STORIES

Short fiction from an eminent Australian writer.

In a thoughtful foreword, Jonathan Escoffery finds throughlines in this group of 14 stories, gathered from two books originally published in Australia in 1985 and 1998. He points out that most feature women living in the “transformative period of feminism’s second wave.” Many feature travelers found in airports, on ferries, in lodgings in France, Germany, or England. Though in general Garner’s approach is, as Escoffery says, associative, elliptical, and avoidant of epiphanies, some of the most accessible moments deliver feminist revelations. For example, in the last story, “What We Say,” the narrator is staying with a male friend in Sydney who serves lunch to her and her good friend after they’ve seen Rigoletto. It quickly becomes apparent that they view the opera very differently, from distinctly gendered perspectives. While it seems obvious to the host that it speaks to a male fear of losing their daughters, and thus belongs to a male tradition of art, the women see it as a story about being unable to protect their children. What are the historic themes of women’s literature, the host wonders. “We don’t have a tradition in the way you blokes do,” the narrator says. If anything, it’s “a shadow tradition….It’s there, but nobody knows what it is.” Her friend adds, “We’ve been trained in your tradition….We’re honorary men.” In this conversation and others, Garner moves women out of the shadows, asserts their agency. Two friends take a walk through a cemetery. “My friend pointed out a headstone which said, She lived only for others. ‘Poor thing,’ said my friend. ‘On my grave I want you to write, She lived only for herself.’” Without the strong central narrative voice of Garner’s novels, the raw, autofictional quality for which she’s known is not as prominent, though there is a charming early childhood story with a main character named Little Helen. Her prose, as always, is honest, energetic, spare, and precise.

Though Garner’s voice is always worth hearing, this collection might not be the best place for new readers to begin.