Leaving Elvis and other stories, Michelle Michau-Crawford (UWA
Publishing)
SUMMARY
A man returns from World War II and struggles to come to terms with what has happened in
his absence. Almost seventy years later, his middle-aged granddaughter packs up her late
grandmother’s home and discovers more than she had bargained for. These two stories
bookend thirteen closely linked stories of one family, and the rippling of consequences
across three generations played out against the backdrop of a changing Australia.
I am becoming increasingly fond of the linked short story format, and this book is a great
addition to the genre.
– Emily Paull
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michelle Michau-Crawford’s short fiction has been published in Australian Book Review,
Westerly and Spiny Babbler, and she has also published poetry and non-fiction and had one
of her plays performed. In 2013, she won the prestigious ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story
Prize. She has also worked as a university lecturer, speechwriter, researcher and public
relations officer, and has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. Michelle lives with her
menagerie in a house surrounded by vegetable gardens and fruit trees.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Why do you think the author wrote this particular work as an interlinked story
collection? What are the benefits of this format, as opposed to, say, a standard
novel?

Michau-Crawford also misses significant sequences of time as part of the telling of
her story. Why might she do this, and what was the effect on you as a reader?

The author has mentioned a fascination with abandoned and lost children in a
previous interview before the publication of Leaving Elvis and other stories. In what
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ways and in which characters does this particularly manifest in your reading of the
book?

What does the book say about generational legacy, do you think? Is such legacy
something that’s to be accepted or challenged, as one grows into adulthood?

In the acknowledgments, Michau-Crawford states that characters of these stories
are not ‘consciously or purposefully based on anyone I’ve known.’ Can an author
reasonably safeguard against the surfacing of traits or aspects in a character that
originate from real people? Should they want to avoid this, or is such an
interrelation integral to the creation of evocative, memorable fiction?

Michelle Michau-Crawford won the 2013 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, one
of the more prestigious literary prizes in Australia. Does such recognition mean
more to you as a reader than say a complimentary blurb by a famous author? How
do you decide which book to read or buy in any given situation?

The small country town in which many of the stories in Leaving Elvis takes place has
been intentionally left ambiguous, although it seems to be located in Western
Australia's Wheatbelt. What effect did the lack of a concrete location have on your
reading of the text, and what might such lacking in specifics say about the main
character's sense of place or identity?

Popular culture also plays a large part in Leaving Elvis, specifically the larger than life
figures of Elvis Presley and James Dean. Who will become the icons of today's
culture? Is it even possible to have such iconic, unforgettable celebrity figures in
today's culture of media saturation?

Leaving Elvis and other stories has been compared to Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize
Winning Novel Olive Kitteridge, and yet there’s also a sense of sorrow throughout
that’s more reminiscent of one of the author’s favourite musicians, Leonard Cohen.
Is one comparison more apt than the other? Is it possible to assess a work of fiction
without comparing it to other creative works?

How important is an understanding of history, either familial or societal, when
considering a present day character? How has society, and in particular, Western
Australian society changed from the period 1948 – 2016?

What do you think Michau-Crawford is saying about life and family with this
particular book? Does her take on the latter concur with Tolstoy's quote that 'All
happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'?

Is this particular book symbolic of a time, a place, or both? What memories of your
own did it ignite, and why?
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IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE…
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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, Random House, 2008
Feet to the Stars by Susan Midalia, UWA Publishing, 2015
Seeing The Elephant by Portland Jones, Margaret River Press, 2016
Inherited by Amanda Curtin, UWA Publishing, 2011
Purple Prose, edited by Liz Byrski and Rachel Robertson, Fremantle Press, 2015
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan, Knopf, 2010
Nine Days, Toni Jordan, Text Publishing, 2013
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