There’s a new generation of Australian writers and, just as with any intergenerational schism, they’re angry at their forebears. This is a righteous and rightful anger – they’ve been lied to. The world is changing/ has changed and for those now approaching or entering adulthood, their future – if they can picture one – is bleak.
Everything Feels Like the End of the World is a collection of short stories in the speculative fiction genre (although many of the images of our changed climate are no longer speculative and could be classed as social realism). The collection’s – and sixth story’s – title encapsulates the mood of the stories. All the disasters are here: flood, fire, famine, drought, plague, etc. The devastation is sometimes at the forefront, sometimes in the background, and Fitzgerald thankfully avoids the preachiness which could easily turn readers off. This is very much more than a scaremongering study in eco-dystopias. Family and interpersonal relationships form the skeleton of most stories. How the characters then interact with the environment is the flesh. ‘Fracture’, for example, has a double meaning, dealing with fracking while showing how climate change opinions have disrupted families.
The lead story, ‘River’ begins with a death. It’s a brutal introduction. ‘Feather/Stone’ grasps the impossibility of being a ‘cool’ teenager. ‘What Three Words’ is poetic in its brevity. (None of the stories are long; some cover just one page.) Stories are situated in the future and the last – the post-human ‘Sheen’ – is an appropriate endpoint. We humans are no longer around; what we have created is left to rummage in the dust.
Fitzgerald’s use of imagery is both sophisticated and original. This outstanding collection is a clarion warning delivered with – and softened by – whispered hope.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
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