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David
Malouf. Dream Stuff. Vintage,
2000.
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Dream
Stuff is a collection of nine new short stories by
Queensland's finest literary export David Malouf. In his
lengthy writing career, Malouf has turned his hand to
short stories, poetry, novels and three opera libretti.
This short story collection contains more of what he does
so well: tender portraits of people, depictions of the
subtle nuances of affection and distances between them,
and the wistful nostalgia that is his trademark. Although
these stories largely explore domestic and personal realms,
the reader is always made conscious of his characters'
connection to some deeper, universal current of existence.
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The
title of the collection comes from a story of the same
name and refers to the marijuana ('the green stuff, the
dream stuff') harvested in remote bushland in a story
written within this story by the main character, a writer.
Most of the stories contain a dream of some sort, sometimes
a dream for the future, more often the nocturnal variety.
This is risky, as reading about the dreams of fictional
people can often be as dull as listening to those of people
you know, but Malouf always handles this device with dexterity,
the result being that the dreams of these characters are
closer to the reader's own in their impact.
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The
gem of the collection is the opening story 'At Schindler's',
which describes a 1940s summer at a Scarborough beach
house from the point of view of a young boy. Jack's father
is missing in the war, and his mother has taken up with
a young American GI. On the verge of adolescence and in
need of a male role model, Jack finds his loyalties torn.
This is an iceberg of a story, one that extends deep into
the dark places of the human condition. Those who have
read Malouf's previous work will find themselves in Johnno
territory — the setting of this story looks very
much like the Scarborough beach where Johnno and Dante
played as children. Malouf has written extensively about
life in postwar Brisbane and is in this world that his
words flow flawlessly.
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