Greater City Shadows (Laurie Steed, UWAP)

Laurie Steed’s third book and debut short story collection, Greater City Shadows, collates tales of grief, loss, loneliness, unrequited love, fractured relationships and—ultimately—hope. Suburban Perth is the setting for many an unfolding story as Steed teases out the minutiae and mundanities of everyday life from perspectives such as a disenchanted salary worker, an aspiring artist, a teenager mired in the confusion of heartbreak, and a father struggling to stay afloat. Time moves in peculiar ways in Steed’s non-linear narratives, which oscillate between surrealism and realism—the unravelling love story in ‘Still Life’ moves backwards while forging forward in a self-professed homage to the film Memento, and in ‘Great Southern Scotoma’, a man’s recollection of how his upbringing shaped him, of how ‘time is immaterial when concerning your family’, jumps back and forth between memories. Others are more experimental still; in ‘Wait for Me’, a man grappling with inertia in his long-distance relationship hosts his washed-up uncle—none other than singer-songwriter Daryl Hall, while ‘Reflections on a Ghost Story’ breaks the fourth wall in a commentary on the preceding story in the collection. Steed effortlessly evokes the 90s and noughties, with many stories soundtracked by a diverse set-list of songs that backdrop key moments in his characters’ lives, and he seems particularly fascinated by men transcending the unspoken rules of cloistered masculinity to connect with themselves and each other. Tender and heart-rending, this collection will appeal to readers who enjoyed Wayne Marshall’s Shirl and Chris Somerville’s We Are Not the Same Anymore.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Sonia Nair is a Melbourne-based writer and critic. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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

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