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LATEST
FICTION
"Coast to Coast: Australian Stories,
1941." Selected by Cecil
Mann. (Angas & Robertson,
Sydney).
"Light In Italy," by Jack Lindsay.
(Gallancx, London).
"Salutation Inn," by Richard Gray.
I (Michael Joseph, London).
MUST a story, to be es
sentially Australian,
be about drought, or
!dingoes or distress?
; Cecil Mann, selecting the stories
kor "Coast to Coast," first of a pro
jjected series of yearly volumes of
Australian stories, seems to think
SO.
; Many readers may approve his
choice; but many others will not.
There are people who maintain,
and with good reason, that a story
can still be a good story if it's
about something pleasant, if it's a
! cheerful tale. But the stories in
I this collection are not cheerful.
! Most of them are by writers who
ihave identified themselves with a
brand of fiction that is labelled
Australian literature. It may be
I Australian, but is it literature?
Have Outback stories of bleached
paddocks and blinding sun any
more merit than stories of the
I American prairie? Have stories of
Sydney hoodlums any more literary
value than tales of American
gangsters? Gangster stuff and;
Western yams might be called es-,
sentially American, but would they j
be put into a collection of the best
American stories of the year?
There is one story in "Coast To
Coast" that is about the ordinary,
city dwelling Australians that most
' of us know better than we know the
characters of the Bush school. This
is "Short Shift Saturday," by
> Gavin S. Casey. It's not a particu
larly good story, but it sounds an
' authentic note, and it's infinitely
more enjoyable than some of the
better written but thoroughly de-i
: i pressing tales of the hot, harsh land
j—stories that have come to be re-
I cognised as "typically Aus
i tralian." |
AN Australian, Jack Lindsay,i
one of Norman Lindsay's!
sons, whose books are farj
removed from jthe Australian scene,
iin his latest novel deals with life
jin Italy early in the 19th century.
j It is a novel that has three inter
relating themes—an art student's
spiritual values, his peculiar ro
mance with an English girl, and an
underground political movement of
the day, in which he is caught up.
Mr. Lindsay presents his scene i
with colorful detail; he paints a
full-length picture of the Rome ofi
; the period. And he makes a dra-!
ma tic story of the activities of the i
Carbonari —the movement against
the dictatorship of the Austrian
overlords and their friends among,
the Italian ruling class.
But the mental struggles of the!
not-too-clever young artist, and;
his absurd infatuation for a girl,
who today would be a pathological:
case, are tedious. ,
While there's action, though—j
and the story has plenty of inci-l
ident —Mr. Lindsay's book is stir-!
(ring. ,
ALTHOUGH it is a first novel,]
"Salutation Inn'" is a power- j
ful story that shows its un- |
known author as a gifted writer, j
It is a psychological study that;
depends largely on atmosphere for
its success. The author uses an
old inn in a lonely marshland Eng
lish village as a retreat from a
I murderer for whom the police are
hunting. At this "Salutation Inn,'"
Inigo Or/ton, a man of strange pas
sions, who calls himself Mr. Craw
ley, finds an understanding, appre
ciative soul in the barmaid, and a
welcome from an eccentric old
woman. But he can find no peace
of mind, and. inevitably, tragedy
results when his identity is dis
covered.
This is a decidedly unusual book,
with a pervading and inescapable
atmosphere that only artistry and
true feeling could produce.
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