Middleton is a keen observer of the life around him and has managed to make beautiful writing from the travails of others, though there is a certain weariness on display. As he waits for the consequences of his actions to catch up with him, bloodied and unbowed, he tries to be as normal as possible. ‘The Last Trout That Richard Bought for Alice’ is the astonishing story of a man who is in such a hurry to get to his girlfriend’s students’ play that he takes a disastrous short cut from which his life may never recover. The last thing I feel like doing anymore is leaving them. My top lip is trembling and I already know that Josh will never respect me again. But when I look up, expecting to see his scathing expression, there are tears in his eyes. He can’t even look at me. I feel like someone has stabbed a dozen knives into the gaps of my ribcage and left them all jammed in there. ‘When’s Mum getting back from her holiday?’ His son is hostile, and his wife Fi, is no longer with them: In ‘The Greatest Showbag of Them All’ a young father tries to hold himself together at the Royal Show with his son and daughter. Some of the stories have a very strong edge to them. I feared that if I didn’t she might find someone else to give instructions to and they might be better at following them than me. ‘No, no, you’re doing it all wrong today. Not yet!’ I always tried to comply. Jennifer Pfeiffer was always giving me instructions such as, ‘Stay with me, Henry, don’t lose it!’ Sometimes she told me off. Middleton’s stories are short, sharp and simple and are all delivered with a wry voice, even in sex scenes: Losers, victims and spectators tell stories of loss, abandonment and small victories set against the Australian landscape. This powerful collection dissects love, death, sex and alienation in modern Australia.Ģ015 Vogel Award winner Murray Middleton has written something close to a great contemporary Australian novel in this terse collection of stories. Tags: Australian fiction/ Australian short stories/ Australian/Vogel Award/ Gerald Murnane/ Murray Middleton MURRAY MIDDLETON When There’s Nowhere Else to Run.
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