The Best of Owen Marshall's Short
Stories
Review:
publ. Vintage 1997
Contents of collection (with memory jogging annotations)
Supper Waltz Wilson
The Tsunami
Descent From the Flugelhorn O.M.'s first story published in 1976. Two N.Otago club rugby players out selling raffle tickets meet an ageing S. Island rep at the end of his life.
The Giving Up Party
Rosemary for Remembrance A couple out visiting distant relatives are made aware of the stress that has been concealed in the relatives' marriage due to family concerns and isolation frustrating artistic ambitions.
Mr Van Gogh The story of Frank Reprieve Wilcox who has devoted his life to art by making his house a glass tribute to Van Gogh. Then the council orders the house's destruction to make way for a new bridge...
The Master of Big Jingles
Cabernet Sauvignon With My Brother The story of Tony, the town boy's, visit to his brother Raf's farmlet near Darfield. Different perspectives are offered on Raf's pseudo-idyllic but ominously isolated lifestyle.
The Charcoal Burners' Dream
Father and Son
Requiem in a Town House A high country farmer retires to the constrictions of a town house in Papanui.
Prince Valiant The story of Neddy the member of a Northland shearing team who seeks to escape from his reality with the help of his Chrysler Charger.
Effigies of Family Christmas
Monologue and Absent Friends
Thinking of Bagheera
Body and Soul
Harvest Apocalypse
Kenneth's Friend A boy's holiday in the Sounds leads to one questioning the quality of the other boy's friendship and his own responses when a boating accident occurs.
The Spendthrift
The Divided World.. A prose poem that examines a multiplicity of diverse ideas by countering one set of perceptions with those of a flippant cynic.
The Seed Merchant
A Town of Rivers..A lyrical tribute to Oamaru runs through this account of a stroll with his father.
The Paper Parcel A twelve year old boy's romantic plans for a dance are frustrated by his mother's choice of a fancy dress costume for him.
The Fat Boy.. Whenever something goes wrong in the small town the fat boy seems to be in the vicinity.
The Day Hemingway Died
Convalescence in the Old City
The Castle of Conceits A day in the life of Charlotte Ecclestone the English student voluptuary who shows us how to make the most of a rainy day.
The Frozen Continents
The Lynx Hunter
Valley Day
Mumsie and Zip
A Day With Yesterman Chatterton gets a break from old age and loneliness when he relocates a car to Dunedin. He picks up a hitchhiker and through contacts with new people revivifies his interest in life.
Essie
Wyldbaume at the Frontier
A Poet's Dream of Amazons
from The Ace of Diamonds Gang and The Divided World- McIndoe Publishers, 1993
The Ace of Diamonds Gang
Lilies
The Complete Male Chauvinists'and Idlers' Pipe Dream
Off By Heart
The Rule of Jenny Pen The malevolent but able-bodied Crealy finds power in retirement as he exploits the opportunities for crime that are presented to him the Totara Eventide Home. Not for the faint-hearted.
Iris
The Rose Affliction
Heating the World A hard working farmer, Tucker Locke, marries at 42 and finds the claims of his family come as a shock to his plain but selfish sensibilities.
Literary Fair
Don't Wake Beside Me The morning after a one night stand a middle-aged man debates with himself the dilemmas of sexual relationships. His ponderings are alternated with memories of the cardboard male Baz.
Pluto Two couples meet on a holiday in Nelson. The narrator is a dentist and his counterpart is a prison governor. Pleasantries and ideas are exchanged but after they part the governor vanishes into the bush.
Glasnost
The Dungarvie Festival
Tomorrow We Save the Orphans A student encounters Vincenze Dubois a dog-killing, atavistic 'knight' who displays romance and heroism in his night work as a factory's caretaker.
Working Up North
The Occasion
Cometh the Hour A Kiwi Western? James Cumuth (J.C.) the quiet, stock-boot wearing, lab scientist shows his mettle when confronting Wesley Igor Drom the notorious garrottist and entrail fetishist.
A Part of Life Polly, a 47 year old chambermaid at Lake Tekapo, comes to a mutually satisfactory arrangement with Mr Sondeen, a rich American trout fisherman.
Recollections of MKD
Rebecca
Prairie Nights
Peacock Funeral
Genesis
Cass Robbins A middle-aged man seeks a rest from his city life and buys a coastal cottage near Oamaru. He finds his real self but then is drawn again to the bright lights...
This Man's Army
Day One Impressions of a teacher beginning his career in the mid-60s at a school not dissimilar to Waitaki Boys'.
Goodbye, Stanley Tan
Flute and Chance
The Birthday Boy
A Late Run Reece Spruiker retires from shepherding at Erewhon and tries to settle with his daughter in Dunedin. Watching tv one day he sees veterans running races for cash prizes in the US. He has an idea...
Coming Home in the Dark A holiday for Hoagy and Jill's young family to Mount Cook becomes a nightmare when they encounter two evil men called Mandrake and Tubs. Not for nervous trampers.
New Work
People We Know