Port Moresby Mixed Doubles
SynopsisPlot
Much has changed in Papua New Guinea in the years following Independence but much has remained the same. White expatriates still form a wealthy, privileged but impermanent minority. Few of them have a long-term commitment to the country. The local inhabitants are often relegated to roles as domestic servants, subordinates at work, or partners in brief sexual flings. Among the expatriates, relations are complicated by boredom, jealousy, and self-importance. These highly readable stories range from the tragic to the ribald. They reflect expatriate life in urban PNG and illustrate some of its significant preoccupations: insecurity, money, drink, sex
Story
About this book
Port Moresby Mixed Doubles is a collection of short stories by Michael Challinger, set among the white expatriate community in urban Papua New Guinea. Originally published in 1992, the book was later reissued with a new preface by the author. The stories follow expatriates who form a wealthy but transient minority in the country, most of them without long-term ties to the place they temporarily call home.
Local Papua New Guineans appear in the stories largely as domestic workers, office subordinates, or casual sexual partners, reflecting the social barriers that persist between communities. Among the expatriates themselves, relationships are shaped by boredom, jealousy, and inflated self-regard. The stories move between tragic and comic registers, and their recurring concerns include insecurity, money, alcohol, and sex. Challinger uses these preoccupations to sketch the particular tensions of privileged foreigners living in a society they occupy without fully joining.
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea's capital, sits on the shores of the Coral Sea and serves as the economic center of the country. The city's mix of international compounds and local settlements provides a concrete backdrop for the social divides and uneasy coexistence that run through the collection.
