Tim Jones
Books
Going nowhere
by Steve Walker
Wellington writer Tim Jones’ first collection of short stories, Extreme Weather Eventswith its futuristic focus, marked a promising debut. Its mix of satire, science fiction and black humour heralded a fresh new talent. Transported is Jones’ second collection – or, more accurately, assortment – of stories. It has been long-listed for the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, but does it live up to his earlier promise or is he simply treading water?
There are 27 stories. Many have previously appeared elsewhere, in magazines both local and overseas. All are vaguely linked by the notion of a journey, either physical or metaphorical.
Many continue the vein of whimsy from Extreme Weather Events. There are the futuristic settings, the use of real or historical figures and the strangely offbeat endings. Many are satirical, targeting our attitude to the environment, corporate greed and excess, Aussie arrogance or bourgeois fixation on property values, among other contemporary ills.
At their best, these stories do indeed match Jones’ earlier promise. The first, Rat up a Drainpipe, is a clever and amusing saga of an itinerant Kiwi accountant in Australia. Witty and fresh, it pokes fun at “the melancholy business of depreciation”, while getting in a few digs at our neighbours, who, “embarrassed by their capital, had brushed it under a carpet of trees”. There is a lively freshness about much of the tale – but Jones is also guilty of over-writing on occasions. There is a leaden artificiality about imagery such as “Dean’s heart became a barque adrift on the flood of her tears” that is curiously inapt in this satire.
The stories take off when Jones tackles subjects of current concern. The Wadestown Shore is a wild surmise into the future, when sea levels have risen six metres and submerged most of Wellington. Social values collapse and usher in a feral individualism. The New Neighbours is a similar glimpse into a troubled future, this time when aliens move in next door. But some things don’t change: they encounter quite contemporary forms of prejudice. Both stories transport us into the future to highlight our current troubles.
As a whole, however, the assortment is wildly uneven. Some very short tales need more development. Sisters is a case in point: unconvincing, muddled and lacking in focus. Even the writing fails to kindle interest. Some of the other shorter -stories are rushed and intemperate, frenetic ideas without substance.
So, while some of Jones’ stories do move, too many leave us still at the station, waiting for some form of transport.
TRANSPORTED, by Tim Jones (Vintage, $27.99).
