On my TBR

Being sent as part of the Australian sweepstakes

Thank you Billbooks for this book and the very cute little koala bear you included with it. Even the titles of these short stories give a flavour of Australia. I mean, where else would you be in a story called "Theatre Comes to Wombat Creek"?

This is an anthology of short stories by various Australian writers written in and around 2000. Although the title says “Summer Stories” they are not all set in summer, nor are the ones that are set in summer particularly summery. I was especially cognizant of that in the story “Eileen’s Christmas Fudge” by Gillian Mears. It is hard to conceive of making Christmas fudge in the heat of summer just because Christmas comes in the summer in Australia. I loved the story though which tells of the relationship between an older woman and a younger woman. Eileen has been making her Christmas fudge for the young woman’s family for years and now Eileen wants to pass on her recipe to the young woman. In the process, lots of wisdom gets passed along.
The stories are not all set in Australia either. There is one, “Villa Adriana”, which is set in Italy and there is nothing that identifies the two main characters as Australian; they could be English or Canadian or American. Another story, “Pipe Dream” by Chandani Lokuge is set in a poor country which is probably Sri Lanka. It involves a young boy who is seduced by a white man who offers him chocolates and cigarettes.
The stories that were my favourites were quite obviously Australian but set in historical Australia, not present-day. One was “Theatre Comes to Wombat Creek” by Amy Witting and involves a group of amateur actors who take three short plays to an outlying community. For anyone who has ever acted in nonprofessional theatre this story will strike a chord. I think my absolute favourite of the stories was “The Wasteland” by Frank Dalby Davison. It chronicles the love affair a pioneering farmer develops for a piece of land that he hopes to acquire. There was one sentence that shone for me:
“But poetry—in living I mean—isn’t something you set out to do, it’s something you find you did while you were trying like hell to do something else.”
Isn’t that a fundamental truth?
So, those are some of the stories that struck me from this collection. I’m sure other people will pick out completely different ones.

I left this book safely ensconced in a BookCrossing release bag on a chair on the deck of this charming establishment. We had a refreshing cup of coffee after wandering all over Peggy's Cove while sitting on the deck enjoying the sunshine and breezy warmth. This release is for the 2015 52 Towns in 52 Weeks release challenge and for the 2015 You're Such an Animal release challenge.