Wake In Fright: Text Classics

Wake In Fright: Text Classics
ISBN-10
1921921781
ISBN-13
9781921921780
Category
Fiction
Pages
224
Language
English
Published
2012-04-26
Publisher
Text Publishing
Author
Kenneth Cook

Description

Wake in Fright tells the tale of John Grant's journey into an alcoholic, sexual and spiritual nightmare. It is the original and the greatest outback horror story. Bundanyabba and its citizens will forever haunt its readers. This edition includes an introduction by Peter Temple and an afterword by David Stratton. Wake in Fright was made into a film in 1971, arguably the greatest film ever made in Australia. It starred Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, and Jack Thompson in his first screen role. Lost for many years, the restored film was re-released to acclaim in 2009. Kenneth Cook was born in Sydney in 1929. Wake in Fright was published in 1961 to high praise in New York and London, and launched Cook's writing career. Cook wrote twenty-one books in all, along with screenplays and scripts for radio and TV. Peter Temple is one of Australia's finest writers. His novel Truth won the 2010 Miles Franklin Award and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. Temple has written nine novels and has been published in more than twenty countries. David Stratton is co-presenter of At the Movies on ABC television and film critic for the Australian. He has also served as a President of the International Critics Jury for the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals, written three books and is currently lecturing in Film History at the University of Sydney. textclassics.com.au 'It might be fifty years since the novel appeared yet it retains its freshness, its narrative still compels, and its bleak vision still disquiets...Cook can make us feel the heat, see the endless horizon, hear the sad singing on a little train as it traverses the monotonous plain.' Peter Temple, from the Introduction 'Wake in Fright deserves its status as a modern classic. Cook's prose is masterful and the story is gripping from the first page to the last.' M. J. Hyland 'A classic novel which became a classic film. The Outback without the sentimental bulldust. Australia without the sugar coating.' Robert Drewe 'Wake in Fright is a classic of the ugly side of Menzies' Australia, its brutality, its drunkenness, its anxiety to crush all sensibility. All of this is harrowingly reacorded - the destruction of a young soul fresh to Australia - in Kenneth Cook's remarkable novel.' Thomas Keneally 'A true dark classic of Australian literature.' J. M. Coetzee '...a kind of outback Lord of the Flies...Written entirely from Grant's point of view, the prose is at first straightforward, the landscape and its people evoked simply and vividly. But later, as Grant descends into his own personal hell and finally to the depths of despair, the writing takes on the quality of a delirious dream. The concluding narrative twists will rock both Grant (and the reader) back on their heels.' Crime Time UK ‘A chilling outback horror and an Australian classic.’ Guardian, Top 10 tales from the frontier

Other editions

Similar books

  • Fear Is the Rider
    By Kenneth Cook

    From the author of the classic novel Wake In Fright comes a chillingly brilliant short novel that’s part Wolf Creek and part Duel. Fear Is the Rider is a nail-biting chase into the outback, towards the devil lurking at its centre.

  • We Don't Go Back: A Watcher's Guide to Folk Horror
    By Howard David Ingham, Jon Dear, Monique H. Lacoste

    We Don't Go Back is a thoughtful, funny and essential overview of folk horror in TV and cinema"--Back cover

  • Director’s Cut: My Life in Film
    By Ted Kotcheff

    Witty and fearless, Director’s Cut is not just a memoir, but also a close-up on life and craft, with stories of his long friendship with Mordecai Richler and working with stars like Sylvester Stallone, James Mason, Gregory Peck, Ingmar ...

  • Imagined Landscapes: Geovisualizing Australian Spatial Narratives
    By Jane Stadler, Peta Mitchell, Stephen Carleton

    ... impetus with the “spatial turn” identified by Edward Soja and Fredric Jameson in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... this shift in thinking toward place and space is evidenced by key texts such as Ross Gibson's seminal 1983 essay ...

  • Fright Night on Channel 9: Saturday Night Horror Films on New York’s WOR-TV, 1973–1987
    By James Arena

    This thorough if affectionate tribute to Fright Night's glory days includes a complete listing of all films shown on the series, as well as discussion of WOR-TV's other horror movie programs from the 1970s and 1980s.

  • Fright Night
    By Maren Stoffels

    Spending the night in the woods with your friends is not a good idea in this scary thriller by the author of ESCAPE ROOM--a Halloween must-read. Sofia isn't so sure about Fright Night.

  • Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook
    By Jacqueline Kent

    In 1985 Jacqueline Kent was content with her life.

  • The Cliffs: An AFK Book (Five Nights at Freddy’s
    By Scott Cawthon

    Readers beware: This collection of terrifying tales is enough to unsettle even the most hardenedFive Nights at Freddy's fans.

  • Gil's All Fright Diner
    By A. Lee Martinez

    The portal closed with a belch and spit out a muffler that came to rest at Earl's feet. Cathy grabbed him and whirled through the once ... Duke and Earl glanced up through the gaping lack of roof. The moon and stars were back in place.

  • Speaking in Tongues
    By Andrew Bovell

    THE STORY: In the first act of this psychological thriller two couples in unstable marriages inadvertently exchange partners in a night of adulterous encounters.