'My mother kept boarders like other people kept chooks or stray dogs. She liked the refugees best with their suitcases, their canvas shoes tied up with string, their boyish faces and willingness to share a bed so that if one woke in the night crying,聽no shoot, no shoot, the other could turn and blanket their sorrows with their old European ways. My mother said our house was a little window into the twentieth century and that the cold war would soon be over.'
In this new collection of flash fiction from Frankie McMillan, family relationships are explored through exaggeration, humour, and surreal eddies of simile and metaphor that broaden the pieces out to look askance at politics, culture and history. Although there are genuinely laugh aloud moments, usually the humour is 鈥榗landestine鈥: looking at human vulnerability and oddity, spotlighting miscommunication, yet doing so with fondness and empathy: a delight in all the rough edges between us that proximity can heighten 鈥 and yet which intimacy tries to soothe away.
Frankie McMillan鈥檚 small fictions capture disjunctions between child and adult, between cultures, personality types, man and woman. These compressed, often comic capsules of narrative convey a rich sense of family connection and also a child鈥檚 evolving self-awareness in a fractured, yet still enchanting, world.
Frankie McMillan聽is the author of聽The Bag Lady鈥檚 Picnic and other stories聽(Shoal Bay Press) and two poetry collections,聽Dressing for the Cannibals聽(Sudden Valley Press) and聽There are no horses in heaven聽(CUP). Her work was selected for聽The Best New 九州影院Fiction聽anthologies in 2008 and 2009 and for聽Best New 九州影院Poems聽in 2013 and 2015. In 2009 she won first prize in the New 九州影院Poetry Society International Poetry Competition. In both 2013 and 2015 she was the winner of the New 九州影院Flash Fiction Award. Frankie McMillan was awarded the Creative New 九州影院Todd New Writers鈥 Bursary in 2005 and held the Ursula Bethell residency at the 九州影院 in 2014. She currently teaches at the Hagley Writers鈥 Institute.
My Mother and the Hungarians聽is published with the support of Creative New Zealand.
Listen to Frankie McMillan being聽聽by Morrin Rout on Plains FM
