The Short Stories of Judith Wright

Abstract

Since Tchekhov, the affinities between the short story and poetry, especially lyric poetry, have been remarked often enough for one's interest to be aroused in stories by poets. David Rowbotham's sketches in his Town and Citj, notably 'The Fiver's Inn' and 'Chiming Doorbell', have the trimness and evocativeness of his best verse; Ray Mathew, whose fiction perhaps owes more to his discipline as a dramatist, shows in much of A Bohemian Affair the same swiftness in figuring an idea, and the same tartness of comment, that keep his poems so nimble; and Hal Porter, in A Bachelor's Children, writes in a demanding, concentrated language that makes a piece such as ' At Aunt Sophia's' a prose-poem. All these poets tell their tales with an eye to the amount of work each word can be made to do, and with an ear for the subtleties of rhythm that can add to its meaning.