Animal People by Charlotte Wood, Allen & Unwin, $29.99.
Stephen is having a bad day. Another argument with his mum, a run-in with the neighbour’s dog, he skittles a pedestrian, then his bus seems to have a bomb on board.
All this while tossing up which of the 50 ways he’ll choose to leave his lover. Australian author Charlotte Wood takes a character from her last novel, The Children (which you don’t need to have read) and follows one day in his messed-up life, which sounds dismal but is actually hilarious because Stephen is such a forlorn yet likeable loser, and Wood such a wonderfully sharp observer.
Typical is when Stephen spots what he thinks is a newspaper ad, I work in people’s gardens to earn money for food.
Sometimes I collect firewood and sell it, which sounds a lot more appealing than his dead-end job flipping burgers at the zoo — only to discover it’s a quote from a starving woman in Darfur.
This is not a man aiming high. But Wood has her own plans for Stephen, and there is redemption at day’s end.
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