Down by the River : Nick Cave’s Boyhood in Wangaratta (1959-70)

Down by the River : Nick Cave’s Boyhood in Wangaratta (1959-70) single work essay

Author:agent Mark Mordue

Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Down by the River : Nick Cave’s Boyhood in Wangaratta (1959-70)

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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'‘One of the many things I regret about writing And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989) was that I didn’t set it in Australia. It could just as easily be set in Wangaratta rather than an imaginary part of the American South. I don’t know why I didn’t do that. I wish I had. For sure that book comes from growing up in the country, from living a life in country Australia. It’s not from listening to murder ballads. The river was the sacred place of my childhood and everything happened down there.' (Introduction)

Notes

Epigraph: ‘They’re whispering his name across this disappearing land’ – ‘Red Right Hand’, Nick Cave.

This story is extracted from a work-in-progress, Tender Prey: The Life and Times of Nick Cave. The author would like to dedicate it to the memory of Bryan Wellington (1957- 2013), whose assistance was invaluable.