the Pacific island of their ancestor's murder. A Caribbean cruise of elderly tourists faces life with wicked optimism.

Witty, clever, ever touching and always inventive, the eleven stories in The True Colour of the Sea take us to many varied coasts: whether a tense Christmas holiday apartment overlooking the Indian Ocean or the shabby glamour of a Cuban resort hotel.

Relationships might be frayed, savaged, regretted or celebrated, but here there is always the life-force of the ocean - seducing, threatening, inspiring.

In The True Colour of the Sea, Robert Drewe - Australia's master of the short story form - makes a gift of stories that tackle the big themes of life: love, loss, desire, family, ageing, humanity and the life of art.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Australia

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Robert Drewe is among Australia’s most loved writers – of novels, memoir and short stories. His iconic Australian books include The Shark Net, The Bodysurfers and Our Sunshine. He is also editor of Black Inc.’s Best Australian Stories annual series. Recently, he has revisited the short story himself, with a masterful new collection, The Rip. Jo Case spoke to him for Readings about storytelling.

Reviews

[Shazza Hoppsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am completely biased in this review being Australian and obsessed with the ocean. I felt at home reading these stories of the Australian coast and unsettling relationships. The fixation with the blue of the sea, and the cliched “types” we and our relatives inhabit felt so familiar. Drewe’s portrait of families in grief in the heat, at Christmas and on cruises made me uncomfortable but also laugh knowingly. I wonder if people from other places wound feel the same sense of belonging reading this series?

[Emily Wrayburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heh... okay, so the writing was good... but every single story felt really unsatisfying. Except for the last one. That was pretty good. I feel like there was another one where it seemed to actually have a proper ending instead of just finishing halfway through a paragraph but I can't remember which one it was. They just all felt unfinished and I wondered what the point was. Anyway. Maybe this author just isn't my cup of tea?

Also some of the stories felt vaguely racist or sexist but I couldn't work out whether it was genuine or satire?

[Dylan Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst some of the stories were not entirely engaging, there were many that left me wanting more. Which surely is a sign of a good short story.

Drewe’s characters were diverse, often flawed and well formed, whilst each story presented a different perspective on our ties to the ocean. As a West Australian, this theme definitely resonated.

Finally, the last story is one I was wishing wouldn’t end. Living in Broome and being fascinated by the early Pearling days, along with notions of isolated survival made this particular story one that finished this collection with real strength. A definite highlight.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Dan dropped dead on the sand and that was that.’

Eleven short stories, and I enjoyed them all. Different views, different coasts: from Australia to Cuba, and to an island in the Arafura Sea. I have three favourites: ‘Lavender Bay Noir’ (in which a man is trying to prepare for Olympic trials in swimming); ‘Black Lake and Sugarcane Road’ (in which a conversation begins between a young, scarred woman nurse a baby and a passer-by, who spotted a python slithering into her picnic basket) and ‘The True Colour of the Sea’ (in which an artist is abandoned on an island in the Arafura Sea and wonders about its true colour).

Each story drew me in, took me on a journey, and left me wanting more. Not because the stories were incomplete but because Mr Drewe can, with comparatively few words, imbue his characters with life and purpose.

I finished this collection thinking about the restless nature of the sea. The sea has many true colours, and any quest to identify a single colour is surely doomed.

If, like me, you are drawn to the sea, you may also enjoy this collection of short stories.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Amber Erasmus · Rating 1 out of 5]

A few engaging stories but I skipped a few as the content was not for me.

[Con · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories with the ocean as the backdrop, from all around the Australian coast. People looking for comfort and love, some coming to terms with age and loss, some Roald-Dahl like stories of wickedness, family secrets. The scenes are evoked with a native-born familiarity. Beautiful.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written collection of short stories from my favourite Australian author. Filled with Drew's wonderfully quirky and original perspective.
All the stories are tied together by the theme of the Sea and the special relationship Australians have to it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked ‘Another Word for Cannibals’ best. Yes, this choice reveals something about my macabre sense of humour…

The unlikely premise of the story is a reunion between the descendants of a Methodist minister, and the offspring of the cannibal ancestors of those who ate him. Drewe has mischievously named his fictional Pacific island Okina, which Wikipedia tells me is a glottal stop in Hawaiian languages, denoting ‘uh-oh’. ‘Uh-oh’ indeed. Through the auspices of a Leeds academic who also shares this rarest of ancestral links, Damian and Lisa have been invited to attend a special 150th anniversary ceremony to make amends to the Horne descendants.

Drewe is adept at describing a certain type of woman:

Damian and Lisa had met Jennifer only once before, at a family wedding in North London, and remembered her as a wiry extrovert with reckless scarlet hair and a sort of ethnic-Victorian dress style, a mixture of tinkling bracelets and fingerless net gloves. (p.21)

One suspects that a refusal to participate was not a possibility. In response to the understandably ignorant questions of the descendants, Jennifer explains:

In any society or culture, in whatever period of history, everything we humans do rests on the assumptions we share with our family, friends, neighbours and workmates,’ she’d replied.

‘Everything social is open to question, including solidly held beliefs and ideas about karma, the self in society and nature and culture. Only by relating uncritically to the different versions of the world can we be fully human.’ (p. 22)

Lisa’s not quite convinced.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/09/t...

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

"the True Colour of the Sea" was a quick read. I read this book in a day. Robert Drewe spins the stories well. Some stories I found interesting. I could see these expanded into a full story in book. Some others I didn't really enjoy and found them dry. However, as they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

The three stories I really enjoyed I would have given 5 or 4 if it was based just entirely on these three stories.

"Black Lake and Sugarcane Road" ticks the box for touching on a more serious matters of the heart.

"Lavender Bay Noir" ticks the box for chick lit.

"The SeaDream Emails" ticks the boxes for a good summer's (or tucked up inside Winter's read) with plenty of different characters, with some being unusual. This was my favourite story and I wanted to read much more.

[Lesley Moseley · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF : Robert Drewe wrote one of my all time favourite books Robert Drewe The Drowner. I really did try his new collection of one of my least favourite genre, short stories. Read two, but I feel cheated!. Just get to know the characters ,and then a clever retort, and that's it. The True Colour of the Sea.. Love his writing, but don't like this form.

[Brigitte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outside of Lavender Bay Noir, I didn't enjoy this collection. It was well written, but simultaneously had poor storytelling. I just didn't connect with the characters or their motivations, I found myself getting lost and confused in several of the stories. They were all dark, which I'm normally a fan of, but they were too unsettling with no resolve and let me feeling unsatisfied.

Just not my cup of tea I suppose.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book completely because of the cover. I was not familiar with the writer. It was in the Australian writers section of Dymmocks and I took a leap.
The stories are very readable. Creepy in a kind of Patricia Highsmith sort of way.
It doesn't necessarily make me want to read more but I wouldn't avoid him either.
I think I've just damned this book with faint praise.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

These eleven stories were just the right length as far as I’m concerned. They were long enough to get your teeth into, but were easily read as a story-before-bedtime read. Drewe is such an accomplished writer, confident and clear-eyed.

For my full review see
https://residentjudge.com/2018/11/27/...

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually don't go out of my way to read short stories, but was drawn to this collection because of the author and the ocean theme.
I enjoyed them as I would a short story collection. They were different, intriguing and beautifully written. I could read quite a few in a night and completed all eleven in a few days. Nothing special, just enjoyable and thought-provoking allegories.

[Nush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have been meaning to read a Robert Drewe book for many years. This was a great intro on a day when I was in the mood for short stories. Loved the sharpness of the story lines and the Australian setting.

[Singer_SA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of short stories all based loosely around the sea and Australian coastline, family dynamics, historical attitudes to art, etc.
I found it interesting, mildly disturbing, beautifully written and evocative of the Australian landscape.

[Neil Dufty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vintage Drewe

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories

[Katg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it, short stories are my Christmas holiday binge

[Mark Gee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed a few stories. Some really good ones.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting short stories. Enjoyed all of them.

[Suzy Dominey · Rating 2 out of 5]

different but persisted cause it was bookclub . Not a big fan of short stories

[Mike Floyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky set of short stories that each have a kind of Roald Dahl type twist

[Anna Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable collection of intimate, quirky short stories.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! Short stories Drewes easy colloquial writing makes it a great addition to a bed time routine. Loved it!

[Garry Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy reading short stories. Some NSW North Coast references.

[noemi [dogeatsreads] · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not what I thought it was going to be, in the worst way possible. I didn’t give it a 1-star rating only because Drewe is a genuinely good writer. I thought for a number of the short stories that if they were to be turned into novels, I would read those novels. But as they aren’t that, they weren’t good either.

On a technically level, they were just bad storytelling. I can only think of a couple of the stories that actually had a beginning, middle and end. And of those, only one had an ending that was even remotely satisfying. The rest just had these who-gives-a-shit sort of endings that left me thinking what was even the point of writing the story. Maybe if they were longer I would care for the characters and get some sort of meaning out of these - what I think were meant to be poignant - endings.

Outside of that, the title “the True Colour of the Sea” made me think that I was in for a collection of disconcerting and atmospheric stories about people being lost to the sea, mysterious things washing up on shore and spooky coastal towns. But no. Instead I got a bunch of contemporary stories about.... well actually I’ve already forgotten. But they aren’t about the sea I can tell you that. Mostly they are just set near a body of water however if they weren’t set near water it would make no or almost no difference at all.

This was a real flop. What a shame 😕

[Michael McLeod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad short read. Made up of 11 Stories, 9 of which were well worth the read.