SHORT STORIES

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 3

SHORT STORIES

Short Story One. New Authors Limited. 238 pp. Australian Stories of Today. Edited by C. Osborne. Faber. 239 pp. Pick of Today’s Short Stories. Edited by John Pudney. Putnam. 253 pp.

New Zealand readers will be particularly interested in “Short Story One.” for three of the four writers represented in it come from this country. It is true that they are of unequal merit. C. K Stead, for instance, lags a long way behind Maurice Duggan and Maurice Gee, who are always competent and sometimes discerning. Mr Duggan’s “Chapter” is an admirable story, veering lightly now towards humour, now towards pathos. Maurice Gee in “The Losers” explores the seamy side of New Zealand race-going This is a painful human document; but it is surpassed by the same author’s “Eleventh Holiday." a sensitive study of conflicts between social classes and between youth and age. A sense of actuality that is sometimes fierce marks much of the work collected in “Australian Stories of Today.” There is also a promising variety of subject: and this range is exemplified by Donald Stuart’s Aboriginal tale “Dingo Pups,” on the one hand, and Lyndall Hadow's sophisticated “Freedom for Laura,” on the other Douglas Stewart contributes a splendidly informal story in "Walking Sticks," and David Martin, John Cantwell, and Peter Cowan are clearly writers of more than average talent. “Pick of Today’s Short Stories" is the twelfth in the series produced yearly by the firm of Putnam Mr Pudney’s selection is marked by vivacity rather than by undue seriousness. He has caught Mr Amis toying with his latest passion for space travel in “Something Strange.” a bright opening to the book, if nothing more. Brian Moore, whose Irish novels are now widely appreciated, contributes a characteristic tale in “Grieve for the Dear Departed”; and H. E. Bates writes with his wonted smoothness in “The Courtship.” A touch of cosmopolitanism is added by the rather long short story, “A Bicycle Built for Two.” which is from the pen of Nigel Dennis. Of the women writers. Isobel English is perhaps the most appealing. There is a mark of true distinction about her “Breath of Love.” Other interesting stories come from the Commonwealth. and Brian Redfern’s “The Poor Fool” is the most interesting of these.