NEW ZEALAND STORIES
SQUID, Short Stories, by Barry Mitcalfe, illustrated by F. S. Full; Glenco, Wellington; 10/6. HE title of this volume suggests the theme of most of its stories. Mr. Mitcalfe is a versatile writer and seems
to have moved about New Zealand a good deal, but it is the beaked and squashy unpleasantness of life that draws ‘him most steadily. He is often a convincing recorder and at his best he writes with a rather impressive simplicity-* ‘It’ll be a month this time,’ said the constable, as if a month in jail would make Johnny’s hand work again." But in Squid these qualities do not amount to much more than promises of what may come later. The best of these stories, such as ‘"Johnny’s Hands" and "Living in the Past,’ can only be commended with serious reservations, Mr. Mitcalfe has an eye for an interesting situation, but he does not get more of
it down on paper than a few details sometimes competently and sometimes incompetently linked together-. among the merits of the two stories mentioned is their brevity. He does not succeed in creating the illusion that a situation has been perceived in its entirety and it is upon this that the success of a_ short story depends. The book is disfigured
by some particularly inept illustrations. It is published by an organisation established by a group of writers around the Wellington Teachers’ Training Col-
lege.
Hubert
Witheford
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19520111.2.22.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 653, 11 January 1952, Page 10
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241NEW ZEALAND STORIES New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 653, 11 January 1952, Page 10
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