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'A long-deserted drive-in, waiting for a rerun of the one story that might give it life; a child who discovers his identity in a photograph hidden in his parents' room ...
'Stephen Orr's stories are happy to let you in, but not out. In Datsunland, his characters are outsiders peering into worlds they don't recognise, or understand: an Indian doctor arriving in the outback, discovering an uncomfortable truth about the Australian dream; a family trying to have their son's name removed from a Great War cowards' list; a confused teenager with a gun making an ad for an evangelical ministry.
'Each story is set in a place where, as Borges described, 'heaven and hell seem out of proportion'. There is no easy escape from the world's most desperate car yard, or the school with a secret that permeates all but one of the fourteen stories in Datsunland. Here is a glimpse of inner lives, love, the astonishment of being ourselves.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also dyslexic edition
Works about this Work
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Stephen Orr, Datsunland
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 10 no. 1 2017;'Stephen Orr is an Adelaide-based writer and teacher with several books to his name. Two of his works, Time’s Long Ruin (2010) and The Hands (2015), were longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary award. His latest work, Datsunland (2017) is a compilation of short stories, mostly set in Adelaide and country South Australia.' (Introduction)
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Life Choices on the Line
2017
single work
essay
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12 August 2017; (p. 20)'If nothing else, one thing guaranteed in any Wayne Macauley work of fiction is that its surface is just that: a vehicle inside of which the real messages are carried. What makes Macauley’s novels exceptional is these messages are always vital — they are the messages we’ve been asking ourselves for millennia, in one way or another — but also the surface story-vehicle that carries these messages is compelling in its own right.' (Introduction)
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Stephen Orr : Datsunland
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;'The short stories in Datsunland strike notes of moodiness and dark irony.'
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'Datsunland' by Stephen Orr
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 392 2017; 'Datsunland, a collection of short stories and the latest from Stephen Orr, is in many ways flawed. The collection is uneven: the final (titular) work is a novella previously published in a 2016 issue of Griffith Review, which overwhelms the earlier, shorter stories, exhibiting the depth and nuance which several others lack. The narratives and characters alike at times are underdeveloped, and rely on well-worn tropes of the Australian Gothic. And the return of objects and places through the stories, (most notably the all-boys school Lindisfarne College), which acts to structure the stories in reference to one another, occasionally feels tokenistic or forced. But despite this, the collection works. At its best, the writing is insightful and strangely beautiful. Even at its weaker moments, it is consistently powerful. Orr holds the collection together with an impression of force and linguistic brutality.' (Introduction)
-
'Datsunland' by Stephen Orr
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 392 2017; 'Datsunland, a collection of short stories and the latest from Stephen Orr, is in many ways flawed. The collection is uneven: the final (titular) work is a novella previously published in a 2016 issue of Griffith Review, which overwhelms the earlier, shorter stories, exhibiting the depth and nuance which several others lack. The narratives and characters alike at times are underdeveloped, and rely on well-worn tropes of the Australian Gothic. And the return of objects and places through the stories, (most notably the all-boys school Lindisfarne College), which acts to structure the stories in reference to one another, occasionally feels tokenistic or forced. But despite this, the collection works. At its best, the writing is insightful and strangely beautiful. Even at its weaker moments, it is consistently powerful. Orr holds the collection together with an impression of force and linguistic brutality.' (Introduction) -
Stephen Orr : Datsunland
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2017;'The short stories in Datsunland strike notes of moodiness and dark irony.'
-
Life Choices on the Line
2017
single work
essay
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12 August 2017; (p. 20)'If nothing else, one thing guaranteed in any Wayne Macauley work of fiction is that its surface is just that: a vehicle inside of which the real messages are carried. What makes Macauley’s novels exceptional is these messages are always vital — they are the messages we’ve been asking ourselves for millennia, in one way or another — but also the surface story-vehicle that carries these messages is compelling in its own right.' (Introduction)
-
Stephen Orr, Datsunland
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 10 no. 1 2017;'Stephen Orr is an Adelaide-based writer and teacher with several books to his name. Two of his works, Time’s Long Ruin (2010) and The Hands (2015), were longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary award. His latest work, Datsunland (2017) is a compilation of short stories, mostly set in Adelaide and country South Australia.' (Introduction)
