Oyster (novel)

Last updated
Oyster
Oyster (Janette Turner Hospital novel).jpg
Author Janette Turner Hospital
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Genre Novel
Publisher Sydney: Knopf
Publication date
1996
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages453 pp

Oyster is a novel from 1996 by Janette Turner Hospital.

Contents

Plot introduction

In Outer Maroo, a fictional town in the outback which doesn't appear on maps, outsiders disappear and there is a queerly pungent smell, the Old Fuckatoo...

Plot summary

In a town highly suspicious of the government and of outsiders in general, the arrival of a charismatic figure from the desert—Oyster—occasions an intensification of the town's insularity and repression of dissident voices. The conjunction of conservative forms of Christianity and anti-government landowners is ripe for the messianic presence of Oyster and the cult community he establishes, a community closely integrated into the shadowy capitalism of the area's illegal opal trafficking.

The fragmented structure of the novel, in which various moments in the past are interspersed with events in the present, generates heightened suspense and tension as its several sub-plots come together in the apocalyptic destruction of the town and the cult. The paranoia and violence with which the town polices its "lost" status are repeatedly delineated, until events come to a head and the vicious forms of control begin to unravel.

Women are crucial to the destabilisation and destruction of the menace represented above all by powerful men. The discourse of proud outsiderness on the part of these men is highlighted as being hypocritical and self-serving, while the real outsiders are revealed to be mostly women, and men who do not wield social power. [1]

Characters

Main themes

References to other works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nephthys</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Jeffs</span> American criminal and religious leader (born 1955)

Warren Steed Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous cult. In 2011, he was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault, for which he is serving a life sentence.

<i>The Family Stone</i> 2005 American dramedy film

The Family Stone is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thomas Bezucha. Produced by Michael London and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it stars an ensemble cast, including Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, and Tyrone Giordano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian country music</span> Genre of popular music from Australia

Australian country music is a part of the music of Australia. There is a broad range of styles, from bluegrass, to yodeling to folk to the more popular. The genre has been influenced by Celtic and English folk music, the Australian bush ballad tradition, as well as by popular American country music. Themes include: outback life, the lives of stockmen, truckers and outlaws, songs of romance and of political protest; and songs about the "beauty and the terror" of the Australian bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Susannah Prichard</span> Australian fiction writer and dramatist

Katharine Susannah Prichard was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia.

<i>The Goddess of 1967</i> 2000 Australian film

The Goddess of 1967 is a 2000 Australian film directed by Clara Law, who wrote the script with her husband Eddie Ling-Ching Fong. The film is about a rich young Japanese man, who travels to Australia with the intention of buying a Citroën DS car that he has found for sale on the internet. Once there, things do not go as planned and he ends up on a road trip with a blind girl.

<i>Susannah</i> Opera by Carlisle Floyd

Susannah is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending. The story focuses on 18-year-old Susannah Polk, an innocent girl who is targeted as a sinner in the small mountain town of New Hope Valley, in the Southern American state of Tennessee.

<i>Woman in a Dressing Gown</i> 1957 British film by J. Lee Thompson

Woman in a Dressing Gown is a 1957 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, and Carole Lesley.

<i>The Rich Mans Wife</i> 1996 American film

The Rich Man's Wife is a 1996 American thriller film written and directed by Amy Holden Jones and starring Halle Berry. The title character becomes a suspect when her husband is murdered and the investigating detectives are suspicious of her alibi. The film was released on September 13, 1996.

<i>Firelight</i> 1997 Canadian film

Firelight is a 1997 period romance film written and directed by William Nicholson and starring Sophie Marceau and Stephen Dillane. The film is about a woman who agrees to bear the child of an anonymous English landowner in return for payment to resolve her father's debts. When the child is born, the woman gives up the child as agreed. Seven years later, the woman is hired as a governess to a girl on a remote Sussex estate. The girl's father is the anonymous landowner. Filmed on location in Firle, England and Calvados, France, the film premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival on 14 September 1997. Firelight was Nicholson's first film as a director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Willard</span> 17th-century man convicted of witchcraft (died 1692)

John Willard was one of the people executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem witch trials. He was hanged on Gallows Hill, Salem on August 19, 1692.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies</span> Anglo-Irish bishop (1743–1819)

William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies was an Anglo-Irish clergyman.

<i>Wake in Fright</i> 1971 film by Ted Kotcheff

Wake in Fright is a 1971 Australian New Wave film directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Evan Jones, and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay and Jack Thompson. Based on Kenneth Cook's 1961 novel of the same name, it follows a young schoolteacher who descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verna Coleman</span> Australian biographer (1925–2011)

Verna Susannah Coleman was an Australian biographer, whose work concentrated on neglected aspects of controversial expatriate literary and political figures.

Rebecca Musser is an American author and activist. She was a wife of the late Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints prophet Rulon Jeffs and escaped the compound before bringing legal proceedings against the church. In the film Outlaw Prophet: Warren Jeffs, Musser is portrayed by actress Sabina Gadecki.

<i>Station Eleven</i> 2014 novel by Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven is a novel by the Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It takes place in the Great Lakes region before and after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the population. The book was published in 2014, and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award the following year.

<i>Wake in Fright</i> (miniseries) 2017 television miniseries

Wake in Fright is an Australian miniseries based on Kenneth Cook's 1961 novel of the same name, which first aired on Network Ten in October 2017. Directed by Kriv Stenders and written by Stephen M. Irwin, the series features an ensemble cast that includes Sean Keenan, Alex Dimitriades, Caren Pistorius, David Wenham, Anna Samson, Gary Sweet, and Robyn Malcolm.

<i>Sacred Lies</i> Streaming drama series

Sacred Lies is an American drama streaming television series based on the novel The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes that premiered on July 27, 2018 on Facebook Watch. The series was created by Raelle Tucker and stars Elena Kampouris, Kevin Carroll, Kiana Madeira, Toby Huss, and Ryan Robbins. Its second season premiered on February 20, 2020 under the title Sacred Lies: The Singing Bones. On June 15, 2020, the first two seasons were acquired by Peacock.

Heather Bonner (1923–2004) was an Australian Indigenous rights activist, the wife of the first Australian Indigenous Senator, Neville Bonner.

Greenborne is a British radio soap opera set in Greenborne, a fictional rural village. Created by Colin Brake and Andrew Mark Sewell and produced by B7 Media, the first episode of Greenborne was broadcast on 21 March 2021. It is broadcast initially on over 30 community radiostations, such as Swindon 105.5, and Tring Radio.

References

  1. David Callahan. Rainforest Narratives: The Work of Janette Turner Hospital. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2009: 206-228