Description
Book SynopsisHenry Lawson's short story The Drover's Wife is an Australian classic that has sparked interpretations on the page, on canvas and on the stage. But it has never been so thoroughly, or hilariously, reimagined as by Ryan O'Neill, remixing and revising Lawson's masterpiece in 101 different ways. The variations include a a pop song, a sporting commentary, a 1980s computer game, an insurance claim, a Hollywood movie adaptation, a cryptic crossword and even the selection of paint swatches you can see on this back cover. Inventive and unexpected, this is laugh-out-loud literature from the author of the award-winning Their Brilliant Careers. Inventive and unexpected, this is laugh-out-loud literature from one of Australia's finest satirists.
Trade Review'A work of virtuosic flippancy tempered by considerable intellect - great fun from start to finish' - TLS, `Imaginative, clever, experimental, adroit, self-reflexive and very funny. As you turn the pages, you wonder just what O'Neill will come up with next' - Sydney Morning Herald, `Pitch perfect... hilarious... Fellow writers in particular will enjoy O'Neill's gift for literary karaoke... This is a book that begs to be read aloud' - The Australian, `Captivating, coruscating, brilliantly honed satire... Read it slowly, bit by bit, because satire gobbled too fast can overwhelm the reader or dull the senses. But read it, and odds are you will, by turns, laugh and weep' - Australian Book Review
Table of Contents1. The Drover's Wife, 2. Hemingwayesque, 3. Tanka, 4. A Year 8 English Essay, 5. List of Ingredients, 6. A Cryptic Crossword, 7. A Child's Drawing, 8. An Agony Aunt Column, 9. Sporting Commentary, 10. A Disease, 11. Lipogram, 12. Freudian, 13. A Mixtape, 14. A 1950s Children's Book, 15. McCarthyesque, 16. Parable, 17. Editorial Comments, 18. A Children's Toy, 19. Elizabethan, 20. Lecture Slides, 21. A Gossip Column, 22. Glaswegian, 23. A Self-Published Novel Cover, 24. Cento, 25. A Pop Song, 26. A Fine Wine, 27. A 1980s Computer Game, 28. Yoked Sentences, 29. A Dance, 30. A School Play, 31. Cosmo Quiz, 32. Political Cartoon, 33. A Fable, 34. Emojis, 35. Backwards, 36. A Card Game, 37. Horoscope, 38. Cliches, 39. Tweets, 40. A Question Asked by An Audience Member at a Writers' Festival, 41. Verbless, 42. An Amazon Book Review, 43. A Choose Your Own Adventure Book, 44. Limerick, 45. An Abstract Painting, 46. An Insurance Claim, 47. A Real Estate Advertisement, 48. Songs from a Broadway Musical, 49. Pangram, 50. A Comic Strip, 51. Sensory, 52. Interrogative, 53. Stream of Consciousness, 54. Onomatopoeia, 55. Chronological, 56. A Reality TV Show, 57. Epic, 58. Maths Problems, 59. An RSPCA Report, 60. A Letter to the Daily Telegraph, 61. A Movie Review, 62. Worldcloud, 63. Hangman, 64. Monosyllabic, 65. Meme, 66. A Golden Age Detective Novel, 67. Imagist, 68. Ocker, 69. A Self-Help Book, 70. A Spam Email, 71. Punctuation, 72. Conditional, 73. An Absurdist Play, 74. N + 7, 75. Endorsements, 76. Scratch and Sniff, 77. TV Guide, 78. Spoonerisms, 79. Contemporary, 80. Lovecraftian, 81. Abecedarian, 82. Imperative, 83. Internet Comments, 84. Fill in the Blanks, 85. Finnegans Wife, 86. Classifieds, 87. Bar Graph, 88. Trivia Questions, 89. Academese, 90. Bush Ballad, 91. Biographical, 92. Univocalic, 93. Wordsearch, 94. A Crass American Sitcom, 95. Postmodern, 96. Bibliography, 97. Index, 98. A Note on the Type, 99. Paint Swatches, 100. A Sex Manual, 101. A Penthouse Letter
