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Short Stories

Haunting and Poetic Music

Collected Stories by Liam Davison

by Carmel Bird
July 2001, no. 232

Collected Stories by Liam Davison

University of Queensland Press, $22.95 pb, 217 pp

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One of my all-time favourite short stories, ‘The Shipwreck Party’, opens this volume of Collected Stories. Any book of short pieces invites readers to enter wherever they like. I decided to start at the last piece and work backwards so that I could end up with my old favourite. The pace, structure, rhythm, images, restraint, wit, irony, and tone of this short narrative always work their magic on me, and I wait for the last thirty lines in joyful and horrified expectation. Having read the book backwards, I write this review in a mood of sheer pleasure.

 


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Collected Stories by Liam Davison

University of Queensland Press, $22.95 pb, 217 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.


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