Tuesday, April 21, 2009


A Little Javanese

This one's defininitely for those who like their short stories with a literary flavour. Not surprisingly, the author's previous published works were poetry collections.

I was a bit sceptical when asked to review this slim volume of five, each story set in a different country, especially as the point of view is resolutely male. However, I was swept along by the strong voice and the authentic settings . The blurb says they are 'redolent of Maughan (sic) and Hemingway'; for me they they recall DH Lawrence's intensity and sense of 'otherness' , whether of place or state of mind.

Tania Hershman, herself an award-winning writer of short fiction, runs a website called 'The Short Review' which, as the name suggests, specialises in reveiwing short story collections. My review is here:

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