The Secret Lives of Men

by Georgia Blain

Overview

The Secret Lives of Men is an exceptional collection by one of Australia’s leading writers.

In these thirteen short stories, Georgia Blain examines human nature in all its richness: our motivations, our desires and our shortcomings. The men in these tales frequently linger at the edges — their longings and failures exerting a subterranean pull on the women in their lives. In ‘The Secret Lives of Men’, a woman revisits her hometown and learns a long-held secret about her first boyfriend. In ‘The Bad Dog Park’, a man’s devotion to his dog ultimately forces him to confront his true hopes and fears. And in ‘The Other Side of the River’, we watch as a woman makes a snap decision about her life’s future direction, with devastating consequences for her family. Written in Blain’s trademark unadorned yet powerful prose, these stories resonate long after they are finished.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781922070357
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	03/25/2013
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Georgia Blain published novels for adults and young adults, essays, short stories, and a memoir. Her first novel was the bestselling Closed for Winter, which was made into a feature film. Her books have been shortlisted for numerous awards including the NSW, Victorian, and SA Premiers’ Literary Awards, the ALS Gold Medal, the Stella Prize, and the Nita B. Kibble Award for her memoir Births Deaths Marriages. Georgia’s works include The Secret Lives of Men, Too Close to Home, and the YA novel Darkwater. In 2016, Georgia published Between a Wolf and a Dog and the YA novel Special (Penguin Random House Australia). Between a Wolf and a Dog was shortlisted for the 2017 Stella Prize, and was awarded the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the 2016 University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. Georgia passed away in December 2016.

Reading Group Guide

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. How successfully do you think the title applies to the collection as a whole? Are there certain themes that the author returns to?
2. Which story most stood out for you, and why?
3. In many of these stories the central characters find it difficult to articulate their grief. Do you think this is as much an issue for the women in these tales as for the men? Compare ‘Enlarged + Heart + Child’ and ‘The
   Bad Dog Park’ as an example.
4. Discuss the nature of regret as it appears in these stories. Can you think of an example where a character is holding on to their past, and one where a character is coming to terms with their actions?
5. In ‘Intelligence Quotient’, the central character,
   Lena, is surprised when Juliette says that they are similar. What aspects of Lena’s character do you think Juliette is referring to? Do you agree that the women are similar?
6. Many of the women in this collection could be described as ‘outsiders’ — in what ways do you think women come to be outsiders? Do you think most people feel they are, in some sense, outsiders?
7. What do you think is the significance of the statue at the end of ‘Just a Wedding’?
8. What do you think are Ellen’s motivations for leaving her husband in ‘The Other Side of the River’? How do you think she feels about her decision many years later?
9. In ‘North from South’, how do you think Jai’s death affects how Kat feels about their friendship? Do you think the money he leaves her will enable her to change direction?
10. What moral ambiguities are raised in ‘Mirrored’,
    in terms of parenting, men and women, and cultural differences?
11. What is the mother-daughter dynamic between Clara and Sinead in ‘Her Boredom Trick’? Do you think this dynamic will change? In general, do you believe people can change?
12. How are the men in these stories (even those who appear only on the sidelines) influencing the decisions of the women in their lives? What pull — if any — do they exert on their choices?
13. Which character/s, if any, do you personally relate to? Which characters seem particularly difficult to understand? Why?

Editorial Reviews

A haunting, unsentimental exploration of the vexations and joys of modern life, family, love and desire.”
—Kirsten Tranter, author of The Legacy

From the Publisher

'Many adjectives have been used to describe Georgia Blain’s work, including evocative, powerful, atmospheric, haunting, rich, thought-provoking, skilful, uncompromising and finely detailed — all of which apply to this collection of short stories.'

Bookseller + Publisher

'Blain's achievement with the short story form is to render it a mid point between the overt artifice of fiction and the covert artifice of life-writing … her stories fill up with ambiguity … characterised by an irresolution that mimics the resistance of experience to shape and comprehension.'

The Weekend Australian - Stella Clarke

'[A] skilled, disenchanted reckoning of the way we live now.'

The Saturday Age - Peter Pierce

'Subtle, beautifully paced stories … a finely tuned collection, thoughtfully written and arranged, with profound and unsettling things to say about love, loneliness, and risk.'

Australian Book Review - Denise O'Dea

'There's a quiet, understated quality to her prose, an introspection in her narrative that makes her words glow dully with slow-burning intensity … Relationships in all their combinations and permutations are skilfully dissected by an author with a keen eye and a firm grasp.'

The Sun-Herald & The Age - Thuy On

'It is the mark of a superior book of short stories when each contribution is able to stand in its own bold outline, yet also go to make something more and whole. This is such a book … It is a mature work from an author with a special sensibility and a comprehending, humane outlook.'

Judges' comments

'Richly imagined characters … told with lovely restraint. The authenticity of the writing is such that you feel you are standing in the shoes of these characters whose lives are at a particularly intense point'

Herald Sun

'Blain's style is refreshingly lean and plain but all her stories are rich with digressions, pregnant gaps, suggestions of further dimensions that beg to be explored'

Adelaide Advertiser - Katharine England

'Told with subtlety, tenderness and skill, The Secret Lives of Men displays Georgia Blain’s superb ability to convey both the joys and struggles of daily life and its impact on each of us. Blain is a gifted writer: through her storytelling we come to know ourselves better.'

Tony Birch

'A haunting, unsentimental exploration of the vexations and joys of modern life, family, love and desire.'

Kirsten Tranter