Camouflage: Stories [Hardcover]

Murray Bail (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

Superb -- and surprising -- new fiction from the Australian master

A man named Huebler decides to photograph everyone alive. A suburban father perches in his son's tree house to spy on his friends. A dentist recognizes his estranged wife in a famous painting. "The Seduction of My Sister" tells of the increasingly bizarre events involving a boy and his sister when a new family moves in across the street. And in "Camouflage," Eric Banerjee, an unassuming Adelaide piano tuner, is sent north to the center of Australia in 1943 to make his contribution to the war effort.

It is clear in all these remarkable stories that Murray Bail -- already celebrated for his novels -- has also extended the manifold possibilities of short fiction. Each of his stories creates a strange and fascinating new world, and none of them is easily forgotten. Bail's work in this collection is deft, angular, and very entertaining; the mastery of his art is fully revealed with wry humor and haunting power.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A host of distinctive, genuine characters, all at the mercy of life's folly and its slapdash potential, parade through Australian writer Bail's unconventional new collection of 14 short stories. Devoid of any kind of unifying theme, the volume includes several tales that play out as bizarre, abstract vignettes, while others are stunningly vivid and affecting, as in the standout opening story "The Seduction of My Sister." In it, a boy who feels that his younger sister is a terrible pest concocts an increasingly dangerous outdoor game with a new neighbor. Lobbing progressively larger household items back and forth over the rooftops makes for hours of amusement, until his sister poses the ultimate dare. The vacuum of smalltown life may have gotten the better of Sid in "Life of the Party." Perched high and dry in his son's tree house, Sid observes as neighbors and friends congregate drunkenly in his backyard for a barbecue he never bothers to host. In "Huebler," a man embarks on the "strange ambitious task" of photographing every living person and cataloguing each in a uniquely identifying category, i.e., "At least one person who may outlive art." In the title story, middle-aged Eric Banerjee, a married Adelaide piano tuner, is drafted in 1943 and sent to Australia's Northern Territory. After surmounting some initial shyness, he bonds with the other men in his troop, conceding that these are indeed "his happiest days." Bail (Homesickness) is at his strongest when writing from the shadowy corners of suburbia, much like A.M. Homes. The book's organizational structure suffers from a jarring irregularity, and a few entries, though they demonstrate the author's love of all things peculiar, seem thrown in as afterthoughts. Still, this is an illuminating, dexterously written collection, wildly uneven but uniformly potent.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Readers who enjoy fanciful, postmodern work in the tradition of Donald Barthelme and Italo Calvino will enjoy this delightful collection of gleefully absurdist short stories by acclaimed Australian writer Bail (Homesickness). Anyone who approaches these stories with patience and an open mind will find many pleasures the least of which are Bail's inventiveness and gentle humor. In "Life of the Party," for example, a suburban husband invites his friends over for a cookout while his wife and children are out of town and then spends the entire time spying on them from his son's treehouse as they enjoy the party without him. "Huebler" features a photographer who is determined to document the existence of everyone alive. He begins by establishing a list of people to photograph, which includes "at least one person who is incapable of sin" and "at least one person who always has the last word." Enthusiastically recommended. Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374118272
• ISBN-13: 978-0374118273
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,155,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful, May 1, 2003

By 

nicolemoshi (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Camouflage: Stories (Hardcover)

It's rather hard to summarize the content of this collection as a whole, since most stories are written from the perspectives of character very different from one another (i.e. social background, personality, or simply the circumstance one's situated in). Readers who look for variety in content and themes would enjoy as they go along and explore - be ready to be unsettled. I personally prefer the portrayals of seemingly insignificant individuals - the slides of a life and the vision of the world - quite subtly done, in an almost absurd but triumphant manner. Each of the story also has a fairly different form, which makes this collection a good example for students of creative writing. The writing itself, needless to say, is precise and sometimes poetic. A good choice for those who look for surprises in short fiction.