Intimatopias and the queering of Australian war fiction

Author
Publication year
2020
Journal
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
Volume
34.6
Pages
940-954
Comment

Although Riseman states that one of the texts, "The Boys of Bullaroo [...] is a self-published gay romance" it is also described as a "collection of six short stories," not of all of which have happy endings:

The first story, ‘Sergeant Jack’, follows injured First World War hero Arthur Taylor on his train journey home to confront his estranged family. He flashbacks to a relationship with Sergeant Jack: the love of his life whom he met in the war and who died after a tragic train bombing in France. In ‘Cross My Palm with Silver’, veteran-turned-cop Stanley Archer meets and falls in love with male sex worker Whalan in 1920s Sydney. The two must navigate an underworld ring of prostitution, murder, sex parties and revenge before they can settle safely together in Bullaroo. ‘The Boy Who . . . centres on Donald: a young man who works for the local doctor as a triage technician, giving medical exams for enlisting men. He begins a relationship with the other techni-cian, Parker, before they both enlist and are sent to Malaya in 1941. They die as prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma Railway.