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Great Day | Introduction

"Great Day," which appeared in David Malouf's 2000 collection, Dream Stuff, has been singled out as one of his best stories. This well-crafted tale explores the tensions that can arise in a close-knit family; it traces each family member's need to find a harmonious balance between personal desires and external connection to the group. The story centers on one day in the life of the Tyler family as its members celebrate the seventy-second birthday of the family patriarch, Audley Tyler. The story begins on the morning of the day, which is also a national holiday, as some members of the family wait for the arrival of the entire clan. Tensions immediately arise as individuals begin to express their separate longings and the obstacles to those longings as they gather together for the celebration. The tensions are eventually resolved as all are able to renew or reestablish connections and come to an acceptance of their collective and personal experience. As the story ends, the family comes together to celebrate their sense of community at the close of their "great day."

Great Day Summary

"Great Day" opens early on the morning of Audley Tyler's seventy-second birthday, which is the same day as a national Australian holiday. Angie, Audley's daughter-in-law, sits gazing out to sea while nearby, Audley is fishing. When Angie walks back to the house, she is greeted by her son, Ned, who informs her that Fran is coming with Audley's son, Clem, her ex-husband.

Angie is always "ill at ease" in the kitchen of her mother-in-law, Madge, where Angie sits drinking tea. Her daughter, Jenny, asks Angie whether Audley has caught any fish, and Ned asks why Fran and Clem are still friends after their divorce, but no one answers them. Ned agrees to go out and pick wild spinach with his sister for Madge's soup. The narrator notes that the daughters-in-law never really feel a part of the tightly knit Tyler clan.

Today, the entire family along with some neighbors will gather to celebrate Audley's birthday. Later, Audley comes back to the house with two freshly caught blackfish, and he eats breakfast. The narrator explains that Audley was an important official in the Australian government for thirty-seven years. Madge puts the fish in the sink and turns to one of the children's books she is writing, which she bases on her family's experiences.

Angie goes outside again, and Ralph, her husband, joins her. An hour later, Fran arrives followed in a separate car by Clem. The children are confused when Clem asks them whether he and Fran look like newlyweds. They know that since his car accident, "Clem said things, just whatever came into his head." Three years before, he swerved his car to avoid hitting a boy and crashed; the accident put him in a coma for fourteen months.

Fran used to be the girlfriend of Jonathon, Clem's brother, but she had gotten tired of his marked self-confidence. Determined that she would "save" Clem from his family, she married him, but then she left after only two years. They remained friends after the divorce, "locked in an odd dependency."... ยป Complete Great Day Summary