This is a book of short stories about Australians who live in or around Sydney. The stories are connected in a way as a character from one story will be related to or known by a character in another story. I confess to not being a reader of much short fiction unless it is science fiction. I have read, and loved, Alice Munro’s short stories and there are a few other writers who can draw me into their short stories as if they were complete novels. Unfortunately, Jonathan Bennett is not one of them.
Each one of these stories involves a tragedy in some way. In one a young girl has her long hair caught in the filter of a swimming pool and drowns. In another a man gets lost in the bush and possibly dies of a snake bite. In another, set in the early days of the Australian settling, two young boys join a posse that ends up killing aboriginals. Actually, that story, called “The Lyrebird” was the one that grabbed me the most. In the author’s notes at the end he says that it is based upon an actual occurrence. So, perhaps, the rest of them just didn’t seem realistic and that’s why I didn’t like them. ( )