Book Jacket

 

rank 5456
word count 17840
date submitted 04.12.2008
date updated 10.02.2009
genres: Fiction
classification: universal
incomplete

Whispers in the Wind

Oliver Eade

Spectrum of short stories, many at that interface between life, loss and death.

 

'In the Heat of the Desert' sees a young woman held up by an armed mugger and rapist as she drives across the Mojave Desert, and explores her inner conflicts when a venomous snake tips the balance of power in her favour. A small aborigine boy in 'Kangaroo Dreaming' dreams he's the spider, Kar, told by the Great Kangaroo that the time has come. His father then takes him to visit the tribal elder, and more is revealed. In a look back, an old man, in 'The Rain in Spain' remembers running from his village, as a child, after Franco's forces struck during the night ... haunted by the vision of his mother's slaughtered body. 'The Recorder Player' is a doleful piece, inspired both by Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and a down and out in the Marble Arch underpass. The old lady in a Texas nursing home in 'The Red Chevy' is drawn to the window as she waits patiently ... certain he'll re-appear, even after all those years. 'The Wave' is a love story, inspired by the Tsunami of 2004. In 'One Click Away', a man uses the internet to enter heaven ... or so he hopes!

 
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tags

aborigine, death, dreaming, frustration, love, short stories, tsunami, uncertainty

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2 comments

 

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Kenneth Edward Lim wrote 366 days ago

Oliver,
I went through all the samplings of your collection in "Whispers in the Wind" and am now a fan. Where do I sign up for the rest of your work? Your descriptives are uncluttered and concise, your dialogue effective where you utilize it. Talk about economy of words. This here's where it's at. Thank you so much for the entertaining read whatever there was to read.

Kenneth Edward Lim
The North Korean

mskea wrote 1266 days ago

Hi Nessuno,
Dipped in here, read Kangaroo Dreaming. Will watchlist to read more later.
First impressions - I had a wee problem with the first ref to 'animal people', then when it was repeated it occured to me that it may be an authentic aboringinal phrase. Is it? If so, good.
Loved 'understanding flowed between the two men', particularly 'flowed'.
Also sentence beginning 'His eyes were deep, like the gorge...' Really evocative image.
One thing I felt though was that this could benefit from a 'prune' to increase impact. I'll give a couple of examples with suggested cuts in brackets. - '(His father) He (on hearing about his son's dream) looked at the boy with his deep-set aboriginal eyes.'
- 'Yes Dad, I think so. (But) It was so strange. (Not like a proper dream) Sort of real.
Of course this is only my opinion - others may think differently.
Later on you refer to aboriginal markings and old aboriginal man - I don't think you need to repeat the word 'aboriginal' in either of these bits, because you have already established the aboriginal setting.
Hope these comments help.

Margaret

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