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'From the pen of Peter Goldsworthy - a modern champion of the lost art of storytelling - comes Honk If You Are Jesus, a bestselling novel that resists categorisation, and explodes expectations. Keep your hand on the horn during this startling comic fiction.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Adaptations
- Honk If You Are Jesus 2006 single work drama
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille, sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
The Matter of Fact : Science and Identity in Contemporary Australian Literature
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 65 2019;'To pursue ‘knowledge per se’, to unlock ‘the secrets of the organism’ and to act as an explorer ‘not of untrodden lands, perhaps, but of the mysteries of nature’—these are the reasons why the naturalist William Caldwell travels to Australia in Nicholas Drayson’s 2007 novel Love and the Platypus (9, 59, 144). Caldwell’s research is ‘purely platypusical’ (98): he aims to determine whether the platypus really does lay eggs. The ‘spirit of discovery—that was why he was here, was it not?’ (3) The spirit of discovery and the obsessive nature of his scientific enquiry appear to characterise Drayson’s protagonist as a scientist. However, as I hope to show in this paper, the definition of the literary scientist-protagonist—or its stereotype, in the words of Roslynn Haynes—is open for debate when it comes to the practice of science in fiction. To prove my point, I investigate how the practice of science in contemporary Australian fiction intertwines with identity narratives. As shown in the following, these narratives revolve around the reasons and ambitions of fictional protagonists to engage with science.' (Introduction)
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Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273) 'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract). -
In Xanadu Did Kubla Khan , A Stately Pleasure Dome Decree
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 17-18 December 2006; (p. 16-19) From personal experience, novelist Frank Moorhouse explores how the Gold Coast has captured the Australian literary imagination. -
Recolonisation and Disinheritance : The Case of Tasmania
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies 2006; (p. 106-114) 'The essay discusses the appropriations of the history and landscape of Tasmania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and particularly by outsiders to the state, whether they are European or from the Australian mainland' (106). Pierce draws on the texts cited above, and on critical responses to these texts to demonstrate the conflicted experiences of departure from Tasmania and, in some cases, an equally unsettling return. -
Untitled
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 31 October-1 November 1998; (p. 62)
— Review of Honk If You Are Jesus 1992 single work novel
-
Recent Writing by Peter Goldsworthy
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Voices , Winter vol. 3 no. 2 1993; (p. 110-114)
— Review of This Goes With That : Selected Poems 1970-1990 1991 selected work poetry ; Honk If You Are Jesus 1992 single work novel ; Maestro 1989 single work novel -
Branded and Unbranded
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , May vol. 37 no. 5 1993; (p. 80-82)
— Review of Tanglewood 1992 single work novel ; Honk If You Are Jesus 1992 single work novel ; The Penguin Best Australian Short Stories 1991 anthology short story extract ; Woman of the Inner Sea 1992 single work novel ; Unbranded 1992 single work novel -
International Books of the Year
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 3 December no. 4731 1993; (p. 11)
— Review of Up On All Fours 1993 selected work poetry ; Honk If You Are Jesus 1992 single work novel -
Forecasts
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Bookseller & Publisher , September vol. 72 no. 1030 1992; (p. 26)
— Review of Honk If You Are Jesus 1992 single work novel -
Clone Me Up, Scotty
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , November no. 108 1992; (p. 32-33) The Sydney Review , November no. 48 1992; (p. 16)
— Review of Honk If You Are Jesus 1992 single work novel -
Recolonisation and Disinheritance : The Case of Tasmania
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies 2006; (p. 106-114) 'The essay discusses the appropriations of the history and landscape of Tasmania, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and particularly by outsiders to the state, whether they are European or from the Australian mainland' (106). Pierce draws on the texts cited above, and on critical responses to these texts to demonstrate the conflicted experiences of departure from Tasmania and, in some cases, an equally unsettling return. -
Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273) 'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract). -
In Xanadu Did Kubla Khan , A Stately Pleasure Dome Decree
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 17-18 December 2006; (p. 16-19) From personal experience, novelist Frank Moorhouse explores how the Gold Coast has captured the Australian literary imagination. -
Film Fun for a Doc
1992
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Advertiser Magazine , 12 December 1992; (p. 11) -
Horns Blare as Readers Discover Goldsworthy
1992
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Mercury , 7 November 1992; (p. 18)
- Adelaide, South Australia,
- Gold Coast, Queensland,