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The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe

by
December 1983–January 1984, no. 57

The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe

James Fraser, 6.95 pb

The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe

by
December 1983–January 1984, no. 57

This collection of twelve stories by the author of The Savage Crows and A Cry in the Jungle Bar seeks to explore and define what Drewe sees as a part of our national psyche, the preoccupation with the coast and with the ‘careless violent hedonism’, as one of the characters puts it, of beach life. In ‘Looking for Malibu’, David Lang, who appears in several of the stories, defines it for a then fellow expatriate in a discussion about criminals on the run. ‘If their enemies were middle-class Australians they’d know where to look for them,’ he says. ‘You know something? When Australians run away they always run to the coast. They can’t help it. An American vanishes, he could be living in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, the mountains, the desert, anywhere. Not an Australian-he goes up the coast or down the coast and thinks he’s vanished without a trace.’

Laurie Clancy reviews 'The Bodysurfers' by Robert Drewe

The Bodysurfers

by Robert Drewe

James Fraser, 6.95 pb

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