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y separately published work icon The Bluebird Cafe single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1990... 1990 The Bluebird Cafe
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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.

Exhibitions

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • South Yarra, South Yarra - Glen Iris area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: McPhee Gribble , 1990 .
      image of person or book cover 4044073620133546520.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 180p.
      ISBN: 0869142003 (pbk)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      New Directions ,
      1991 .
      image of person or book cover 1694256294077465530.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 180p.
      ISBN: 081121155X (pbk)
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 4624974825162509231.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 180p.
      ISBN: 0091833981
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Untapped , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 393314910117879502.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781922749116

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon White Vanishing : A Settler Australian Hegemonic Textual Strategy, 1789-2006 Elspeth Tilley , 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 Carmel Bird , 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 Shirley Walker , 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 Peter Pierce , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Country of Lost Children : An Australian Anxiety 1999; (p. 143-146)
Summer Reading Rod Moran , 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 Dorothy Hewett , 1990 single work autobiography ; The Quest for Grace Manning Clark , 1990 single work autobiography ; Cabin Fever Elizabeth Jolley , 1990 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe Carmel Bird , 1990 single work novel ; Florid States Rod Usher , 1990 single work novel ; God in the Afternoon : Selected Poetry and Fiction of Griffith Watkins Griffith Wynne Watkins , 1990 selected work poetry short story ; Miss Gymkhana, R. G. Menzies and Me : Small Town Life in the Fifties Kathy Skelton , 1990 single work autobiography
Books Noticed Bill Tully , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Blast , Spring no. 13/14 1990; (p. 32-33)

— Review of Schemetime Sara Dowse , 1990 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe Carmel Bird , 1990 single work novel ; The Country Without Music Nicholas Hasluck , 1990 single work novel ; Salt Gabrielle Lord , 1990 single work novel ; The Story of the Year of 1912 in the Village of Elza Darzins : A Novel Thea Welsh , 1990 single work novel ; Poppy Drusilla Modjeska , 1990 single work novel
Nature Versus Culture Tim Prenzler , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , April vol. 10 no. 1 1991; (p. 67-68)

— Review of Poppy Drusilla Modjeska , 1990 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe Carmel Bird , 1990 single work novel ; Found Objects Bridh Hancock , 1988 selected work poetry ; Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry Livio Dobrez , 1990 selected work criticism ; Fire-Stick Farming : Selected Poems 1972-90 Mark O'Connor , 1990 selected work poetry
Small Worlds Jennifer Livett , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Island , Spring no. 45 1990; (p. 28-31)

— Review of Women Falling Down in the Street Kate Jennings , 1990 selected work short story ; The Bluebird Cafe Carmel Bird , 1990 single work novel ; Coping with Pleasure David Owen , 1990 single work novel
Lost in the Bush Christina Thompson , 1991 single work review
— Appears in: The Women's Review of Books , July 1991; (p. 17-18)

— Review of The House Tibet Georgia Savage , 1989 single work novel ; The Bluebird Cafe Carmel Bird , 1990 single work novel
All the Way to Cape Grimm : Reflections on Carmel Bird's Fiction Shirley Walker , 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 Carmel Bird , 2004-2005 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Mystery Readers Journal , Winter vol. 20 no. 4 2004-2005; (p. 18-19)
y separately published work icon White Vanishing : A Settler Australian Hegemonic Textual Strategy, 1789-2006 Elspeth Tilley , 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 Philippa Hawker , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald , 23 September 1990; (p. 33)
Last amended 6 Dec 2021 15:10:34
Subjects:
  • Bush,
  • Tasmania,
  • Country towns,
Settings:
  • Tasmania,
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