Shadowboxing

Shadowboxing
Tony Birch
RRP:
NZ$ 29.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 23.20
Paperback
h198 x 129mm - 192pg
23 Nov 2009 AU
International import eta 7-19 days
9781921640155
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
Shadowboxing depicts the life of a boy growing up in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in the 1960s. Michael's working-class Catholic family is held together by his long-suffering mother but dominated by his sullen father's drinking and rage. The family live as though under siege, surviving through thrift and guile in the midst of poverty and violence. Set against this darkness, Michael is a Huck Finn character with the Yarra River as his inner-Melbourne Mississippi which he explores with a hunger for adventure and wild, dangerous fun. Michael's voice sets the tone of the stories: of innocence exposed to a brutal world that he explores with naive wonder. But he is not stifled by brutality; rather, his gentle nature means that the world he encounters hits the reader with a raw immediacy. This is also the story of Fitzroy and it conveys the spiritual landscape of the suburb, full of local characters and eccentrics. Shadowboxing is an extraordinary achievement, a beautifully rendered time capsule of the 1960s, capturing a period of decay and change as it is revealed to a young boy discovering the world.
"There's a Hemingwayesque minimalism about this writing, but in Hemingway the pathos was reined in more. In the 10 linked stories in "Shadowboxing," the pathos is often barely contained and the effect is quite shattering. . . . Birch's descriptions of the lower socio-economic world of inner Melbourne in the '60s are brilliant and he evokes, with a curious nostalgia, a claustrophobic world that anyone would be lucky to escape from unscathed. He has a great ability to pare down his prose, laying bare the raw flesh of the matter in the process. Despite their rigours, the stories are engaging, with flashes of larrikin humour. The book is even something of a page-turner at times, although the calamity of one page often leads only to heartbreak on the next." -- Phil Brown, the "Australian"
Tony Birch has published short fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, and has also worked as a writer and curator in collaboration with photographers, film-makers, and artists. He has a Master of Arts in creative writing and a PhD in urban cultures, and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Melbourne. "Shadowboxing," his first book, was shortlisted for the 2006 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. Birch's stories have been published in "Best Australian Stories "and his new collection, "Father's Day"
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781921640155
Published: 23 Nov 2009
Published In: Australia
Imprint: Scribe Publications
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 129mm
Pages: 192
Dewey: 823.4

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