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y separately published work icon Reading the Signs selected work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1984... 1984 Reading the Signs
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Notes

  • Dedication: To Don'o Kim

Contents

* Contents derived from the Sydney, New South Wales,:Hale and Iremonger , 1984 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Reading the Signs, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 7-11)
Gypsies, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'Down at my grandmother’s house, near the river, the gypsies came by and sold us pigeons’ eggs. I don’t remember if we ate them. Maybe we blew them, pricking a pinhole in each end and blowing out the white and the yolk and keeping the shell to start a collection. It was called Diglis down there, because the land used to belong to the cathedral, d’église, in the language of our Norman conquerors. But by the time my grandmother lived there, the land between the old Victorian houses and the river was used as a garbage tip to raise its level so it wouldn’t flood each year. And along the riverbank were huge petroleum storage tanks.' (Introduction)
(p. 12-15)
On the Western Front, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 16-19)
War Movie, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 20-21)
Loose Lips and the Cold Warrior, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 22-25)
Knock, Knock, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 26-30)
Never Hesitate to Open up a File on a Friend, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 31-40)
Reference for a Dealer, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 41-46)
Class Feeling (for Deborah Thompson), Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 47-59)
The Decline in Importance of the Family, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'As I climbed the station steps to the platform, automatically I looked at the girls coming down, wearing their straw boaters and swinging their bulky satchels on their shoulders; automatically – because the age differential was now somewhat important, in one’s home town, automatically because it was the conditioned reflex of ten years’ growing up looking at the same girls on the cycle ride into school. I’d been looking at them that morning as I cycled into the station and when I became aware of it, I was surprised at my unconscious reaction. I hadn’t cycled down at that particular and reflex-promoting time for quite a while. It was a forgotten routine, and to be reminded of it in some way made up for cycling in the suit I’d pressed the night before.' (Introduction)
(p. 60-89)
The Fir Trees, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'As soon as he saw the house, the father said the fir trees would have to be cut down. They were dying, going an ugly brown; and planted too close together, their sides rubbing against each other, they had no light or air. But they had to be cut down because they were unproductive; even if they had been all green and flourishing, they would have been condemned; their dying was an excuse, not a reason. And when, because of its view and its village, he bought the house, he said the first thing we’ve got to do is to get down those fir trees. Because they were taking up space and producing nothing. And they were taking the goodness out of the soil; and he could grow nothing next to them; and he couldn’t afford to waste land. And as they were dying, the son didn’t defend them.' (Introduction) 
(p. 90-100)
Ted Berrigan Without a Pepsi, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 101-102)
Interlopers, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 103-107)
Yet Once More, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 108-114)
Welcome O Foreign Writer, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 115-119)
The Offending Eye, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 120-125)
Beach Report, Michael Wilding , single work short story humour satire (p. 126-130)
Among My Books, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 131-219)
In the Penal Colony, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 220-262)
What it Was Like, Sometimes, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 263-280)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Koka-Kola Kulture : Reflections Upon Things American Down Under Don Graham , 1993 single work criticism essay
— Appears in: Southwest Review , Spring vol. 78 no. 2 1993; (p. 231-)
Here Graham considers the Australian response to U. S. culture, and the influence of U. S. literary culture on Australian literature and writers.
Lost and Found : The Narrative and The Descriptive Modes in Michael Wilding's 'What it Was Like, Sometimes' Simone Vauthier , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the Short Story in English=Les Cahiers de la Nouvelle , Spring vol. 12 no. 1989; (p. 63-76)
Untitled Don Anderson , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 274)

— Review of Reading the Signs Michael Wilding , 1984 selected work short story
Paradise, Politics and Fiction : The Writing of Michael Wilding Bruce A. Clunies Ross , 1986 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 45 no. 1 1986; (p. 19-27)
Losers and Loveless Liaisons David A. Myers , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2 February 1985; (p. 40)

— Review of Reading the Signs Michael Wilding , 1984 selected work short story
Marxism and Fiction Frank Kellaway , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , December no. 101 1985; (p. 103-104)

— Review of The Paraguayan Experiment Michael Wilding , 1984 single work novel ; Reading the Signs Michael Wilding , 1984 selected work short story
Signposts to Where? Laurie Clancy , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 70 1985; (p. 23)

— Review of Reading the Signs Michael Wilding , 1984 selected work short story
Losers and Loveless Liaisons David A. Myers , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2 February 1985; (p. 40)

— Review of Reading the Signs Michael Wilding , 1984 selected work short story
Untitled Don Anderson , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 274)

— Review of Reading the Signs Michael Wilding , 1984 selected work short story
Koka-Kola Kulture : Reflections Upon Things American Down Under Don Graham , 1993 single work criticism essay
— Appears in: Southwest Review , Spring vol. 78 no. 2 1993; (p. 231-)
Here Graham considers the Australian response to U. S. culture, and the influence of U. S. literary culture on Australian literature and writers.
Lost and Found : The Narrative and The Descriptive Modes in Michael Wilding's 'What it Was Like, Sometimes' Simone Vauthier , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the Short Story in English=Les Cahiers de la Nouvelle , Spring vol. 12 no. 1989; (p. 63-76)
Paradise, Politics and Fiction : The Writing of Michael Wilding Bruce A. Clunies Ross , 1986 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 45 no. 1 1986; (p. 19-27)
Last amended 26 Nov 2007 15:23:59
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