Neil Boyack
$24.95
0958079420
In Transactions, his first solo collection of short stories, Boyack writes with penetration and revelation, finding the profound in the everyday.
Modelling his work on the literary giants, Lawson and White, Boyack looks to the simplicities of everyday relationships for the meat of his stories and discovers special symbolism in the simplest gesture or mannerism.
The single discarded shoe on the roadside becomes a symbol of social decay and dysfunction in Boyack’s sometimes bleak vision. Trips to the beach and days spent drinking are loaded with betrayal, menace and violence in the places his characters inhabit. Human relationships are mixtures of love and hate but are always illuminated by Boyack’s shafts of light and hope.
Reviews:
“Neil Boyack is proudly Australian with a deep understanding of our unique landscapes and people as is highlighted in his collection of short stories transactions. These short stories all leave you wanting more, a delicious mouthful and then you want to go on eating forever. Boyack copies no style but follows his own refreshing and unique direction. More of his material, yes please!” – Paul Stewart, Sunday Herald Sun
“Fiercely attentive to the resonances of the everyday, Boyack writes about interludes, epiphanies, brief encounters, daily mysteries and bleak revelations, with a strong sense of the elusive nature of intimacy and certainty.” – Philippa Hawker, The Age.
“Like Patrick White, Neil Boyack is primarily concerned with the intricacies of human interaction and his closely observed worlds are similarly absorbing. But where White’s figures were often vehicles for an overarching metaphysical vision, it is the individual and distinct nature of Boyack’s characters that convinces and intrigues us.” – Nathan Hollier, Editor, Overland.
“Boyack is a deep observer of ordinary people and ordinary lives. He is a master of landscapes — housing estates, the outback, suburban bars and heatwaves. His stories are both melancholic and kind. They remind me of Lawson.” – Michael Hyde.
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