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Simpson Returns: A Novella
Ninety years after they were thought to have died heroically in the Great War, the stretcher-bearer Simpson and his donkey journey through country Victoria, performing minor miracles and surviving on offerings left at war memorials. They are making their twenty-ninth, and perhaps final, attempt to find the country’s famed Inland Sea.
On the road north from Melbourne, Simpson and his weary donkey encounter a broke single mother, a suicidal Vietnam veteran, a refugee who has lost everything, an abused teenager and a deranged ex-teacher. These are society’s downtrodden, whom Simpson believes can be renewed by the healing waters of the sea.
In Simpson Returns, Wayne Macauley sticks a pin in the balloon of our national myth. A concise satire of Australian platitudes about fairness and egalitarianism, it is timely, devastating and witheringly funny.
On the road north from Melbourne, Simpson and his weary donkey encounter a broke single mother, a suicidal Vietnam veteran, a refugee who has lost everything, an abused teenager and a deranged ex-teacher. These are society’s downtrodden, whom Simpson believes can be renewed by the healing waters of the sea.
In Simpson Returns, Wayne Macauley sticks a pin in the balloon of our national myth. A concise satire of Australian platitudes about fairness and egalitarianism, it is timely, devastating and witheringly funny.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
135 pages, Paperback
Published April 2, 2019
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77 people want to read
About the author
Wayne Macauley
12 books16 followersWayne Macauley is the author of the highly acclaimed novels: Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe, Caravan Story and, most recently, The Cook, which was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Melbourne Prize Best Writing Award. His new book Demons will be available in August 2014. He lives in Melbourne.
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April 9, 2019
Simpson Returns is a novella by award-winning Australian author, Wayne Macauley. Simpson and his donkey: those lauded heroes of the Great War. Part of the ANZAC legend. Died there in Schrapnel Gully in 1915. Or did he? Because, almost ninety years later, here is Jack Simpson, with his donkey Murphy, travelling around country Victoria, on his twenty-ninth attempt to find the Inland Sea. He’s doing this on behalf of (the now long-dead) Lasseter.
Yet again, he leaves Mrs Fowler’s garage in Richmond with his ailing donkey. But Simpson keeps getting distracted. Still wearing his threadbare Red Cross armband, he says he’s plagued by Inveterate Samaritanism: he’s unable to turn away when someone needs help. First, it’s Shelley Jaecks with her three sons in the back of the hatchback, failing to commit suicide. As with all those he helps, the story is shared and a cure is dispensed.
Soon enough, he comes upon a heart-broken Denis Wrycroft, standing on the back of his newly-shorn angora goat, a noose around his neck. Crisis averted, comfort given. Javed the joyless refugee is next, and Simpson does what he can. For Laura, silent and broken, her story related by a concerned brother, Simpson can do little but, in seeking shelter and aid for both the girl and the donkey, he comes upon an ex-teacher whose school was closed down, resident in the non-functional hospital that was his last refuge and protest site.
Unsurprisingly after ninety years, Simpson’s quite the cynic, although many would simply classify him as a realist. Macauley uses the various predicaments of those Simpson helps to highlight defects in our various social systems. And despite all their tragic (but, unfortunately, wholly believable) tales, there’s quite a bit of humour.
Macauley has a talent for character description: “Did I mention that Denis Wrycroft, by contrast, was as ugly as a hatful of arseholes? Of course this shouldn’t matter, but naturally it did. He’d fallen out of a tree at the age of three and a half and had his nose flattened back level with his cheekbones. He had very bad skin, few teeth and enormous muttonchop sideburns.”
Macauley’s novella is clever and funny and thought-provoking and a very entertaining read, but it loses half a star of the potential high rating for indulging in the arrogant and annoying editorial affliction/affectation of omitting quote marks for speech.
Yet again, he leaves Mrs Fowler’s garage in Richmond with his ailing donkey. But Simpson keeps getting distracted. Still wearing his threadbare Red Cross armband, he says he’s plagued by Inveterate Samaritanism: he’s unable to turn away when someone needs help. First, it’s Shelley Jaecks with her three sons in the back of the hatchback, failing to commit suicide. As with all those he helps, the story is shared and a cure is dispensed.
Soon enough, he comes upon a heart-broken Denis Wrycroft, standing on the back of his newly-shorn angora goat, a noose around his neck. Crisis averted, comfort given. Javed the joyless refugee is next, and Simpson does what he can. For Laura, silent and broken, her story related by a concerned brother, Simpson can do little but, in seeking shelter and aid for both the girl and the donkey, he comes upon an ex-teacher whose school was closed down, resident in the non-functional hospital that was his last refuge and protest site.
Unsurprisingly after ninety years, Simpson’s quite the cynic, although many would simply classify him as a realist. Macauley uses the various predicaments of those Simpson helps to highlight defects in our various social systems. And despite all their tragic (but, unfortunately, wholly believable) tales, there’s quite a bit of humour.
Macauley has a talent for character description: “Did I mention that Denis Wrycroft, by contrast, was as ugly as a hatful of arseholes? Of course this shouldn’t matter, but naturally it did. He’d fallen out of a tree at the age of three and a half and had his nose flattened back level with his cheekbones. He had very bad skin, few teeth and enormous muttonchop sideburns.”
Macauley’s novella is clever and funny and thought-provoking and a very entertaining read, but it loses half a star of the potential high rating for indulging in the arrogant and annoying editorial affliction/affectation of omitting quote marks for speech.
Read
May 6, 2019‘Wayne Macauley’s novella is a limpid meditation on the nature of selflessness and compassion, juxtaposed with striking, bleak, often piteous tales from those our nation tends to grind underfoot. It compels us to reflect on the gap between aspiration and action, on why the ideals Simpson embodies in our culture don’t play a larger role in everyday life.’
Age
‘By placing Simpson in a modern context, Macauley is able to ask questions about who we really are as a nation, about compassion and hypocrisy, and if we have changed at all over the past 100 years…The Simpson of legend, the one we are most familiar with, was originally created to sell war. In contrast, the Simpson of Macauley’s book – and, based on the few truths we know, of real life – is more about compassion.’
Guardian
‘Novelist Wayne Macauley has re-cast Simpson in far more human terms than much of the early (and later pop) historiography, as the eternal helper wandering through a later Australian landscape, social and geographic. It is masterful and beautiful, and a triumph in thought-provocation. Macauley’s Simpson Returns and Fathi’s Our Corner of the Somme are the most challenging and thought-provoking things I’ve read about Anzac since the end of the profligate four-year centenary.’
Guardian
‘Macauley’s use of an other-worldly narrative to bring real-world problems into focus is probably one of Simpson Returns’ greatest strengths…[It] becomes a fitting analogy for the particularly cruel Australia in which we currently live. Macauley’s novella has the sheen of a comedy, but it should also be given credit for being so uncomfortably sad.’
Readings Monthly
‘Macauley is a mean satirist with a gift for finding the queasy depths in apparently soft targets…Together, these characters form a mosaic of desperation, inequality and sometimes gendered violence...At the end of the novel...we’re asking questions specific to this story, about how compassion works and what it really is. It’s an unusual renewal of an ordinary myth, not always simple to interpret.’
Saturday Paper
'Macauley's novels are consistently savage critiques of Australian middle class delusions, and Simpson Returns is no exception. He brings considerable depth to his portrayal of our social fragility and the destructive all-pervasive darkness underneath. Simpson reflects at one point: “There is always a certain amount of self-deceit necessary for the healthy maintenance of a society hell-bent on proving the sun shines out of its arse.” A must read.’
Booknotes
Age
‘By placing Simpson in a modern context, Macauley is able to ask questions about who we really are as a nation, about compassion and hypocrisy, and if we have changed at all over the past 100 years…The Simpson of legend, the one we are most familiar with, was originally created to sell war. In contrast, the Simpson of Macauley’s book – and, based on the few truths we know, of real life – is more about compassion.’
Guardian
‘Novelist Wayne Macauley has re-cast Simpson in far more human terms than much of the early (and later pop) historiography, as the eternal helper wandering through a later Australian landscape, social and geographic. It is masterful and beautiful, and a triumph in thought-provocation. Macauley’s Simpson Returns and Fathi’s Our Corner of the Somme are the most challenging and thought-provoking things I’ve read about Anzac since the end of the profligate four-year centenary.’
Guardian
‘Macauley’s use of an other-worldly narrative to bring real-world problems into focus is probably one of Simpson Returns’ greatest strengths…[It] becomes a fitting analogy for the particularly cruel Australia in which we currently live. Macauley’s novella has the sheen of a comedy, but it should also be given credit for being so uncomfortably sad.’
Readings Monthly
‘Macauley is a mean satirist with a gift for finding the queasy depths in apparently soft targets…Together, these characters form a mosaic of desperation, inequality and sometimes gendered violence...At the end of the novel...we’re asking questions specific to this story, about how compassion works and what it really is. It’s an unusual renewal of an ordinary myth, not always simple to interpret.’
Saturday Paper
'Macauley's novels are consistently savage critiques of Australian middle class delusions, and Simpson Returns is no exception. He brings considerable depth to his portrayal of our social fragility and the destructive all-pervasive darkness underneath. Simpson reflects at one point: “There is always a certain amount of self-deceit necessary for the healthy maintenance of a society hell-bent on proving the sun shines out of its arse.” A must read.’
Booknotes
December 6, 2019
A little gem of a parable, worth reading simply for the pertinent ending.
October 16, 2019
In interesting novella, if a bit depressing and not fully formed characters drawn from those characters that are 'healed' by Simpson and his donkey.
Loved the premise but the delivery needed work.
Loved the premise but the delivery needed work.
April 1, 2019
I love Wayne Macauley’s particular style of satire and this is funny and heartbreaking. Our national myths deserve his razor-sharp satirical eye.
December 12, 2019
Recently shortlisted for the 2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Simpson Returns is Wayne Macauley's sixth novel. Here on the blog I've reviewed Blueprints for a Barbed-wire Canoe (2004);
The Cook
(2011);
Demons
(2014);
Some Tests
(2017); and I have Caravan Story (2007) on the TBR somewhere too. If I had to pick a favourite it would be a toss-up between The Cook and Some Tests, but all these novels are disconcertingly relevant satires that nail modern pretensions and preoccupations in a refreshingly original way. In this new book Simpson Returns Macauley uses the national myth about Simpson and his Donkey to take aim at our platitudes about egalitarianism...
The iconic Gallipoli stretcher-bearer John Simpson Kirkpatrick was so beloved by former Prime Minister John Howard that his image graced a poster about values to be taught to all children. Presumably Howard did not know that, as Mark Baker reports at the SMH in 2013, this embodiment of mateship and heroism was a knockabout 22-year-old Englishman who enlisted in the First AIF under his middle name to hide the fact that he was a deserter from the merchant navy. A parliamentary enquiry was set up to deal with persistent calls for Simpson to be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, but it found in 2013, that most of what is said about Simpson is a lie, and although he was brave, he was no braver than the other stretcher-bearers whose deeds have faded into anonymity.
Macauley's Simpson is a nice enough fellow all the same, it's just that—like his namesake at Gallipoli—he's a mere band-aid in the great scheme of things.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/12/12/s...
The iconic Gallipoli stretcher-bearer John Simpson Kirkpatrick was so beloved by former Prime Minister John Howard that his image graced a poster about values to be taught to all children. Presumably Howard did not know that, as Mark Baker reports at the SMH in 2013, this embodiment of mateship and heroism was a knockabout 22-year-old Englishman who enlisted in the First AIF under his middle name to hide the fact that he was a deserter from the merchant navy. A parliamentary enquiry was set up to deal with persistent calls for Simpson to be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, but it found in 2013, that most of what is said about Simpson is a lie, and although he was brave, he was no braver than the other stretcher-bearers whose deeds have faded into anonymity.
Macauley's Simpson is a nice enough fellow all the same, it's just that—like his namesake at Gallipoli—he's a mere band-aid in the great scheme of things.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/12/12/s...
April 21, 2019
(3.5 rating) Overall, the concept of Macauley's novella was stunning in its creativity and his courage to satirise one of our iconic Australian legends - that of Simpson and his donkey, WWI in Gallipoli. It was when I'd finished his short text that I'd fully realised how clever it was regarding our current politics, social mores, moral values, and the messages the author was implanting about honesty, national identity, and our humanity itself. However, the whole was superior to its parts and I sometimes found myself steeped in some overloaded details.
At a time when we consider the direction of our country and the lack of compassion and protection we offer to each other, Macauley's mirror forces us to note the difference between what we "say" we are and what we "truly" have become. Like his portrait of Australians in "Blueprints of a Barbed Wire Canoe" in a struggle with the promises made by government to citizens building a suburban paradise, here he again reveals the gap between the idealism and the realism of our society today. Using the disappointment and depression of a single mother, a Vietnam Vet, a refugee, a closed hospital and school, and an addicted teenager, the resurrected Simpson and his donkey are overwhelmed by their helplessness. The reader sees in their present reality the stark contrast to the myth that was sculpted from their heroism and compassion and which became part of the Australian profile we sold to ourselves.
At a time when we consider the direction of our country and the lack of compassion and protection we offer to each other, Macauley's mirror forces us to note the difference between what we "say" we are and what we "truly" have become. Like his portrait of Australians in "Blueprints of a Barbed Wire Canoe" in a struggle with the promises made by government to citizens building a suburban paradise, here he again reveals the gap between the idealism and the realism of our society today. Using the disappointment and depression of a single mother, a Vietnam Vet, a refugee, a closed hospital and school, and an addicted teenager, the resurrected Simpson and his donkey are overwhelmed by their helplessness. The reader sees in their present reality the stark contrast to the myth that was sculpted from their heroism and compassion and which became part of the Australian profile we sold to ourselves.
July 5, 2021
Simpson Returns is an interesting little novella; bordering on magical realism but grounded in stark reality. Set 90 years after the First World War in modern day Victoria, Australia, the mythical ANZAC John Simpson - he who carried many soldiers to safety on his stretcher through Gallipoli - lives in a sort of half existence with his donkey, Murphy. They should be long dead, (in fact, they are), but something is keeping them on Earth. Every year they set out on what he hopes will be their final pilgrimage, no longer through the war-torn beaches of Turkey but the urban streets of Victoria, in hopes of finally completing their mission. But Simpson, a cynical after all this time, can’t help but find people in need year after year. Will it be the same again?
Wayne Macauley weaves history and fiction into a series of vignettes, dealing with social commentary on domestic abuse, modern isolation and depression, poverty, and every other “wound” we in the modern world are inflicted with. The language is cynical and sharp and, (lack of quotation marks not withstanding, because fuck that), terse and poignant. Perhaps not for everyone - there’s certainly no “explanation” as to what is happening in this story - but I quite enjoyed it.
Wayne Macauley weaves history and fiction into a series of vignettes, dealing with social commentary on domestic abuse, modern isolation and depression, poverty, and every other “wound” we in the modern world are inflicted with. The language is cynical and sharp and, (lack of quotation marks not withstanding, because fuck that), terse and poignant. Perhaps not for everyone - there’s certainly no “explanation” as to what is happening in this story - but I quite enjoyed it.
July 10, 2020
An interesting premise which to me gives the message that we can help people by really listening to them.
This novella provides a roller-coaster of emotions as Simpson interacts with a variety of people who have faced a multitude of problems in their tragic lives. There is some slight dead-pan humour to lighten the mood as Simpson travels with his donkey Murphy.
Ninety years after they were thought to have died heroically in the Great War, the stretcher-bearer Simpson and his donkey journey through country Victoria, performing minor miracles and surviving on offerings left at war memorials. They are making their twenty-ninth, and perhaps final, attempt to find the country’s famed Inland Sea.
On the road north from Melbourne, Simpson and his weary donkey encounter a broke single mother, a suicidal Vietnam veteran, a refugee who has lost everything, an abused teenager and a deranged ex-teacher. These are society’s downtrodden, whom Simpson believes can be renewed by the healing waters of the sea.
This novella provides a roller-coaster of emotions as Simpson interacts with a variety of people who have faced a multitude of problems in their tragic lives. There is some slight dead-pan humour to lighten the mood as Simpson travels with his donkey Murphy.
Ninety years after they were thought to have died heroically in the Great War, the stretcher-bearer Simpson and his donkey journey through country Victoria, performing minor miracles and surviving on offerings left at war memorials. They are making their twenty-ninth, and perhaps final, attempt to find the country’s famed Inland Sea.
On the road north from Melbourne, Simpson and his weary donkey encounter a broke single mother, a suicidal Vietnam veteran, a refugee who has lost everything, an abused teenager and a deranged ex-teacher. These are society’s downtrodden, whom Simpson believes can be renewed by the healing waters of the sea.
September 2, 2019
A powerful, thought-provoking novella that, in a series of vignettes, skewers some of Australia's highly regarded values: fairness, equity, egalitarianism.
Jack Simpson and his donkey, Murphy, are making their 29th attempt to get to the Inland Sea of Australia. As every time before, they are waylaid by a collection of 'forgotten' people. An incarnation of Gallipoli's Simpson and his donkey, Jack is only seen by those who need his help. "I lived and yet did not live; was flesh and yet not."
A timely indictment on the current state of Australian affairs, and a dagger to the self-serving hypocrisy of today's elected elite. All Australians should read this.
Jack Simpson and his donkey, Murphy, are making their 29th attempt to get to the Inland Sea of Australia. As every time before, they are waylaid by a collection of 'forgotten' people. An incarnation of Gallipoli's Simpson and his donkey, Jack is only seen by those who need his help. "I lived and yet did not live; was flesh and yet not."
A timely indictment on the current state of Australian affairs, and a dagger to the self-serving hypocrisy of today's elected elite. All Australians should read this.
May 27, 2019
A dark, strange novella, of back roads and pathos as the near mythic figures of Simpson and Murphy travel in search of the 'inland sea', only seen by those who need them ... those for whom the 'lucky country' is as mythic and remote as the 'legend' that now cloaks the reality of Simpson and Murphy themselves.
January 18, 2020
Macauley undercuts the notion of Australia as the 'lucky country' in this short satire which employs Simpson and his donkey of Gallipoli fame to paint a somewhat more grim picture of modern Australia and its failures of humanity. It's a great concept and well executed.
April 23, 2020
A poignant and timely little book reimagining the heroic persona of Simpson and his donkey. Magical realism and a clear vision of Australia as a country and society bring the story to life. Strange, bleak and sad.
November 28, 2020
Finished: 28.11.2020
Genre: novella
Rating: D
#AusReadingMonth2020
Conclusion:
My Thoughts
Genre: novella
Rating: D
#AusReadingMonth2020
Conclusion:
My Thoughts
January 12, 2020
Wildly imaginative, funny, heart-rending, and prescient. What a fabulous little book!
January 8, 2020
Oh my, this is an immensely bleak –albeit amazingly prescient – fable of the lies that Australians like to tell themselves about our national character. Using the figure of national icon John Simpson Kirkpatrick (who actually was a Pom with decidedly Socialist tendencies) as the touchstone, Macauley presents a very dark satire on the grim truth if the 'Aussie character'.
It's all a bit David Lynch at time, disorienting in approach, but it rather effectively drives the point home. The limits of vague slogans like "mateship", "a fair go", "freedom", "respect" and "tolerance" are exposed bare by the cast of forlorn, helpless Australians chewed up and spit out by our modern society.
It's all a bit David Lynch at time, disorienting in approach, but it rather effectively drives the point home. The limits of vague slogans like "mateship", "a fair go", "freedom", "respect" and "tolerance" are exposed bare by the cast of forlorn, helpless Australians chewed up and spit out by our modern society.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews