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The Best Australian Stories
The Best Australian Stories 2010
'There is little to match the pleasurable, exhilarating rush when we know we are in the hands of a writer with authority. Their power is like a kind of charisma we allow ourselves to be willingly, absolutely persuaded.' - Cate Kennedy In The Best Australian Stories 2010, Cate Kennedy presents a seductive line-up of the year's most exciting short fiction, featuring the best work from publications around the country alongside pieces published here for the first time. A literary feud unfolds, blow by comical blow, in the books pages of a Sydney newspaper. Ned Kelly's mother has her day in court. And as flood waters slowly rise in a small Australian town, a woman quietly watches and waits. By turns playful, heart-wrenching, intimate and exuberant, these twenty-nine stories reveal the strength and variety of Australian fiction today. The authors include first-timers as well as established masters, and the result is a stimulatingly diverse collection. Contributors Robert Drewe, Nam Le, Karen Hitchcock, Paddy O'Reilly, John Kinsella, Anna Krien, David Francis, Chris Womersley, Ryan O'Neill, Dorothy Simmons, Louise D'Arcy, Joshua Lobb, Tim Herbert, Michael Sala, Sherryl Clarke, A.S. Patric, Josephine Rowe, Mike Ladd, Meg Mundell, David Mence, Fiona McFarlane, Cory Taylor, Antonia Baldo, Suvi Mahonen, David Kelly, Joanne Riccioni, Stephanie Buckle, Gillian Essex, Michael McGirr
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Various
1,354 followersVarious is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).
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If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.
Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 10, 2016
I've been trying to write more short stories lately, so I'm reading and studying a lot of them. This was a bit of an impulse buy; it's an annual anthology I hadn't heard of before, put out by Black Inc (which also publishes The Monthly and the Quarterly Essay). Black's main competitor is Award-Winning Australian Writing, which has a fairly clear methodology. Kennedy's anthology, on the other hand, appears to define "best" by her own discretion.
I don't mean that as a complaint - the twenty-nine stories gathered in this book are for the most part excellent. First published in magazines ranging from Island to the Harvard Review, they feature some well-known names like Robert Drewe and Nam Le, but are for the most part written by people I'd never heard of. Scanning the names in Award-Winning Australian Writing 2010, and seeing that there's no overlap, and considering this was the output from a small country in a single year, and reflecting on how most of these stories completely fly under everbody's radar... well, it's actually quite depressing from the standpoint of an aspiring writer. I am a very small fish, and this pond is bigger than I thought.
For a reader, however, The Best Australian Stories 2010 is a showcase of considerable talent. The stories are of course firmly in what Michael Chabon would dub the "quotidian plotless" genre, which is not an insult, but does mean that I recommend this only to those who appreciate Serious Literature (which, for the record, I consider to be a genre like any other).
On that topic, I found it interesting (in a morbid sort of way) to note that the vast majority of stories in this book deal with generally negative emotions, tones and atmospheres. The pages are full of fractured relationships, horrible events, gnawing uncertainties, wistful regrets and outright depression. Despite coming from a diverse group of authors, the overriding tone is without a doubt one of melancholy. There are moments of appreciative happiness, but these are usually contrasted against enough doom and gloom to make you think you're watching Australian Story. Some manage a more upbeat nature - notably John Kinsella's "Bats" and Joshua Lobb's "I Forgot My Program So I Went To Get It Back" - but these are relatively few. Even the most enjoyable story in the book, Ryan O'Neill's hilarious "The Eunuch In The Harem," is a black comedy, relating a literary feud in the pages of a Sydney newspaper, ending in murder and a darkly comic twist.
There's nothing technically wrong with this, of course, which is why I'm presenting it as a point of interest rather than a mark against the book. Conflict is vital, melancholy doesn't prevent a story from being good, and if I was reading a single story I would never have noticed it. But when they're all stacked on top of each other it has an undeniable cumulative effect. Why so sad?
I notice this dejected tone in a lot of indie Australian films and TV shows as well, particularly on SBS; a sweeping sense of doleful nihilism that's hard to articulate. It stands in stark contrast to real Australia, which for all its flaws is a land of sunshine and good fortune. Is this tendency to focus on the problems and injustices of life something that's uniquely Australian? Or is it present in most short stories that receive acclaim - another signal that Serious Literature Is Not Supposed To Be Fun?
I don't mean that as a complaint - the twenty-nine stories gathered in this book are for the most part excellent. First published in magazines ranging from Island to the Harvard Review, they feature some well-known names like Robert Drewe and Nam Le, but are for the most part written by people I'd never heard of. Scanning the names in Award-Winning Australian Writing 2010, and seeing that there's no overlap, and considering this was the output from a small country in a single year, and reflecting on how most of these stories completely fly under everbody's radar... well, it's actually quite depressing from the standpoint of an aspiring writer. I am a very small fish, and this pond is bigger than I thought.
For a reader, however, The Best Australian Stories 2010 is a showcase of considerable talent. The stories are of course firmly in what Michael Chabon would dub the "quotidian plotless" genre, which is not an insult, but does mean that I recommend this only to those who appreciate Serious Literature (which, for the record, I consider to be a genre like any other).
On that topic, I found it interesting (in a morbid sort of way) to note that the vast majority of stories in this book deal with generally negative emotions, tones and atmospheres. The pages are full of fractured relationships, horrible events, gnawing uncertainties, wistful regrets and outright depression. Despite coming from a diverse group of authors, the overriding tone is without a doubt one of melancholy. There are moments of appreciative happiness, but these are usually contrasted against enough doom and gloom to make you think you're watching Australian Story. Some manage a more upbeat nature - notably John Kinsella's "Bats" and Joshua Lobb's "I Forgot My Program So I Went To Get It Back" - but these are relatively few. Even the most enjoyable story in the book, Ryan O'Neill's hilarious "The Eunuch In The Harem," is a black comedy, relating a literary feud in the pages of a Sydney newspaper, ending in murder and a darkly comic twist.
There's nothing technically wrong with this, of course, which is why I'm presenting it as a point of interest rather than a mark against the book. Conflict is vital, melancholy doesn't prevent a story from being good, and if I was reading a single story I would never have noticed it. But when they're all stacked on top of each other it has an undeniable cumulative effect. Why so sad?
I notice this dejected tone in a lot of indie Australian films and TV shows as well, particularly on SBS; a sweeping sense of doleful nihilism that's hard to articulate. It stands in stark contrast to real Australia, which for all its flaws is a land of sunshine and good fortune. Is this tendency to focus on the problems and injustices of life something that's uniquely Australian? Or is it present in most short stories that receive acclaim - another signal that Serious Literature Is Not Supposed To Be Fun?
November 8, 2015
Yeah. It's stuff Kate Kennedy likes. To me, it's not the best, just an ordinary assortment of bad relationships in stories that don't get me thinking in any innovative way. Just regurgitation of non-fiction. No real imagination employed for solution based fiction, even that of symbolic or fantastical beginnings.
What is to love, when there is notice given only to disgruntlement? It's the equivalent of Kate Kennedy finding this review better than the five star ones, high-lighting it and paying me to have it quoted on the back of her next book!
What is to love, when there is notice given only to disgruntlement? It's the equivalent of Kate Kennedy finding this review better than the five star ones, high-lighting it and paying me to have it quoted on the back of her next book!
March 20, 2016
There is a real mixed bag of stories and there was a couple I enjoyed but nothing really stood out for me. That is okay as I have always found short stories to be a wonderful challenge as sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't.
I thought 'The Movie People' quirky, posing a great question and providing an interesting answer. The 'Little White Slip' was for me a stand out as I found myself engaged with the characters.
It has been awhile since I picked a book of short stories and I am glad I did.
I thought 'The Movie People' quirky, posing a great question and providing an interesting answer. The 'Little White Slip' was for me a stand out as I found myself engaged with the characters.
It has been awhile since I picked a book of short stories and I am glad I did.
February 19, 2012
Mum has an excellent story in here. I really enjoyed this collection. I can't rave enough about short stories. If you have ever tried to write one, you can appreciate even more how special a truly engaging and satisfying short story really is!
March 10, 2011
Some great stories in here, but many didn't hold my short attention span through to the end.
March 10, 2011
A few gems amongst a load of average
The highlight, for me, had to be Nam Le's The Yarra
The highlight, for me, had to be Nam Le's The Yarra
June 26, 2012
Absolutely brilliant collection by Kennedy. I'm not actually much of short story fan, but this book may have persuaded me otherwise.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews