Direct, sincere stories

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 20

Direct, sincere stories

Dear Mr Cairney. By Graeme Lay. Mallinson Rondel, 1985. 143 pp. $14.95. (Reviewed by Owen Marshall) Individual stories by Graeme Lay have appeared in a wide variety of New Zealand magazines, and it is a pleasure now to find 16 collected by Mallinson Rendel. . * Quite a number of stories have “Kaimara” for their setting: “Location, astride the coast road, oh a shelf of sloping land between Mount Egmont and the sea — One long, wide main street, lined with verandahed shops and power poles; a war memorial at one end, the two-storey Criterion Hotel at the other.”

Lay confidently delineates small town characters and lifestyles, drawing one assumes from the recollections of his own Taranaki boyhood. The Kaimara stories are mostly yarns, and though not to be disparaged for that, the tone of jocular vigour does tend to shallowness and predictability. The final paragraph of “The TulipMunchers” is typical. “The crowd erupted like a lanced boil, and Hank’s grin was as wide as the Zuider Zee. The season was over, the town was saved. And from'that day onward, the term tulip-muncher was never heard in Kaimara again.” I prefer the more individual and thoughtful stories,, such as “A Natural Process,” and the tightly written satiric piece “The Poet” which captures neatly the types and the mood of a rather gauche New Zealand

literary gathering. A feature of this selection is Lay’s sympathy for minority groups and,, minority concerns. Samoans, Chinese, Maoris and Dutch figure prominantly. * It is a healthy awareness, and seems mercifully free from an ingratiating self-consciousness. r ' The publishers’ blurb claims the stories are remarkable for their diversity, but while the locations certainly vary, the style may well be thought by some readers too subdued and plain. More risk and resonance in Lay’s language could, enliven his already well-crafted stories. But such speculation aside, this collection is a very worth-while one, and impresses the reader with; its directness and sincerity. • .