cover image Social Death: An Entertainment in Three Months

Social Death: An Entertainment in Three Months

Renate Yates. Century, $0 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-7126-0795-7

Yates's first novel weaves skillfully through the absurdities and ironies of life among the ""in'' group of Sydney. Caught up in a barbecue fund-raiser for Crutches for Cripples, these Aussie elitists are distracted by the murder of gallery owner Bruno Leerkopf. Other events also preoccupy them. Sandy Bellington spurns his wife, Prue, who seeks heart's ease in an adulterous affair with a London banker by whom she becomes pregnant; Bill Bantam starts a bizarre business to win back the respect of his wife, Merle, a noted basket designer. Detective Ereach O'Shea provides the barbecue's highlight by unmasking the putative murderer, who is not a killer after all. The dialogue between these intensely purposeless people is crisp and their devotion to the meaningless event humorously absorbing. (March)