Manic Streets of Perth – Anthology

183, 194, 214 p. ; 20 cm. #0721
Manic streets of Perth
Looking for Sarah Jane Smith
To dare a future.
Born in Wales, Dave Franklin published his first story in a fishing magazine at the age of sixteen. He emigrated to Australia in 1999 and made his living as a reporter, earning the distinction of being sacked twice by the same Perth-based newspaper group. He then spent nearly three years teaching English in Korea, during which the mortality rate of the children under his care remained at an impressive zero. He now teaches ESL to adults in Brisbane, helping (among others) Thai Lady Boys get to grips with their past participles.

The major theme of Dave’s small, character-driven stories is alienation, the symptoms of which include male immaturity, misogyny, dysfunction, religion, violence, self-destruction and a childish glee in winding up the politically correct. There are no car chases or explosions in his books; instead he prefers graphic, outlandish sex scenes while focusing on exasperated loners full of doubt.

People who like his work tend to see its black humour (and disdain for his own characters) whereas his harshest critics take everything at face value. Indeed, some observers would suggest that the highlight of his writing career, which has seen him produce eight novels, remains being published in a fishing magazine.