{"id":892,"date":"2016-12-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T22:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=892"},"modified":"2025-05-03T13:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:53:17","slug":"the-name-on-the-door-is-not-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2016\/12\/03\/the-name-on-the-door-is-not-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Name on the Door is Not Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

C.K. Stead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Allen & Unwin<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Otago Daily Times, December 3rd 2016<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s blockbuster-obsessed environment, short fiction works are all too often overlooked in favour of the latest novel-de-jour, and it is easy to forget that a well-crafted story can pack as much into ten pages as a thousand-page doorstop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own formal introduction to New Zealand literature through the short stories of Mansfield, Sargeson, Frame, and Stead dominates my memories of high school English, and this new collection from the sole surviving member of that illustrious quartet are every bit as evocative and thought-provoking as those I remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories, a combination of previously published, re-written, and new material range across the globe and deal with the most important aspects of life: love, sex, death and writing. Some are chilling (my favourite, ‘Anxiety’, details one man\u2019s attempt at reassurance that goes horribly, terrifyingly wrong), while others are contemplative and laced with subtle humour. One features a pair of wings constructed from stolen umbrellas, another is told by a narrator so angry he refuses to use the first person in his own diary, in a third a salesman\u2019s sexual encounter with an art dealer in Paris turns out to be a commercial rather than an emotional transaction.\u00a0 There is something here to suit almost any taste and mood, and the collection as a whole is thought provoking and immersive without being overly heavy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such an extensive body of work to choose from, there is as much art in the selection as in the writing, and what struck me most about these stories is the way in which they fit together into something larger than its individual parts. Some form a series of loosely paired companion pieces linked by title, theme, or structure\u2013 ‘Sex in America’ and ‘Marriage Americano’, for example, or ‘A Fitting Tribute’ and ‘Determining Things to Destiny’, both of which describe the life and the death of famous people from the perspective of \u2018insignificant\u2019 individuals who played critical roles in the drama they relate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others are united by shared voice and sensibility that in many cases is difficult to separate from the author\u2019s own; narrated by writers or academics whose work involves mining the lives of others, albeit in a generally benign, and\/or mutually advantageous manner. This is particularly true of the titular novella that rounds out the collection, which is about a mid-career English lecturer on study leave who becomes obsessed with the poet whose office he, as a \u2018Distinguished Visitor\u2019, is the temporary occupant of, and around whom he eventually builds his own career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything from the descriptions of the inventive solution he finds to remaining warm in the midst of the Canadian winter, to the digs at the politics of academic and literary success, is appealingly confessional. I could almost hear Stead’s warm, humorous voice whispering in my ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course the very title offers fair warning against such a simplistic interpretation. Nor is the prospect of such intimacy will appeal to everybody. HoweverThe Name On The Door Is Not Mine <\/em>certainly captures the essence of one of our most celebrated writers at his inimitable best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/one-our-finest-writers-his-inimitable-best<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C.K. Stead<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Otago Daily Times review December 3rd 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[248,261,370,500,18,375],"class_list":["post-892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-248","tag-c-k-stead","tag-fiction","tag-nz-author","tag-odt","tag-short-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}