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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
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Dedication: For Taki
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Epigraph: 'let the soil at your feet be thin so that you will have nowhere to spread root and have to delve in the depths continually.' Odysseus Elytis To Axion Esti from Genesis
Contents
- Place of Birth, single work short story (p. 1-25)
- Caffe Veneto, single work short story (p. 27-40)
- The Harem, single work short story (p. 41-52)
- A Woman I Visit A Woman with Black Hair, single work short story (p. 53-60)
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Market Day,
single work
short story
In "Market Day" a blind woman discovers accidentally that she is now grey and old, but this woman transcends her tragic past and self-interest to serve the cause of her niece's love. This little brown Aunt who has patiently endured physical and emotional suffering is almost deified because of her capacity to love a world she cannot see. She accommodates the loss of her own youth, and by the end of the story her hair is no longer the focus of her despair but, appropriately, has the appearance of a bronze crown. This narrative is also interesting in that Farmer recreates the particular textures and sounds of Elpida's environment as the reader shares the blind woman's dependence upon aural or mnemonic experience.
(Source: 'Against the Grain: Beverley Farmer's Writing')
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Home Time
As Time Goes By,
single work
short story
(p. 71-80)
Note: With title: Home Time
- White Friday, single work short story (p. 81-90)
- A Man in the Laundrette, single work short story (p. 91-101)
- Fire and Flood, single work short story (p. 103-123)
- Marina Mother and Child, single work short story (p. 125-134)
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A Girl on the Sand,
single work
short story
Dimitri is a middle-aged Greek now living in an Australian coastal town. His friend, Jim, comes up distraught, and describes how he found a corpse on the beach: a teenage girl, pregnant and missing a hand.
From this incident, Dimitri recalls a girl he met in Greece when he was fourteen: Dimitroula, who had come to Thessaloniki to have an abortion. Dimitroula's hand has been undeveloped since birth, with only a few stubs like fingers. Dimitri helps her find a doctor and falls in love with her, but she never comes back once she leaves.
- Matrimonial Home, single work short story (p. 155-168)
- Pomegranates Pomegranate Time, single work short story (p. 169-177)
- Our Lady of the Beehives, single work short story (p. 179-204)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
[Review] A Long Time Dying [et al]
single work
review
— Review of A Long Time Dying 1985 selected work short story ; Loving Daughters 1984 single work novel ; Home Time 1985 selected work short story -
Beverley Farmer's Embrace of the Mirror
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 25 no. 2 2011; (p. 151-159) Janice Shaw examines Beverley Farmer's A Body of Water. Shaw states that the Farmer's term 'embrace of the mirror' is a motif that 'characterises Farmer's writing in terms of the relationships she presents. The gender issues revealed through these relationships are characterised by feelings of coldness, otherness, and love, being a reflection of the self which only serves to emphasise its 'selfish nature...' (p. 151) -
Story and the Effacement of Story : Beverley Farmer's The Bone House
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Well in the Shadow : A Writer's Journey through Australian Literature 2010; (p. 273-292) - y Against the Grain : Beverley Farmer's Writing St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2001 Z895457 2001 selected work criticism Discusses both Farmer's poetry, fiction and criticism against the background of recent "dynamic revaluations of language and contexts" and examines the ways in which Farmer's writing leads readers "beyond familiar thresholds." Includes a chronology of Farmer's life, xi-xiv and bibliography 249-255.
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Beverley Farmer : A Retrospective
1996
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , Autumn vol. 56 no. 1 1996; (p. 92-105)
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Bearer Of Our Tales
1986
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , February no. 22 1986; (p. 25-26)
— Review of Home Time 1985 selected work short story -
Home is Where the Art Is: Beverley Farmer and Marion Campbell
1986
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Scripsi , November vol. 4 no. 2 1986; (p. 281-294)
— Review of Alone : A Novel 1980 single work novel ; Home Time 1985 selected work short story ; Lines of Flight : A Novel 1985 single work novel ; Milk : Stories 1983 selected work short story -
Short Stories are Tough and Stylish
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 14 September 1985; (p. 7)
— Review of A Long Time Dying 1985 selected work short story ; Home Time 1985 selected work short story -
[Review] A Long Time Dying [et al]
single work
review
— Review of A Long Time Dying 1985 selected work short story ; Loving Daughters 1984 single work novel ; Home Time 1985 selected work short story -
Unflinching before Truth : Woman as Writer as Woman
1985
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 75 1985; (p. 12-14)
— Review of Home Time 1985 selected work short story -
Story and the Effacement of Story : Beverley Farmer's The Bone House
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Well in the Shadow : A Writer's Journey through Australian Literature 2010; (p. 273-292) -
Beverley Farmer's Embrace of the Mirror
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 25 no. 2 2011; (p. 151-159) Janice Shaw examines Beverley Farmer's A Body of Water. Shaw states that the Farmer's term 'embrace of the mirror' is a motif that 'characterises Farmer's writing in terms of the relationships she presents. The gender issues revealed through these relationships are characterised by feelings of coldness, otherness, and love, being a reflection of the self which only serves to emphasise its 'selfish nature...' (p. 151) -
Beverley Farmer : Interview
Daniel R. Willbanks
(interviewer),
1992
single work
interview
— Appears in: Speaking Volumes : Australian Writers and Their Work 1992; (p. 72-86) -
Loss and Reassurance: Beverley Farmer's Fiction
1986
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Island Magazine , Summer/Autumn no. 25/26 1986; (p. 36-38) -
Travellers' Tales
1992
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , November no. 6 1992; (p. 68-80)
Awards
- 1985 shortlisted National Book Council Award for Australian Literature
- 1985 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Fiction Prize