Square Crib

Square Crib is a collection of thematically connected stories centred on the mythical town of Aldonga, on the surface just an ordinary, conservative Australian country town.

Yet the history of Aldonga, as recounted in “The Square Crib Grub” and “Great-Aunt Verity’s Short History of the Australian Aborigine” is filled with the outrageous, drunken misdeeds of convicts and bog-Irish settlers, and the reader soon discovers that in many respects not much has changed. Sooner or later the modern-day inhabitants of Aldonga reveal the legacy lying beneath their seemingly docile countenance – American missionaries must be prepared for anything in the Aldonga suburbs.

Graham Jackson uses golf as a fascinating element in the Aldonga community, and the theme of golf also ties together many of the stories in Square Crib. At the same time, the competitiveness of golf divides the players, and Jackson explores this paradox to great effect in stories such as “A Snake in the Grass”.

Central to many of the stories is Jackson’s experimentation with points of view and narrative perspective.