Dog Rock

by David Foster

D'Arcy D'Oliveres, an Assistant Postal Officer, is convinced that Dog Rock, a small Australian town, is sheltering a dangerous killer

Genres: Fiction

166 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

David Manning Foster (born 15 May 1944) is an Australian novelist and scientist. He has written a range of satires on the theme of the decline of Western civilization, as well as producing short stories, poetry, essays, and a number of radio plays.

Foster writes in an Australian tradition of idiosyncratic satire and comedy that may be traced through the work of Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin, Xavier Herbert and David Ireland. His novels are the most wide-ranging and fearless of the Australian novels that have contributed to the late twentieth-century re-examination of Western ideologies and the literary forms in which they are expressed. ('Foster: The Satirist of Australia' by Susan Lever)

Reviews

[🐴 🍖]

who's responsible for the falling of shutter 63? whose bees stung miss hathaway's cows to death? what's happened to the quality of terry derry's honey? what has a corkscrew at one end and a pedal like a bass drum at the other? this one's cool and (to this reader at least) unprecedented as a detective story that's all but imperceptible as a detective story until the very end: d'oliveres is a great noticer, aware of goings-on in dog rock to an astonishing degree of detail, & despite not seeming overly interested in detection as such, manages to piece enough together to solve the murders w/o the intermediary steps one expects of "well this could only mean this, which in turn leads me to conclude etc." vastly more readable than in the new country, tho again non-australians are gonna want to have wiki bookmarked. excited for the pale blue crochet coathanger cover!

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read lots of David Foster when I was an undergrad, but this is the first of his books I've read in years. The last forty or so pages are great- funny, gripping, absurd and readable. But it takes an awfully long time to get through the first three quarters of the thing, combining as it does Pynchon-esque conspiracy/paranoia/detective story antics with a wonderfully drawn narrator whose style is denser and less comprehensible than Conrad's Marlow. It's certainly worth a read: Foster's attention to the sound of the words he's writing, his absurd Trollopian character names, and the outright fun of it all really are very enjoyable. I just wish there was a little less ultra-specific description.

[Anna Thieben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldnt finnish because there were so many characters and it was told hour by hour. Love the old postal service tho

[Ocean G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still have no idea what to make of this book


UPDATE 2023 (re-read):

What an odd book. As a rule I tell myself I should read at least 50 pages of a book before giving up, but I’m at 47 and I don’t think I can go any further.

Here is a section I had to re-read a couple of times:
"A plate proclaims it the offices of Claude Caprol, semi-retired public accountant and holder of post office box 27 - which lies not 200 yards off, empty but for a glossy brochure I thrust in last thing Friday afternoon featuring matching wall units with a unique, wavy-edge design, among them an excellent storage unit at $83 - a septuagenarian in good health, whose white immaculate MGB sports car, long the envy of the Big Owl and Farmer’s Friend, who sit admiring it from their observation post on the park bench outside the African Mission Opportunity Shop, has never been driven at more than 40 mph, never in the wet and never on dirt.”

Yes, that is one sentence. Also, there are literally five characters called Balthazar.

Obviously the author is trying to achieve something. I’m just not sure what.

What is strange is that this is apparently a re-read for me. I didn’t remember the story at all, so I thought I’d get to read it (and discover it) over again. Unfortunately I won’t make it and I’m not sure how I made it the first time to be honest. But I can see why I don’t remember anything. I’m really not sure what has happened thus far, except someone has a problem with bees around page 40.

[James Grubb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is like someone continually talking without drawing breath, interesting, slightly crazy and I think a non-Aussie would have a hell of a lot of trouble understanding much of the text.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always worth a reread