Bubble 'n' Squeak

Stephen J. Groak

Description

Through the dynamic interplay between memory and imagination, Stephen J. Groak explores his colourful childhood in 1970s West Auckland, New Zealand, in a collection of twenty-seven stand-alone short stories. With Nigel Sorenson as an alter ego, the author experiments with POV in a hodgepodge mixture of voices and tales that chronologically gel together like the English-style breakfast bubble and squeak-a meal traditionally made on a Sunday morning from the leftovers of the previous evening's roast dinner. From childhood loss, terrifying visits to the primary school murder house, Huckleberry Finn-type adventures with sister-mate Helen, discoveries of American fast food, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and women, Bubble 'n' Squeak offers a poignant and humorous portrait of a Kiwi country boy's coming-of-age Down Under.

Sujets

• Short Stories
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 30 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781977230317
• Langue: English

Extrait

Bubble ‘n’ Squeak A Collection of Short Stories All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2020 Stephen J. Groak v5.0

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com

ISBN: 978-1-9772-3031-7

Drawings by Danielle Gro’ak

Cover Photo © 2020www.gettyimages.com.. All rights reserved - used with permission.

Outskirts Press and the “OP” logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

For my mother, father, and sister.

Contents

Foreword Preface 1. Over the Moonbow (6 years) 2. She’s With Jesus (6 years) 3. 4 × 7 (6 years) 4. Sweet Strawberry Gone Sour (7 years) 5. Rocket Park Swings (7 years) 6. The Murder House (7 years) 7. It’s American! (7 years) 8. Farting Mates (8 years) 9. All Blacks and Chocolate (8 years) 10. 100 Stroke Dash (9 years) 11. Give Ya ’Nother Game (10 years) 12. Bubble ‘n’ Squeak (11 years) 13. Dad’s Giddy and It’s Starting to Show (12 years ) 14. Helen’s Diary (12 years) 15. The V-Lad (13 years) 16. The Go-Cart Incident (13 years) 17. Pride Comes Before a Bite (13 years) 18. Playing Possum (13 years) 19. The Face of Death (13 years) 20. Fog of War (14 years) 21. Epiphany (15 years) 22. Sleeping Beauty (15 years) 23. May I Ask Who’s Calling? (16 years) 24. The Christmas List (17 years) 25. For the Record (17 years) 26. Kiwis Can Fly (17 years) 27. King of Queen Street (18 years)

Foreword

My mate of thirty years, Stephen Groak, keeps his h eart pinned close to chest and words spare, and is the classic survivor. In additi on to surviving himself and an unruly childhood that unleashed many a future demon, he’s also survived and triumphed over the institution of marriage and its many tentacles, a stint as a copper in yesteryear’s New Zealand, a geographical and psychological fligh t to a new country and its expected challenges, fatherhood (no challenges ther e, of course), student hood, and everything else life in Downtown Crapsville, USA th rows at us all. I admire him greatly. I admire that inner grit. It’s that grit you now hold in your hand. The often-heard advice of writing what you know has informed my friend’s writing. He writes nothing but what he’s known. He has no in terest in fakery or the contrived BS of moving plots along. When you’ve beaten the odds and gone head to head with the devils of your past, you’ve got a lot of carnage to pull from. Stephen’s raw material is abundant and funny. Always funny. He’s reaching for it and yanking it out like crimson guts, but I’m not sure how deep that reach needs to be. The material—though from almost fifty years ago, at times feel so close, so recent, so dripping wet, that it’s like yesterday—still smells of fresh mown grass, warm mi lk at school, and lolly shops in Groakland. My Kiwi mate’sBubble ’n’ Squeakis both raw autobiography and self-exorcism, and the emotions it explodes are as authentic as the oi ly fingerprints on my computer screen. From the contradictions of sibling love in “The Go-Cart Incident” to the existential ruminations of “The Face of Death,” Ste phen drops us face-first into a troubled psyche that celebrates memory while also c ursing it. We get intimate with the material real fast, and that’s because it’s bloody honest and unapologetically direct. These stories lurk behind the occasionally opened d oor of my mate’s history, and they pile on to make a picture that reminds us that pain, pleasure, and comedy are universal and so often three faces of the same beas t. This (literary) exorcism is the process that carves words on paper, and instead of catching green vomit in the face, we readers catch a firm assurance that the truth sm eared here is a shared one. We’re not alone. We’re all red inside. In every story, my writer pal’s personality is embe dded like cancer. To know Stephen you need to read Stephen. He saves the juicy bits f or his art. His art IS the answer to the question you’re dying to ask him. Don’t look el sewhere. The truth is splattered here, folks. Some farts and urine too. Mark Savage Orange County, California 2020