Book Reading

Transcript

This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.

July 3l - August 25
Stormy Weather
by Michael Meehan
In l955, in Towaninnie, a tiny country town in north-west Victoria, a troupe of vaudeville artists arrive to give their concert at the local Mechanics' Hall. It's the "Blind Concert", a travelling fundraiser for the Royal Institute for the Blind. The introduction of television is imminent and the Compere fears for the future of the performers' craft.

Over a single day of almost continuous rain, as they prepare for the evening's entertainment, the remarkable characters of the troupe and the town gradually reveal their stories, schemes, and secrets.

Michael Meehan grew up in the north-west of Victoria and now lives in South Australia. His previous novel, The Salt of Broken Tears, was a highly acclaimed debut in l999, and won the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. Stormy Weather was published this year by Vintage Press.
Reader George Shevstov
Music Graeme Lyall
Sound engineer David Le May
Adapted and produced by Christine Kinsella

August 28 - September 8
Boule de suif
by Guy de Maupassant
translated by Roger Colet
Boule de suif is considered by many to be Guy de Maupassant's finest story. Set in l87l at the end of the Franco-Prussian war, it tells the story of a coach-load of petit bourgeoisie trying to make their way through France to the port as Le Havre, which was still in French hands, and thence to Dieppe. The countryside is full of swaggering German victors as well as stragglers from the defeated French army. Amongst the passengers in the coach is a pretty, tubby little woman, notorious amongst those who frequent the red-light district of the town. She is known by her customers as Boule de Suif (Suet Dumpling in English.)

Boule de suif was first published in April l880 in a volume of short stories about the Franco-German war. After reading the story Flaubert wrote, "I have been longing to tell you that I consider Boule de suif a masterpiece. Yes, a young man nothing more than a masterpiece. The idea is quite original, magnificently worked out and excellent in style. The setting and the characters are brought before one's eyes and the psychology is grand, I am delighted with it in short...damned if I don't congratulate you again...."
Producer/director Gillian Berry
Boule de suif is published by Penguin Classics.