Sunny Garden

Uncompromising, dangerous, provocative, yet graceful - Nick Earls' writing is constantly on a short fuse, challenging ideas and perception and language at intimate levels. In his violent, edgy, bizarre short fictions there is always the disturbing tendency to find the ugly in the beautiful, the hate in love, the death in life - that disturbing tendency which is the informing principle of so much of our contemporary culture. In tight, richly poetic prose, Earls makes us see how ugly, uncontrolled and desperate we really are, and how demanding is the task of finding the beautiful in our modern truths.

Nigel Krauth, Steele Rudd Award judge

Nick Earls satirises the outrageous expectations of human beings: that passion will transform their lives and keep them warm forever. His stories detail the ways in which passions fade, or become transformed and perverted. Many of these pieces are shaded by dark emotions, violent moves or destructive romanticism. Others travel blithely towards an ending with an unexpected twist.... a firm confidence of tone and some high-voltage jolts, painfully pleasurable.

Robin Lucas, Steele Rudd Award judge

... one of the best and the most unjustly neglected pieces of writing in recent years.

Rosser Street, The Australian (1996)

...(a) "soft shoe" style marks Nick Earls's collection, Passion. Earls ... is a master of the single image - faxes fly between office towers, sunflowers are encrusted with ice, a "plaza" development engulfs an entire landscape, the bleak world of the bureaucrat conceals dark and devious emotions.

Cathy Peake, Sydney Morning Herald

... Passion may be Earls' first collection of short stories but it remains unscathed by inexperience. Rather, it is the work of a fluid mind and a firm hand, written with passion - as every writer must - yet never allowing so strong a force to loosen the grip on reality. ... constantly rewarding.

Michael Jacobson, Gold Coast Bulletin

... short, sharp, evocative and ascerbic stories... a stunning book replete with magnificent imagery without ever being cloying or trite.... In an age of sham femme, where much has been written about the state of being female in society and a gaping vacuum exists about the role of men, Nick's work is refreshing and overdue. He has dared to articulate the crisis facing his gender in a merciless fashion....Nick's writing is definitely on the edge.

Bronwyn Farr, Westside News

Passion was short listed for the 1993 Steele Rudd Australian
Short Story Award.

Takeaway menu

Passion is out of print and unavailable from leading bookstores. If you are interested in tracking down the book through second hand bookstores the ISBN is 0702224170. Passion was released in 1992 by University of Queensland Press.

Disclaimer:
Sunny Garden is designed, written and maintained by Liz Perkins, in cooperation with Nick Earls, Penguin Books and Random House Australia. Any questions about Sunny Garden should be directed to Liz

All original contents are © Liz Perkins.