Eric Yoshiaki Dando (born July 1970), is a Melbourne writer, best known for the cult novel snail (Penguin, 1996), although his short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Hot Type (Penguin, 1995), Hot Sand (Penguin, 1996), The Age (Melbourne), Best Australian Stories, the Sleepers Alamanac, Going Down Swinging, Cordite, Undergrowth, Verity La, The Diamond & the Thief, Red Leaves / 紅葉, Torpedo and The Lifted Brow. His most recent novel titled Oink, Oink, Oink. A surreal, black comedy that plays with themes from science fiction, pop culture, consumerism, and genetic engineering.
Eric Yoshiaki Dando was born in Tokyo but grew up in Melbourne. He was associated with the short lived grunge and dirty realism movements in Australian literature in the last century (1990s). He also experiments with cryptographs (cryptograms) and humorous comics, the first of which was published in Cordite although inaccurately credited to Evan Dando.
Snail
Eric Dando's first novel Snail attracted widespread attention as one of the very few unsolicited novels published by a major publishing company. At the time, he was the youngest Australian writer published by Penguin. The story behind its publication became a minor sensation and has been subject to rumour and speculation to the point where it has taken on mythic qualities. The general story is that Eric Dando submitted his manuscript bound in floorboards, though sometimes it has been said they were palings from a fence amongst other things. The legend continues that it remained where it was in the office of Penguin until someone tripped over it and read it.
Currently, Snail is out of print, despite being voted in a 2010 Penguin Poll as one of the Top 100 books. The poll was officially conducted by Penguin via their Facebook page in which Australian fans were asked to vote for their favourite Penguin book of all time.
Snail explored themes of madness, suicide, and drugs. It is a darkly humorous novel, but one which is undeniably positive and optimistic rather than glorifying the grunge genre of which it is a part.
'Printed entirely in lower case, the book seems to present a challenge to the reader - to make it through without being driven mad by the deliberate feyness of lower case.' - Tegan Bennet, 1996.
'Dando writes, 'jokes are always needed', and jokes - mostly good jokes - are his book's mainstay.' - Australian Book Review, 1996.
'Refreshingly, Dando's philosophical approach appears to derive from the Renaissance tendency to view the human soul or psyche as having an analogical relationship with the natural world...' - Philosopher Magazine, 1996.
Bibliography
Novels
snail (Penguin, 1996)
Oink, Oink, Oink: a savage modern fable (Hunter Publishers, 2008; reissued by Smashwords, 2011)
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