2011 ARIA Awards
2011 Jameson IF Awards
LOVE MACHINE Clinton Caward Kings Cross is a circus of desire and Spencer has a ringside seat. From the underground sex shop where he works full-time, he sees it all: the bucks' parties and street walkers, the drunks and the judges, the bouncers, the trannies, the chokers. The whole world comes through the door and Spencer has what they're looking for. Spencer sells sex - or at least its paraphernalia - but his own desires are less straightforward. He makes figurines of Jesus with tentacles, writes poetry and plans a movie set in the Garden of Gethsemane starring blow-up dolls. Moving between his dysfunctional family, the shop with its seedy cast of muscle-boys and amateur criminals, and the misfits who populate his apartment block, Spencer doesn't really know what he is looking for. Only when Livia walks down the stairs does he know what it is. He wants to save her from her life on the street, but deep down he thinks that perhaps she can save him. A love story set in a sex shop, 'Love Machine' is a candid, confronting but also very funny first novel about the strange and familiar business of desire. Clinton Caward has completed a Master of Arts in Writing by research. His work has appeared in The Australian, Southerly, Meanjin and various short story anthologies. He has received an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship. He lives in Sydney. 'Love Machine' is available now (RRP $29.95).
LOVE MACHINE Clinton Caward
Kings Cross is a circus of desire and Spencer has a ringside seat.
From the underground sex shop where he works full-time, he sees it all: the bucks' parties and street walkers, the drunks and the judges, the bouncers, the trannies, the chokers. The whole world comes through the door and Spencer has what they're looking for.
Spencer sells sex - or at least its paraphernalia - but his own desires are less straightforward. He makes figurines of Jesus with tentacles, writes poetry and plans a movie set in the Garden of Gethsemane starring blow-up dolls.
Moving between his dysfunctional family, the shop with its seedy cast of muscle-boys and amateur criminals, and the misfits who populate his apartment block, Spencer doesn't really know what he is looking for. Only when Livia walks down the stairs does he know what it is. He wants to save her from her life on the street, but deep down he thinks that perhaps she can save him.
A love story set in a sex shop, 'Love Machine' is a candid, confronting but also very funny first novel about the strange and familiar business of desire.
Clinton Caward has completed a Master of Arts in Writing by research. His work has appeared in The Australian, Southerly, Meanjin and various short story anthologies. He has received an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship. He lives in Sydney.
'Love Machine' is available now (RRP $29.95).
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