Anne Skyvington
  • Writing
    • A Change of Blog Title
    • An Article in Quadrant Magazine
    • A Guest Post by Ian Wells
    • An Aussie bloke remembers: Guest post by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • “Snakey” by Roger Britton
    • A Guest Poem: “First Loves” by Roger Britton
    • At the Swimming Pool
    • A Modern True Story
    • A Story of a Special Child
    • What I learnt from writing a novel…
  • Mythos
    • A FAIRY STORY
    • Anthropos Rising
    • A Grain of Folly
    • The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
    • Candidly Yours…
    • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton
  • Travel
    • Adriatic Romance … Rijeka to Titograd
    • 5 or 6 Things About Valencia
    • A Bird’s Eye View
    • 7 ancient artefacts in the British Museum
    • A Tuscan Village Holiday
  • Australia
    • A Country College Residence
    • Alone not lonely in Apartheid South Africa
    • A Young Adult Novel: My French Barrette
    • A Sydney Icon or Two
    • 5 things about Coogee
  • Nature
    • Black Swans Surfing
    • Blackbird Mythology: Crows and Magpies of Australia
    • A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
  • Poetry
    • a funny thing happened …
    • An ancient mystic: Rumi
    • A Window into Poetry
    • A Love Sonnet by Ian Harry Wells
  • Memoir
    • Always something there to remind me…
    • A Well-Loved Pet
    • Ancient Stories from Childhood
    • Voices From the Past
  • Publishing
    • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
    • Highs and Lows of Self Publishing
    • How I Created My Debut Novel
    • 5 Further Publishing Facts
    • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
  • Contact Us

Anne Skyvington

The Craft of Writing

  • Writing
    • A Change of Blog Title
    • An Article in Quadrant Magazine
    • A Guest Post by Ian Wells
    • An Aussie bloke remembers: Guest post by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • “Snakey” by Roger Britton
    • A Guest Poem: “First Loves” by Roger Britton
    • At the Swimming Pool
    • A Modern True Story
    • A Story of a Special Child
    • What I learnt from writing a novel…
  • Mythos
    • A FAIRY STORY
    • Anthropos Rising
    • A Grain of Folly
    • The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
    • Candidly Yours…
    • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton
  • Travel
    • Adriatic Romance … Rijeka to Titograd
    • 5 or 6 Things About Valencia
    • A Bird’s Eye View
    • 7 ancient artefacts in the British Museum
    • A Tuscan Village Holiday
  • Australia
    • A Country College Residence
    • Alone not lonely in Apartheid South Africa
    • A Young Adult Novel: My French Barrette
    • A Sydney Icon or Two
    • 5 things about Coogee
  • Nature
    • Black Swans Surfing
    • Blackbird Mythology: Crows and Magpies of Australia
    • A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
  • Poetry
    • a funny thing happened …
    • An ancient mystic: Rumi
    • A Window into Poetry
    • A Love Sonnet by Ian Harry Wells
  • Memoir
    • Always something there to remind me…
    • A Well-Loved Pet
    • Ancient Stories from Childhood
    • Voices From the Past
  • Publishing
    • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
    • Highs and Lows of Self Publishing
    • How I Created My Debut Novel
    • 5 Further Publishing Facts
    • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
  • Contact Us
Book ReviewsBooksWriting

Review of Knitting and Other Short Stories 2013

written by Anne Skyvington May 1, 2013
margaret-river-guest-house

“Knitting and Other Stories”, from the 2013 Margaret River Short Story Competition, edited by Richard Rossiter
Published by Margaret River Press, 2013 (First published on Margaret River Press website)

cover-of-anthology

The three stories I’ve chosen to review attracted me first and foremost by the authentic voice and original characters they contained. Other elements I looked for in selecting my favourites (always a subjective experience!) were fascinating story lines, emotional impact and jazzy language.

This was the second year of the Western Australia Margaret River Story Competition; 24 stories were chosen from 256 entries from all over Australia to go in the Collection. A majority of the stories focus on characters who inhabit the social fringes and exhibit eccentricities, like the woman in the winning well-crafted entry “Knitting”, who shuns marriage and romance, yet knits obsessively as her mother once did, and ultimately embraces the idea of enforced single parenthood. Other topics include marriage breakdowns, adolescent sexual experience and quirky behaviours linked to grief through loss. Many of the stories are dark, but there are also flashes of humour and irony that lure the reader into their aura.

There are so many stories in this collection that possess one or other of the many criteria that attract readers: the humour and irony in “Down on the Farm” (Louise D’Arcy); the simplicity and empathy enshrined in both The Girl on the Train (Amanda Clarke) and “The Bend in the Road” (Kathy George); and the mystery in The Wolf at the Door by Daniela Giorgi.

The Bitter End by Jacqueline Winn

Jacqueline Winn’s short story got me in from the start because of the narrative voice. Here, the main character, a single mother of two boys, is a straight-shooter, who tells it as it is. That is, excepting for the part she leaves out, until the very end. The language is simple, conversational, but often masking depth, just like the narrator. I had an image of her from the outset: stoic, obstinate, pragmatic, smart.  She puts her young family above all else. The problem is that her ex-partner is almost the opposite; he’s left the family to live in the country and lives an apparently shiftless lifestyle.

The narrative is in the first person, and the reader gauges character from the tone of the language, from the voice. We glean certain characteristics of the missing partner from in-between-the-lines. There’s dramatic and structural irony in this tale, as it’s the two sons who determine to reunite their parents; and the end is in the beginning, the beginning in the end: a lovely symmetry.

But the ultimate irony comes at the very end: the revelation that the narrator’s scream at the graveside is not for love, but for a sudden realization of time wasted. And I loved the way the theme of time is treated, how time runs away with one:

Perhaps if I start at the bitter end. I’ll be able to find some sort of sense, some sort of rhyme and reason. If I begin at those words we commit our brother to the earth and take an honest look at the dreadful cry that gushed out of my mouth. In front of all those people, for goodness sake, strangers almost to a man, crowded into that tiny riverside graveyard, all paying their last respects to Mick. I’d planned to show more than a little composure, but when the celebrant uttered those final words, time whispered into my ear: that’s it, all over, done and dusted. And I howled like an animal suddenly cornered. I didn’t dare look around, but behind their back I could feel their eyes widening with misplaced comprehension: she must have loved him after all…And out of nowhere, time whispered in my ear: dust to dust, done and dusted. Then my awful cry.

 That Summer at Manly by John Jenkins

The narrator in this story is Brian, who narrates the story in the first person. I had to read the story twice before I really ‘got’ the fact that he’s now middle-aged and telling this coming-of-age story from his continuing perch on a surfboard: “I’m a cork in the backwash, with the other ‘old-buoys’—as the joke goes—with our chipped boards and teeth, bobbing up and down, waiting for the perfect ride.” From then on, it’s a shift to Manly of his sixteenth year, told mainly in the past tense. There’s an early shift back to Melbourne explaining the reasons for his mother taking him and his sister on a beach holiday: “My angry dad, the irritable sad sack, now collecting ‘literature’ left by bible-bashers.”

The voice is initially a ‘memory voice’, that is, it echoes the rhythm of the sea and the waves, as it takes the narrator back to the past, firstly in the present tense, as he remembers arriving in Manly: “Our room is painted blue. I can see it now; it’s 1963 again….” The narrative proper then takes over in the past tense, helped by dialogue between several vibrant characters that Gail, Brian’s older sister, introduces him to. There’s Bruno, who had “long fierce eyes and a beard,” and challenges him mentally; Leone, who had “mascaraed eyelashes, a fishnet over her bikini”; and Tiny, “rat-faced and dressed in bell-bottoms so wide they flapped when he moved.”

As befits a coming-of-age story Brian experiences a series of adventurous challenges during the several days spent at the El Dorado in Manly. These include partying with and holding his own in relation to their new friends; teaching himself to body surf; surviving an encounter with a king wave; escaping from a stranger who tries to seduce him in the toilets; and having Leone treat his sunburnt skin, which sends shivers down his naked body.

The voice is of a mature man remembering fond events in the past. Simple dialogue is used to great advantage, and the language is sparse, which adds to the emotional impact of the coming-of-age theme. But the narrative events are separated by several more lyrical ‘present tense’ segments, which points to the narrator’s continuing love of the sea, and the power that this coming-of-age story holds in his memory.

It’s a well-crafted story, which holds the reader’s interest through the twists and turns of the plot, aided by a variety of linguistic features. There is no real climax to the story, rather a fateful ending, when the narrator watches night board riders “in a single, unbroken passage of grace and skill, right up to the shore.” The ending is, like the beginning, appropriately lyrical.

I like this story for its symmetry, the parts split between a ‘memory voice’ and a narrative voice that recounts past events, the two voices linked by sea imagery.

Notes on a Scale by Kerry Lown Whalen

Kerry Lown Whalen’s “Notes on a Scale” contains so many elements that make it stand out for the reader: interesting characters and themes, humour, intrigue, suspense, and a clever plot. Kerry uses dialogue cleverly to advance the plot, and her attention to detail in describing the setting suits this story well. I also noted the jazzy language that begins the story and sets the reader on a course of discovery along with the narrator: “It throbbed through the first floor, its form and shape indefinable. Solid yet haunting it insinuated itself, found its pitch then dropped to a lower key. I listened, ear pressed to my apartment door. Like a wailing siren, the sound rose and fell. I fled to the kitchen.”

The narrator, Evie is outgoing and curious to the point of being nosey. This is also part of her charm, as it leads her to connect with others. By the end, we realise that she is also prone to flights of the imagination and is overly suggestible. However, her point of view carries the reader along with it until the resolution, when she is mistaken but unapologetic. Her partner, Gill is more pragmatic and appears as a foil to her personality. Another fascinating couple of characters are Boris and Nadia Borovsky, who live opposite Evie and who play classical music together, “her foot pumping the pedals like a potter in rural Russia, the couple’s music swooping and diving like plovers in springtime.”

Evie plays the role of detective in a sort of thriller or mystery tale, trying to get to the bottom of the sounds coming from the downstairs flat; she assumes that it is “sobbing. Gut-wrenching sobbing.” The other main character, Kay, a lawyer, feeds into Evie’s over-dramatic (gullible?) personality almost too explicitly. She has relocated from Victoria to Sydney following the death of her mother, and suggests to the two women that she might be in danger from a stalker.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns in the story, and the suspense it builds up by suggesting an impending attack on Kay; locating the events within a simple apartment block adds to its authenticity. The writer cleverly plays with the theme of individual perceptions, often mistaken ones, utilising the motif of music and differing standards of appreciation to develop the theme.

margaret-river-beaches

Margaret River Beaches

margaret-river-guest-house

Photo: Margaret River Guest House

Related articles
  • What is “Point of View” and how it Changes a Story (tracykauffman.wordpress.com)
  • Plot – Tale – Telling – Narration (wilsonkhoo.wordpress.com)
  • Finding Your Own Narrative Voice (pekoeblaze.wordpress.com)
Enhanced by Zemanta

Review of Knitting and Other Short Stories 2013 was last modified: July 13th, 2018 by Anne Skyvington
a review Knitting and Other StoriesNotes on a Scale by Kerry Lown WhalenThat summer at Manly by John HopkinsThe Bitter End by Jacqueline WinnWestern Australian writing
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Anne Skyvington

I have been a reader/writer all of my life as far back as I can remember. Blogging has opened me up to another world, where I can share my skills and continue to create through word and picture. Writing is about seeing the world and recreating it for others to see through different eyes.

previous post
Alternative Narrative Approaches
next post
Favourite Places in Brisbane

You may also like

High Flights: Beginnings and Endings

September 2, 2016

The River Clown

September 1, 2013

A Useful Site for Readers and Indie...

October 18, 2020

The Other Side: A Poem from Sydney

January 4, 2016

Duality or Onenness: The Moon

May 13, 2014

Some special things about Nouméa

June 28, 2015

Welcome to a Long-Awaited Grandson

September 4, 2015

Point of View (POV) and Narrative Voice...

March 8, 2017

From Paris to Russia and Back in...

August 29, 2016

Spring Gardens Down Under

October 17, 2017

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

About Me

About Me

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

Subscribe

Buy online from Amazon

In Australia you can purchase the book from Harry Hartog in Bondi Junction, from Amazon Australia and bookshops linked to IngramSpark

 

Included in Feedspot’s Top 30 for 2020

Top 30 Creative Writing Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2020

This blog is Included in List of 100 Best Writers’ Sites 2019

 

The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2019

Connect With Me

Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest Linkedin Youtube Email

Recent Posts

  • How I Created My Debut Novel

    July 4, 2020
  • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read

    October 18, 2020
  • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills

    May 7, 2020
  • 5 Further Publishing Facts

    April 1, 2020
  • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing

    March 23, 2020

Categories

  • Writing
  • Craft of Writing
  • Publishing
  • Australia
  • Childhood
  • Nature
  • Travel
  • Poetry
  • Memoir
  • Emotions and Health
  • Book Reviews
  • Guest Post
  • Art
  • Politics

I’ve joined ALLI

About Me

About Me

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. Read more...

Popular Posts

  • How I Created My Debut Novel

    July 4, 2020
  • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills

    May 7, 2020
  • The Golden Ratio in Nature

    August 24, 2016
  • 5 Further Publishing Facts

    April 1, 2020

Subscribe

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Copyright @ 2017 Anne Skyvington. All Rights Reserved. Site by gina.digital.


Back To Top