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'In Tasmania, successful entrepreneur Nancy Best has recreated the defunct mining town of Copperfield as a glass-domed amusement park whose centerpiece is the Bluebird Cafe. The facsimile also includes a wax museum containing a statue of Lovelygod, the midget daughter born to the twins Bedrock and Carrillo Mean, who caused a sensation when she vanished without a trace 20 years before. Bedrock faithfully keeps vigil for her daughter's return, while Carrillo roams the world in search of her. Also haunted by the mystery is expatriate author Virginia O'Day, who returns to Tasmania from America to write a play, Waiting for Lovelygod. Scattered through the carefree structure of this novel are eccentric characters set against glimpses of the stuffy British colonial life of the '50s and the vanished, magical Aboriginal culture.'
Source: Publisher's Weekly.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
- y White Vanishing : A Settler Australian Hegemonic Textual Strategy, 1789-2006 Z1408578 2007 single work thesis 'This thesis conducts a discourse analysis of the 'white vanishing trope' - stories about white Australians who become lost or disappear - in white Australian texts from 1789 to 2006...[T]he white vanishing trope narrates a specific, and remarkably constant, relationship between indigenous bodies, white bodies, time, and space, in which white settlers are victims and survivors, whose occupation of Australia is constructed as inevitable and right.' - from author's abstract (p.ix)
-
The Many Mysteries of Tasmania
2004-2005
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Mystery Readers Journal , Winter vol. 20 no. 4 2004-2005; (p. 18-19) -
Conversations at Rochester Road : Carmel Bird Discusses Her Writing with Shirley Walker
Shirley Walker
(interviewer),
2004
single work
interview
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 277-288) -
All the Way to Cape Grimm : Reflections on Carmel Bird's Fiction
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 264-276) The article presents a critical overview of Carmel Bird's writing, particularly her four major novels. Suggesting that there is a continuity of pattern, theme and sometimes character, Walker examines Bird's major concerns, and the narrative means by which these are expressed (such as fantasy and the Gothic; images and references). She argues that the novels under survey 'raise profound questions: of the presence of evil in the world and the rise of charasmatic leaders who appear to be evil incarnate' (275). -
'Infected by Lost Child Disease': The Fiction of Carmel Bird
1999
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Country of Lost Children : An Australian Anxiety 1999; (p. 143-146)
-
Summer Reading
1991
single work
review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , December and vol. 6 no. 1 January vol. 5 no. 12 1991; (p. 10-11)
— Review of Wild Card : An Autobiography, 1923-1958 1990 single work autobiography ; The Quest for Grace 1990 single work autobiography ; Cabin Fever 1990 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe 1990 single work novel ; Florid States 1990 single work novel ; God in the Afternoon : Selected Poetry and Fiction of Griffith Watkins 1990 selected work poetry short story ; Miss Gymkhana, R. G. Menzies and Me : Small Town Life in the Fifties 1990 single work autobiography -
Books Noticed
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Blast , Spring no. 13/14 1990; (p. 32-33)
— Review of Schemetime 1990 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe 1990 single work novel ; The Country Without Music 1990 single work novel ; Salt 1990 single work novel ; The Story of the Year of 1912 in the Village of Elza Darzins : A Novel 1990 single work novel ; Poppy 1990 single work novel -
Nature Versus Culture
1991
single work
review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , April vol. 10 no. 1 1991; (p. 67-68)
— Review of Poppy 1990 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe 1990 single work novel ; Found Objects 1988 selected work poetry ; Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry 1990 selected work criticism ; Fire-Stick Farming : Selected Poems 1972-90 1990 selected work poetry -
Small Worlds
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Island , Spring no. 45 1990; (p. 28-31)
— Review of Women Falling Down in the Street 1990 selected work short story ; The Bluebird Cafe 1990 single work novel ; Coping with Pleasure 1990 single work novel -
Lost in the Bush
1991
single work
review
— Appears in: The Women's Review of Books , July 1991; (p. 17-18)
— Review of The House Tibet 1989 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe 1990 single work novel -
All the Way to Cape Grimm : Reflections on Carmel Bird's Fiction
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 264-276) The article presents a critical overview of Carmel Bird's writing, particularly her four major novels. Suggesting that there is a continuity of pattern, theme and sometimes character, Walker examines Bird's major concerns, and the narrative means by which these are expressed (such as fantasy and the Gothic; images and references). She argues that the novels under survey 'raise profound questions: of the presence of evil in the world and the rise of charasmatic leaders who appear to be evil incarnate' (275). -
Conversations at Rochester Road : Carmel Bird Discusses Her Writing with Shirley Walker
Shirley Walker
(interviewer),
2004
single work
interview
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 277-288) -
The Many Mysteries of Tasmania
2004-2005
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Mystery Readers Journal , Winter vol. 20 no. 4 2004-2005; (p. 18-19) - y White Vanishing : A Settler Australian Hegemonic Textual Strategy, 1789-2006 Z1408578 2007 single work thesis 'This thesis conducts a discourse analysis of the 'white vanishing trope' - stories about white Australians who become lost or disappear - in white Australian texts from 1789 to 2006...[T]he white vanishing trope narrates a specific, and remarkably constant, relationship between indigenous bodies, white bodies, time, and space, in which white settlers are victims and survivors, whose occupation of Australia is constructed as inevitable and right.' - from author's abstract (p.ix)
-
Writer's Ends and Means
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald , 23 September 1990; (p. 33)
Awards
- 1991 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- Tasmania,