SHORT STORY SUMMER - 'The Hallelujah Roof' - Belinda Jeffrey

You may of may not have noticed that I've mentioned the lovely city of Brisbane a fair few times on my blog. When I was last rabbiting on about the place during my travel month way back when, I gave a fleeting reference to the fantastice One Book Many Brisbanes short story competition that is run every year by Brisbane City Council to uncover new, exciting and extremely talented writing folk. Well, it won't be much of a surprise when I tell you that the stories featured are all about Brisbane. Sorry, I'll give you a few minutes while you absorb that information.

Anyway, way back in 2006, the second volume of stories was published, and one new writer that was featured was a lady called Belinda Jeffrey. You also may have read my review of Brown Skin Blue by that same lady (and if not, why not?) It's is one of my favourite YA reads and I urge you to DROP EVERYTHING NOW, hunt down a copy and fall in love with every word, if you have not already done so. Go on, off you go... *flaps hands to shoo you out from under my feet*

...Done? good. Well, now we can move on.

The Hallelujah Roof is a story about a young girl, Jane, who moves to Brisbane with her mother and younger sister to live in a ramshackle Theological College in a run down area of the city in the early 80s. Jane tells the stories of her adventures involving rats in toasters, slaughtering pigs and drinking Brisbane River water with her new friends and companions. It's a story about finding the joy in life's little pleasures, even when other people might perceive you to have very little on the surface.

"There mums smiled like they'd just tried sour lemon fizz, while my mum laughed like a tortured cockatoo, and it was so damn funny, you couldn't help but join in."

For those of you who have read a Belinda Jeffrey book, I don't need to tell you that the writing is beautiful and heartfelt and the voice is impeccable. Jane's innocent sense of humour is ridiculously sweet and even thinking about this story makes me grin like a cheesy fool... And wipe away the beginnings of the tears from the corners of my eyes because I'm such a sucker for a bit of childhood nostalgia, especially childhood nostalgia with a touch of genius about it.

The story is SERIOUSLY good folks and I highly recommend you track down a copy, particularly if you're a fan of Aussie YA, and let's face it, who isn't? (If you're not, please go away and educate yourselves in the ways of Marchetta and Eager and then come back and apologise). If I don't stop now, I'll be in danger of sounding like a creepy stalker fan girl, but I strongly recommend you read, not just this story, but everything by this writer.

This tale has inspired my to try and get my short story mojo back again. I'll keep you posted on how I go...

SHORT STORY SUMMER - 'Night in Paris' - Patrice Chaplin

With all the stories I post about in the next couple of months, I will always attempt to find a link to them online, and indeed I have found one to Night in Paris by Patrice Chaplin right here. My copy of this story came from my rather battered second hand copy of The Minerva Book of Short Stories Vol. 1 (Minerva, 1988), if you ever feel the urge to track down it down

I first read this about 18 months ago, after finding said copy of book in the lovely second hand bookshop I was volunteering in at the time. I was going through a brief short story period (rather similar to the one I am going through now) and decided to pick a few at random. This one stuck in my memory.

I think it's the Englishness of it all - we follow young Lucy from the age of eleven in 1950, right through to her as a young woman, as she experiences first hand the family tradition of professional re-gifting - how her beloved bottle of perfume, along with several other gawdy, tacky items, make their way through the hands of several family members and friends over the years. I'm always drawn to a hideous matriarch in a story and this one is no different - the small references to Lucy's mother, her domineering ways and her own perception of the meaning of Christmas (never loose face, manners are everything, must give present, no matter how bloody awful it is) - is just so well written.

TACKY GIFTS -
 THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

This isn't the most literary of stories, but I loved it. It just says so much about families and what a particular occasion means to different people. And it was such an accessible read.

Just a quick note on the character of Lucy - it's refreshing to read a character like this in short story form - I guess there's not a huge amount of room for character development here - we start off with a good person and end up with a good person who has just a little more understanding of other people than she did at the start - no major lessons learnt or anguish or tearing out of hair. I love her simplicity and uncomplicatedness (yes, I just invented a new word).




So if you get a chance to read it, let me know what you think...

SHORT STORY SUMMER - Raymond Carver #1 - 'Cathedral' ('Where I'm Calling From' - The Harvill Press, 1995)

I promised you a Short Story Summer post in July and here it is (a few days late, mind, but here, and that is the most important thing). I thought a good starting point to begin my short story education was with the apparent undisputed master of the form, Raymond Carver.

I've had a copy of his collection Where I'm Calling From, sitting on my book shelf gathering dust for a while now. I intended to be all literary and high-brow when I first purchased it. By reading it, obvs. But, as you may have gathered from my reviews, I don't do literary and high brow too often. I'd feel like a bit of a fraud if I waffled on about,... well, you see I don't even know where to start with all the high brow stuff and I'd probably just bore you all senseless.

So, I'm going to do this - every so often over the next couple months I'm going to read one of his stories and just jot down a little bit about it and who I think might enjoy it.  Yes, a sort of - SHOCKER - review. Although being a short story, these will more than likely be very short reviews. It comes with the territory.

And you must bear with me on this one, because I'm not used to reviewing short stories and I'll probably sound like a right tit and not in the least bit literary, but I can't pretend to sound like anything else...

So, first up, I decided to read a story recommended to me by Jo. And that was a recommendation in CAPS LOCK form which is how I knew it must be worth a read. I'd seen Cathedral listed in a few short story guides too, so it felt like a natural starting point for my Short Story Summer.

Well, the thing that first sprung to mind when I finished this was VOICE. Oh, and voice. And possibly voice too. Our narrator is a married man relaying his feelings, or lack of, about his wife's close friendship with a blind man. How do I write a review of this without giving anything away? Let's just say this is jaw-droppingly good and I'm still wondering how it is possible to learn so much about our narrator when he himself tells us so little in so few words. I was a bit worried that starting my Short Story Month at such a high level would be a off-putting, but this tale would be such a great read for those who wouldn't think to pick up a short story - this shows how much is capable and the skill involved in crafting such a concise tale.
And even though it's pretty light on description, I could visualise the fifty shades of brown in their home furnishings. This is bleak stuff, but the ending is just the most beautiful of revelations. Just amazing.
Hint: Cathedral fans (and there are lots), it's not just about cathedrals.


Section Where I Write Down Any Short Story Writing Tips I Have Learnt Whilst Reading This Short Story

Actually, reading this has been like a bit of a step back. I am in serious awe of the skill involved and this has scared me ridged. I'll keep you posted when I get my short story mojo back.

But, yeah, like I said before VOICE and MORE VOICE. Need to work on the voice, I think.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed my first short story review of sorts. See, I told you it wouldn't be high brow.

It's International Short Story Day!

On the shortest night of the year (20th June) (today) (or tonight, even) is International Short Story Day...

Now, I've been a pondering for a little while about doing some thing short story related on the blog. As I explained in my last YA Confessions post, one of the main reasons I started this blog was to encourage myself to read and write more. and ever since I started the whole writing experiment, short stories have been at the forefront of my mind. They're a natural starting point for any new writer - when I first started out (not that long ago), I made the very stupid mistake of assuming that the shortness of them would naturally make them easier to write.
WRONG. The short story is still a literary nut I've yet to successfully crack and I find it utterly fascinating when people get it so, so right. If you've yet to come across an amazing short story, I urge you to seek one out. In some ways, it is so much more impressive when a writer can engage and astound with so few words.

Which brings me onto why I am writing this post... Actually, sorry, I'm going to digress AGAIN. Bear with me, it is all related, I promise....

I've been a bit worried about how much reading and writing I'm going to get done over the summer holidays. With the kids being with me 24-7, all my work has to be crammed into the evenings, which means blogging gets shunted to the back of the queue *apologises to blog* *strokes blog* *pats blog on the head*. However, with all this pondering about short stories, I got to thinking THEY'RE SHORT. THEY TAKE LESS TIME TO READ THAN THOSE BOOK THINGS. I WILL HAVE LESS TIME... Do you see where I'm going with this one....?

Well, let me introduce you to Short Story Summer...

Over July and August, I'm going to do some posts about the short stories I love, maybe dig out a few new ones, chat to some short story writers, just anything short story related, really.

And I would like you to join me - if you fancy doing any short story reviews in the next few months, either as a guest post or on your own blog, we could all link arms together and celebrate the shortness of the stories. And have many larfs and larks and the like.

Ok, so in my quest for less stuff to do, I appear to have given myself more things to do. Oh well...
Anyway, I'm not that good at planning stuff, so it will all be very ad hoc. Just let me know if you want to take part....

So, celebrate International Short Story Day by reading one, maybe even writing one if you're feeling particularly motivated. And keep your eyes peeled for my first Short Story Summer post, coming soon to a neglected blog near you...