Secret Lives: 34 Modern Australian Short Stories

Edited by Barry Oakley
The Five Mile Press $25.95 PB

The Best Australian Stories

Edited by Peter Craven
Black Inc. $25.95 PB

'. something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing.' -V.S Pritchett describing a short story

Traditionally, publishers steer clear of short story anthologies/collections (unless the author's a big name Booker/Pulitzer/Nobel/Whatever prize winner) simply because they don't sell. In short, they aren't as profitable as novels. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because people feel that novels give more bang for buck.

However, the exercise of writing a short story isn't nearly as easy as it seems. Novelists have the luxury of a few hundred pages to nut out a story and the sheer volume allows for much excess to be hidden between the folds of words. But the short story has to be sharp and concise. It's an exercise in perfection with every word adding to the overall brevity of the form

Two recent Australian releases give rise to hope that the short story is well and truly alive. The first is a lively collection of 34 stories by a range of Aussie writers. Secret Lives is impressive in its scope with contributions by Peter Carey, Tim Winton, Lily Brett, Helen Garner, Frank Moorhouse, David Malouf and many others. The editor, Barry Oakley, has shaped the stories in a pattern that resembles life from birth to death - from 'Growing Up,' to 'City Life,' to 'Modern Times,' to 'Arthritic Age,' to 'Deathly Moments.'

There are many memorable moments. Eva Sallis comments on multi-culturalism with her tale of an interracial marriage between an Arab man and an Australian girl. Lily Brett gives life to a Jewish couple who survived Auschwitz, only to face alienation in Australia. Her protagonist, Josl, wants to tell his cousin Max about the horror, only to be stopped, 'You know, Josl, we didn't have it so easy here in Melbourne during the war. We couldn't get any herring. It wasn't so easy.'

Secret Lives is a taut collection that deserves praise. It has humour If only the editor hadn't decided on inserting irritating synopses before each story. One can't help but read them, only to realise that the story has been given away!

With a title like The Best Australian Stories, the second collection, edited by Peter Craven, has set itself up to a high standard. What exactly is best anyway? In this case, it seems that Craven has selected a list of stories that are mostly excerpts from forthcoming novels. As one may well imagine, to describe a single chapter from a novel as a story is stretching the description of the term.

As expected, the result is a patchy quilt-work of stories, some more coherent (in their context as a standalone story) and evocative than others. Danielle Wood offers a keen description of the quirks of human thinking; her protagonist Meredith has elephantiasis and her friends somehow think she likes receiving elephant-related gifts. Meredith's home overflows with these trinkets which she hates and she recalls giving an unwanted item to a friend, 'Perhaps, she thinks sometimes, the elephantiasis was a punishment for giving the gift of the travel pillow in bad faith.'

However, Craven's indecision and lack of depth in his selection of stories is all too apparent in indulging Marion Halligan and Frank Moorhouse two stories each. Moorhouse in turn indulges readers with his rambling autobiographical piece smartly (too) titled, 'Memoir of a Story: Story of Memoir.'

It's simply disappointing to see both editors brave enough to publish short stories but not bold enough to go the distance in sourcing new talent. Americans have the Pushcart Prize Anthology (which first unleashed Tim O'brien, Raymond Carver, John Irving and others to the world), O'Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Stories. The editors of these series' often give notice to work by newcomers and Australia, with a thirst for literature, sorely needs fresh blood. Enough attention has been given to Carey, Winton et al.

In a letter, Chekov, arguably the world's greatest master of the form, wrote, 'Friend, you don't have to write about extraordinary people who accomplish extraordinary and memorable deeds.' These two collections are about the lives of ordinary people and make decent light reading, but ultimately, let's find more 'ordinary people' who have stories to tell.

Review by Shawn Low