Meatloaf in Manhattan (Robert Power, Transit Lounge)

A man arrives in New York and inveigles his way into the arms of two women; a Vietnamese orphan is taken under the wing of an old man and given the chance of a new life; an Australian farmer loses everything in the floods but finds his biggest challenge in his mother’s deepening dementia. Other stories tell of Native American warriors, mysterious events on remote Irish islands and troubled chess players. In 2011, Robert Power won the second prize in the Age Short Story award for the title story of this collection and it is easy to see why. It is a standout here; a tense, finely wrought tale of manipulation and loneliness. Elsewhere, he pulls off deft shifts in tone and style to realise these ambitiously varied, genre-hopping stories, which are often told through interwoven narratives and from multiple viewpoints. Power has an assured voice, one full of intelligence and empathy, and yet I found myself more often impressed by the breadth of these stories than immersed in them. At times the characters felt slightly perfunctory and the plots a tad arch. That said, there is still much to enjoy in this collection of rollicking yarns.

Luke Horton is a Melbourne-based writer and bookseller at Horton Books

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews