Something Special, Something Rare, the title of Black Inc.’s latest collection of short stories sums up perfectly the situation of writing by women, as it isn’t often that you find a great contemporary collection by female authors. Even less often, one rarely finds a collection that includes emerging and established writers alongside one another.
To its benefit this collection is both, and demonstrates a wonderful selection by Australian women.
From the first blush that burns unexplained in Louise’s cheeks as she speaks to Lloyd at the Picnic Races in a little country town (Bushfire by Kate Grenville), the stories in this collection are filled with moments of sensitivity and emotion. This is consistent with the now traditional impression of the short story as a form that resides in the momentary, as one that describes an immediate experience or realization and leaves questions unanswered for the reader.
However, Fiona McFarlane’s The Movie People stands out as one that departs from this model. A surreal story about townspeople who internalise the roles they played as extras in a Hollywood movie filmed locally, this story charts the unusual circumstances that cause them to continue the performance in their everyday lives.
Other stand out’s in the collection are Lebanon by Favel Parrett and A Chinese Affair by Isabelle Li. Lebanon frames a narrative of refugee experience – a story within a story that will undoubtedly resonate with Australian readers at different levels. A Chinese Affair adds to the diverse experiences in the collection by offering the perspective of a migrant Chinese woman, presumably living in Australia. Married to an older white man, her experience as part of a mixed race couple is sensitively explored. Also worthy of a special mention is Gillian Mears painful story of a young aboriginal girl exploited by the stockman in La Moustiquaire.
As the variety of narratives attests, this collection of short stories by Australian women writers isn’t organized by theme; Something Special, Something Rare is instead a selection based on gender and geography, as the subheading ‘outstanding short stories by Australian women’ implies. While the collection doesn’t offer an overt political or ethical consideration of Australian gendered identity, this question is raised regardless, as is usually the case with anthologies.
The strength of the collection is that it doesn’t define the Australian woman writer as a particular situation and includes writers from various social and cultural backgrounds. Stories similarly chart an array of lived experiences and the even inclusion of stories set in both rural and metropolitan Australia was most welcome.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Something Special, Something Rare
By Kate Grenville, Mandy Sayer, Penni Russon, Favel Parrett, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Sonya Hartnett, Isabelle Li, Gillian Essex, Brenda Walker, Gillian Mears, Fiona MacFarlane, Joan London, Karen Hitchcock, Charlotte Wood, Tara June Winch, Cate Kennedy, Alice Pung, Anna Krien, Delia Falconer, Rebekah Clarkson
Black Inc. 2015
