MURRAY MIDDLETON When There’s Nowhere Else to Run. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
This powerful collection dissects love, death, sex and alienation in modern Australia.
2015 Vogel Award winner Murray Middleton has written something close to a great contemporary Australian novel in this terse collection of stories. Losers, victims and spectators tell stories of loss, abandonment and small victories set against the Australian landscape.
Middleton’s stories are short, sharp and simple and are all delivered with a wry voice, even in sex scenes:
Jennifer Pfeiffer was always giving me instructions such as, ‘Stay with me, Henry, don’t lose it!’ Sometimes she told me off. ‘No, no, you’re doing it all wrong today. Not yet!’ I always tried to comply. 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.
Some of the stories have a very strong edge to 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. His son is hostile, and his wife Fi, is no longer with them:
‘Hey, Dad,’ says Charlotte. ‘When’s Mum getting back from her holiday?’
I feel like someone has stabbed a dozen knives into the gaps of my ribcage and left them all jammed in there.
‘I don’t know,’ I manage to say.
‘What do you mean?’
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. The last thing I feel like doing anymore is leaving them.
‘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. 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.
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. Death and sex are common themes in this collection; infidelity and assignations sap the consciousness of the characters but their situations are dealt with in a non-judgemental way – this is life in modern Australia, and if you aren’t living it, your neighbours, colleagues or friends certainly are:
… Les seemed to have forgotten their purpose in visiting the country. Although it was possible that he knew exactly what he was doing. Still at least he’d agreed to spend the weekend with her at his brother Dave’s holiday house. Given their recent interactions, it seemed like a step in the right direction. It implied there was hope. The only problem was that she wasn’t sure that she wanted there to be hope.
The most ambitious and longest of the stories is ‘Burnt Hill Farm’. Two families holiday each Easter on the same property, and the story is narrated over the years by different family members with their different points of view. The result is quite heartbreaking (as indeed is much of the collection). Middleton shows the disparity between reality and delusion, especially when the children are narrating. The adults cling to ritual as a validation of their existence and purpose; the young observe, learn and react, but their path is inevitable.
Many Victorians will relate to the opening story, which is about a survivor of the Black Saturday fires who finds refuge with friends as he tries to recover emotionally. It is very powerful and yet seemingly only a backdrop to the real story of the young narrator, whose opportunities for sex and study are somewhat hampered by the man’s presence in his home. Dare I make the comparison to Gerald Murnane?
This collection is also about small kindnesses and emotional bonding. It is a powerfully anthropological dissection of Australia’s middle class, including its alienation, and the attempt to escape from the social and family networks that entrap us all. Country and city landscapes are sparsely and beautifully described, the dialogue is fresh. Middleton has captured Australia, or at least its dominant tribe:
Frank came in from outside and wiped Megan’s eyes with his fat thumbs. He kissed her hair, tucked her used tissues into his pockets and started twirling her awkwardly around to the music. He couldn’t dance to save himself. Six foot three of oaf.
This is honest and authentic writing and I look forward to reading more of this writer.
Murray Middleton When There’s Nowhere Else to Run Allen & Unwin 2015 PB 256pp $27.99
Michael Jongen is a librarian who tweets as @michael_jongen and microblogs at http://larrythelibrarian.tumblr.com
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