NARRATIVE SHORT STORIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 752, 11 December 1953, Page 13

NARRATIVE SHORT STORIES

AN AUSTRALIAN ROUND-UP, edited by Colin Roderick, illustrated by Broadhurst; Angus and Robertson, Australian price 21/-, "THE editorial preface to this collection ‘" of Australian short stories will be a pleasant aperitif for readers with oldfashioned ideas of what a short story should be, for it announces in slap-bang fashion that such a story should be a narrative, and perdition to writers who think one can be.made. out of "a mood, a passing cloud, a flower, or a mug of. beer." That was the maxim on the Bulletin under Archibald we are told"no story (in the old sense), no cheque," and this editor says that if Bulletin stories take up most of his space, that’s because he holds Archibald was right. Colin Roderick’s collection, Which ranges chronologically over the whole of Australian history, keeps almost entirely within this définition; classification of a few might be arguable. The tales have a beginning, a middle and an end; they move; action predominates, and often it is rapid and startling. There are goldminers and pear] fishers; station owners and "cockatoos,’ aborignals, police troopers and South Sea Islanders. The writers include many well-known names, such as Henry Lawson (whose story is laid in New Zealand), Louis Becke,' Randolph Bedford, Roderic Quinn, . James Edmond, Katherine Susannah Prichard, Ton Idriess, and Vance Palmer. Some of the rank high. For example, Vance Palmer’s treatment of the problem of the aboriginal half-caste in European society is well-nigh perfect. The (continued on next page)

BOOKS (continued from previous page) gap between the best and the worst, however, is too wide, and in respect to one or two I am compelled to wonder if some imp of the printing house played a trick. A feature is the tiny space occupied by city life; almost the whole book is concerned with the open spaces or small towns. But within these wide limits there is plenty of variety, redolent of the Australian scene, and illustrative of the trend of Australian letters. Broadhurst’s illustrations are helpful, and biographical and_ bibliographical notes add to the value of the collection

tor students.

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