Going Down
Michele Lee's memoir is kind of about her experience growing up as a migrant in rural Victoria, but it's mainly concerned with her varied sexual experiences.
Overview
A memoir in one's 20s — not an unprecedented move. But with a majority of Australians participating in the mass autobiography project known as social media, one that also might be written off as millennial brattiness. It's not that Natalie Yang doesn't have a good story to tell, it's just not the one rural Victoria was expecting…or particularly wants to hear.
Natalie's book Banana Girl is kind of about her migrant experience. But it's mainly concerned with her many and varied sexual experiences. It's also not selling particularly well. After hearing her read an excerpt, the residents of the small town of Nagambie are scandalised, bemoaning her omission of the clichés of more famous migrant stories. Stricken with the myopia of the critically scorned, Natalie sets out to consolidate her position with a new book entitled 100 Cocks in 100 Nights. The process is unforgiving, the way marked by dissipating friendships and noses pushed out of joint.
Originally conceived as a culturally diverse riff on Sex and the City, Going Down is also writer Michele Lee's attempt to deepen our understanding of what it's like to leave one country for another. "There is more to my story than what happened to my parents," she says.
But the show is foremost a comedy in the vein of Girls or Broad City. If you're keen to see how conservative Victorians respond to being read a detailed description of a penis, The Malthouse is the place to be this month.
