The Party Line (29 page)
Authors: Sue Orr
An enormous thank you to my publisher at Penguin Random House, Harriet Allan, for her constant support. Thank you, too, Claire Baker, Jennifer Balle, Sarah Healey, Rebecca Lal, Stuart Lipshaw and Kate Stone.
The 2012 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship allowed me time to write the first draft of this book — thank you.
My gratitude to the following readers of early drafts — Angela Andrews, Airini Beautrais, Craig Cliff, Peter Cox, Allan Drew, Kate Duignan, Gigi Fenster, Paula Green, Helen Heath, Therese Lloyd, Mary Macpherson, Anna Sanderson, Abby Stewart, Anna Taylor, Steve Toussaint, and especially Damien Wilkins and Peter Whiteford.
For the bits about peat, thank you to scientists at Landcare Research.
For your support in its many guises, thank you Peter Black, Katie Hardwick-Smith, Mike Hight, Bill Manhire, Marion Macleod, Clare Moleta, Cath O’Carroll, Peter Parussini and Anne Pickersgill.
For almost everything I know about rural life, and for a childhood nothing like Nickie’s or Gabrielle’s, thanks to my parents Bill and Gorrie Scott.
And last, but really first, thanks and love to Adrian, Callum, Noah and Helena Orr.
Sue Orr is the author of two short-story collections.
Etiquette for a Dinner Party
(2008) won the Lilian Ida Smith Award and
From Under the Overcoat
(2011) was shortlisted for the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and won the People’s Choice Award. Her fiction has been published in New Zealand and international anthologies and translated into Spanish. In 2011 she was the Sargeson Buddle Findlay Fellow.
She has taught creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology and Massey University, and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Victoria University, Wellington. She lives in Auckland with her family.
VINTAGE
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa | China
Vintage is an imprint of the Penguin Random House group of companies,
whose addresses can be found at
global.penguinrandomhouse.com
.
First published by Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Text copyright © Sue Orr 2015
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Cover and text artwork and design by Sarah Healey © Penguin Random House New Zealand
Author photograph by Wendy Hay, North Shore Photography
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press,
an Accredited ISO AS/NZS 14001 Environmental Management Systems Printer
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.
ISBN 978-1-77553-755-7
eISBN 978-1-77553-756-4
The assistance of Creative New Zealand towards the production of this book is gratefully acknowledged by the publisher.
Varied and accomplished, these stories of sustenance are entertaining, stimulating and original.
An ageing taxi driver reflects on mortality and the choices he has made in life as he indulges in a clandestine Italian feast. The friend of a dying woman delivers a sardonic commentary on the frenetic ritual of cake-baking that precedes death and grief. A young boy sets out to save his grandparents’ marriage after discovering pornography in his grandfather’s memorabilia.
This stunning debut collection observes a subtle unravelling of social etiquettes. Often hopeful, always moving, these darkly quirky stories demand the reader’s attention beyond the final page.
Etiquette for a Dinner Party
showcases the breadth of this writer’s talent — from the oh-so-recognisable and desperate efforts of a homesick tourist to enjoy the ‘perfect’ holiday, to the descent into madness of a lonely high-country farmer.
Available as an eBook
A prize-winning collection of vivid, accessible stories.
These fresh, contemporary stories can be read purely for the immense pleasure they offer. However, the stories can also be read for the way they explore elements from earlier works: from Maori myth and fairy tale to masterpieces by writers such as Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce and Anton Chekov. As the award-winning author says, those stories ‘touched me deeply and I can recall their substance without hesitation’. Using them for inspiration, she also explores their concerns of dignity, honesty, bravery, weakness and passion.
‘Sue Orr’s stories have that riveting mesmerizing quality that makes the reader race on, hoping they will never end, yet desperate to find out what happens next. Their stylishness marks a new departure in contemporary short story writing, her weaving of new and vibrant stories on to concepts that began with the great masters of old is high-wire risk taking that succeeds magnificently. I admire these stories immensely: by turn tender, sly, comic, and always deeply informed about the ways of the human heart.’ — Fiona Kidman
Available as an eBook