Verandah People

by Jonathan Bennett

In these poignant stories, the "verandah people" are author Jonathan Bennett’s own Australians for whom the ever-present verandah is both a stage and a private viewing space, a shelter from heat and disquieting bushland, and a seductive barrier to participation in the wider world. Most effective are his portraits of women, many of them young dreamers and searchers. A subtle sense of loss pervades Verandah People, but the overall impression is dreamlike — these characters inspire compassion even as they watch the world go by from the safety of their verandahs.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

178 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2004

Reviews

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bennet catches the many facets and textures of Australian life on the periphery of suburban Sydney - surfers, oil refinery workers,auto-mechanics, construction workers, cadets, seniors, even taking us back to an aboriginal massacre in the early 19th centrury. Some of the characters are loosely connected in subsequent stories but for the most part (except for the last two)they stand independantly
There is an element of mysticism - the man strangely crucified, the corpse that disappears from its coffin - and no explanations are offered.
There is also a sense of loss for parents or siblings who died early in life.And the sex, when it occurs, is often coated with an undertone of seaminess.
Overall, the pieces were short enough to hold my attention.
I liked the Australian metaphors - serpents, lyrebirds, verandahs, surfboards and the delving into memory where most of the secrets and unresolved conflicts lie.

[Kinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of Kim's Australia & New Zealand Literature Month .

This is a collection of short stories by the Australia-born writer Jonathan Bennett. Some of the stories follow on from each other and link to the characters from previous stories. It weaves through the glimpses of life of different Australians and their experiences. Some stories end abruptly, offering no explanations of what happens to the main characters and I felt that I needed more from that particular story.

The verandah, a roofed porch, is present and symbolises the lives of the characters: it's both private, but glimpses are visible to others.

[Beverly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Twelve loosely linked stories set in Sydney. One story is the tale of an man whose wife is divorcing him and taking their five-year-old son. When Mavis Cranshaw hires the man to restore the verandah at Forby's Rest, he's unable to focus on the job, his desperation grows, he drinks too much, and self-destruction takes a ferocious turn. In "Groping Head," Mavis's nephew recalls spending boyhood summers with her at the beach after his father died. Another story "Inside an Ink Cloud" gives an account of a shark attack on a young surfer, while "Landmarks" details a man's nightmare of the tragedy of a young girl who drowned when her hair got caught in the filter of a pool. And the stories go on and on. Boring and uninteresting.

[Ann Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of short stories in preparation for my interview with Jonathan Bennett on

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading these short stories about Australia, something I might have read in school.