Australian author and barrister Elliot Perlman's writing critiques the economic rationalism that erodes human dignity when ordinary people face unemployment and poverty. Admiring writers with a strong moral compass and compassion, Perlman aims to entertain rather than propagandize, believing social critique is sufficient for political fiction. He is fundamentally interested in exploring 'the essence of humanity,' which often leads him into political territory. Perlman frequently employs music and song lyrics to convey ideas, moods, or character, acknowledging the risk that less familiar songs may diminish the reader's engagement.
When a pampered cat has to share her home with a lost dog, sparks are set to fly. To her surprise, Catvinkle starts to like Ula. She even tells Ula her three secrets. But a cat and a dog can't be friends - can they? A tail-spin of a tale that will make you howl with laughter - and remind you that if you aren't open to adventure, you might never meet your best friend.
On the crowded streets of New York City there are even more stories than there are people passing each other every day... only some of these stories survive to become history. Lamont Williams, recently released from prison and working as a hospital janitor, strikes up an unlikely friendship with a patient, an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor who starts to tell him of his extraordinary past. Meanwhile Adam Zignelik, the son of a prominent Jewish civil rights lawyer, is facing a personal crisis: almost 40-years-old, his long-term relationship is faltering and his academic career has stalled. It's only when one of his late father's closest friends, the civil rights activist William McCray, suggests a promising research topic that the possibility of some kind of redemption arises.Dealing with memory, racism and the human capacity for guilt, resilience, heroism, and unexpected kindness, The Street Sweeper spans over fifty years, and ranges from New York to Melbourne, Chicago, Warsaw and Auschwitz, as these two very different paths - Adam's and Lamont's - lead to one greater story.
In the bustling streets of New York City, countless stories unfold daily, but only a few endure to become part of history.
The story is told in seven parts, by six different narrators, whose lives are entangled in unexpected ways. Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work schoolteacher decides to take matters into his own hands, triggering a chain of events that neither he nor his psychiatrist could have anticipated. Brimming with emotional, intellectual, and moral dilemmas, this novel-reminiscent of the richest fiction of the nineteenth century in its labyrinthine complexity-unfolds at a rapid-fire pace to reveal the full extent to which these people have been affected by one another and by the insecure and uncertain times in which they live. Our times, now.
But this is the nineties, and the world values other things. Angry, yet full of unexpected humour, Three Dollars chronicles a modern breach in the social contract, and the legacy of Thatcherism and Reaganomics and its effect on people and relationships.