"COMMENTARY FROM HOME"
Sir,-I hope Anthony Bartlett is not too dashed after reading Y. R. Wilkes’s reproving letter on his short story (Listener, May 23). Far from finding the atmosphere morbid, I felt a warm kinship with the author’s household and I am of the idea that most not-too-highly organised parents felt it too. I thought Mr Bartlett was quite restrained in his pen portrait of a small space containing two pre-occupied parents and two preschool children on a wet day. It is my theory that most mothers of six, who also write, dwell in a wryly humorous manner on the minor crises of family life. They are too intelligent to strifle the abundant copy provided by a disorganised household. In this way they know they can count on an eager following of unskilled parents who feel smug or sympathetic as they read. I suppose they merely make enough notes through the day, and after the charges are bedded down, carefully build these up into an atmosphere of suburban chaos The atmosphere here. at the moment (another rainy afternoon), could do justice to Anthony Bartlett plus Russell Clark and I’m merely attempting a
letter
DISHEVELLED
(Blenheim).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19580725.2.16.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 11
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196"COMMENTARY FROM HOME" New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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