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Amazon.co.uk Review
Without resorting to abstraction, Malouf refracts his characters' experiences through the merest slivers of evocative detail and dialogue to set up a reverberating tension. And what he does so tellingly is to suggest the ways in which the land and nature, their vastness, and the myths and dreams that attach to them, become buried deep in the psyches of his characters.
Indeed, Shakespeare's "We are such stuff/As dreams are made on, and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep" forms the thematic richness of all these stories. In "Closer", the tempest at the heart of Uncle Charles' twice-yearly visit from gay Sodom to his Pentecostal family--allowed to come no nearer than the other side of the gate--is searing in its quiet pain; tragic violence erupts over land rights in "Blacksoil Country" between an aboriginal group and a boy's bigoted father; "Dream Stuff", the title story of the collection, mingles the unsettling strangeness of dreams with the return of an author to Brisbane for the first time in over 20 years--despite the city being the very stuff of his fiction. In "Jacko's Reach" a pocket of scrub is what is to be lost:
...an area of experience, even if it is deeply forgotten, where we will still move in groups together, and touch, and glow, and spring apart laughing at the electric spark. There has to be some place where that is possible ... If there is no such place we will invent it. That's the way we are.Malouf's sharp but compassionate eye, his generous moral stance, and the sheer force of his descriptive powers make each of these stories a meditation of exceptional beauty. --Ruth Petrie
Amazon.co.uk Review
Without resorting to abstraction, Malouf refracts his characters' experiences through the merest slivers of evocative detail and dialogue to set up a reverberating tension. And what he does so tellingly is to suggest the ways in which the land and nature, their vastness, and the myths and dreams that attach to them, become buried deep in the psyches of his characters.
Indeed, Shakespeare's "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep" forms the thematic richness of all these stories. In "Closer", the tempest at the heart of Uncle Charles' twice-yearly visit from gay Sodom to his Pentecostal family--allowed to come no nearer than the other side of the gate--is searing in its quiet pain; tragic violence erupts over land rights in "Blacksoil Country" between an aboriginal group and a boy's bigoted father; "Dream Stuff", the title story of the collection, mingles the unsettling strangeness of dreams with the return of an author to Brisbane for the first time in over 20 years--despite the city being the very stuff of his fiction. In "Jacko's Reach" a pocket of scrub is what is to be lost--"...an area of experience, even if it is deeply forgotten, where we will still move in groups together, and touch, and glow, and spring apart laughing at the electric spark. There has to be some place where that is possible...If there is no such place we will invent it. That's the way we are."
Malouf's sharp but compassionate eye, his generous moral stance, and the sheer force of his descriptive powers make each of these stories a meditation of exceptional beauty. --Ruth Petrie --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Dream Stuff is a collection of short stories mainly centred on how children perceive themselves. There are reviewers who claim Malouf paints a "dark" world. This is a false assessment. A child's outlook has to contend with a variety of needs, often conflicting ones. They have the desire to explore, to escape parental restraint, yet bear an underlying need for security and stability. Malouf is able to convey these contrary aims in subdued, but effective portrayals.
The stories in this collection point up those conflicts in carefully measured prose. Throughout these accounts of childhood, memories form a framework. A young man coming to grips with the fact that his missing father is unlikely to return. A religious clan in a midst of a family crisis. A cycle of life from earliest recollections that return to create a reprise of visions spurred by a bizarre assault and its resolution.
As others have indicated, it's the final tale in this set that stands out as a jewel among the collection. In this "Great Day" of Audrey Tyler's seventy-second birthday, Malouf demonstrates his matchless skill at presenting his characters. Moving lightly among them with accomplished dexterity, he conveys their persona with a admirable economy of words. Within but a few pages we are given the family history, the depth of feelings and various levels of personal interaction any writer must envy. The old man is the pivot of their existence, a circumstance they all ultimately realize, each in their own fashion.
It's amazing to read reviews of this work continually pointing out his Australian roots. None of these stories is fixed in place. Nothing in these stories condemns them to a particular national framework. It isn't necessary to know Australian conditions to absorb what these tales convey. They are timeless and represent environments any reader here might experience. His view of life is far too wide-ranging to try to limit him in a national framework. Malouf has an unmatched ability to transcend age, gender, space and time frames in presenting these narratives. His talent should be recognized for that skill. That ability is quite sufficient for any reader to enjoy this book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
There are two stories that were of great interest as the Author chose children to narrate the tales. At the age of 9 in, "Closer", a young girl is the hostess for the story, and in, "Blacksoil Country", our young male guide is but twelve. The choice of youth for narrators was interesting as the stories they shared were those of adult situations, feelings and actions. The word precocious would not accurately measure the insight these children have.
All of the stories tend toward the darker spectrums of Human Nature. Even when the tale may just be deeply sad I believe it still shows the more negative aspects of people and family. There is one story that stands out for its absolute brutality. It is particularly savage as it is unexpected, and random in its violence. Unfortunately it reflects what we too often read of in the news.
I highly recommend the work of this Author. I have never picked up one of his works and come away with anything less than great admiration for his skill.
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