Dustjacket synopsis:
"In this collection, Frank Moorhouse and his alter ego, Francois Blase are at their mordant best.

"Their wit, satire and keen eye for details are finely honed as they travel at home and abroad, savouring the persecution inflicted by bell captains, barmen and tour guides - together with the endless buffeting of cultural differences and Traveller's Paranoia (real and imagined).

"Moorhouse also makes a a solitary journey back to the 1950s, to recapture the rhythms and idiom of school and family life in a poignant account which surpasses even nostalgia and personal memory."

Quotes:
"A brilliant narrative, corrosive humour, the revelation of a great writer who X-rays the Australian soul..." - Le Matin
"Moorhouse is dry, even delicate in style. The characteristic fate of his characters is fiasco..." Newsweek
"Moorhouse is an acknowledged craftsman - the best of the current short story writers in Australia..." Mark McLeod, Sydney Morning Herald

Contents:

Part 1: Tales from Swizzlestick

The New York Bell Captain
The Indian Bell Captain
Hiltonia
Autobahnia
Blase in the Land of Swizzlestick
Cultural Delegate
The Anti-Art of Travelling
Blase's Guide to Writing about New York
Blase and Deep Tissue Massage and Other Fulfilment Therapies
Blase in Pacific Paradise
American Bar

Part 2: Oral History of a Childhood

Mechanical Aptitude
Pledges, Vows and Pass This Note
Playground Justice and Being Fair
Tortures, Jealousy Test and Getting Tough

Part 3: Death: Remedies: Convalescence

The Drover's Wife
Hobbies and Recreations, Please State, or On Holiday with Roland Barthes
Convalescence
An Incident from the Wake of Jack Kerouac
The Death of the Telegram
Discussion of the Subject of Death is Now Concluded (A Found Story)
The Last of the Public Idlers and Laundromat Communalists
Francois and the Fishbone Incident
Blase at Lake Eyre

From the Penguin paperback edition, 1987.

This page and its contents are copyright © 2001 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: April 22, 2001.