Frank Moorhouse, The Writer As An Artist. Pradeep Trikha. Delhi: Shipra, 2000. Pages 141, Rs.350.

This is a critical study of five short-fiction anthologies of the contemporary Australian writer Frank Moorhouse, primarily undertaken for a Ph D thesis. The method adopted is of close analysis of texts supported by the critical opinion of critics and reviewers. The "Introduction" details the history of the short story genre in Australia, its suitability, its prominent position in the 1970s and the place of Frank Moorhouse amongst the contemporary Australian short fiction writers. Moorhouse's stories deal with modern man's predicament, his loneliness, isolation, pressing issues of the times such as Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war and the American presence. Moorhouse searches for his plots in sexual behaviour and like Lawrence undertakes a review of man-woman relationships that undermine the centrality of the institution of marriage. The chapter also lists some of his other publications and mentions his struggles as well as achievements as a writer.

Chapter 2 titled "Discontinuous Narratives" -- the term used by Moorhouse himself for his books -- examines two short fiction collections, Futility and Other Animals (1969) and The Americans, Baby (1972). The former relates to a bohemian way of life and examines issues such as generation gap, social conventions and family stability in the predominantly urban populace of Australia. The three sections 'Confusion', 'Sickness' and 'Bravery' chronicle the urban life style and point to the predicament of modern man. The second collection (1972) deals with the presence of the Americans and their influence on Australian life. The stories deal with the "evil aspects" of this influence: commercialization, degradation of human values, sexual deviance, and the inability to understand the natural order of things. Moorhouse chose to call his books "discontinuous narratives" because of their being detached despite the recurrence of characters, settings and themes in individual stories. This is an aspect that could have been elaborated upon as this term has passed into literary parlance in Australian writing and is applied retrospectively to, for instance, Ethel Anderson's At Parramatta.

Modern man's dilemma of "Isolation and Loneliness" (Chapter 3) is the theme of the fourteen narratives in the collection The Electrical Experience (1974). These deal with a representative Australian who is dislocated because he is unable to keep pace with the changing world. Chapter 4, "Author's Search for Medium", deals with the 1976 collection, Conference Ville, containing twelve episodes written in a journalistic vein. Drawn from his participation in various conferences, they expose the shallowness of the conference goers. Some of the stories are provided unity by another theme, the fall of the Whitlam government, that runs concurrently. Chapter 5, "Mysteries of Life", examines Tales of Mystery and Romance (1977) that observes the thought processes and behaviour patterns of hippies and homosexuals among others. Moorhouse uses the Taj Mahal as a symbol of separation and burial of certain relationships. The "Conclusion" reiterates the arguments of the previous chapters.

Pradeep Trikha does not clarify why he has not discussed the other short story collections of Moorhouse. Since this is a study of the work of a single author, its silence on this aspect is difficult to understand. Besides, it is a very poorly produced book. The flap has Moorhouse mis-spelt and the book abounds in typographical, grammatical and structural errors. Even the page numbers on the "Contents" page are given incorrectly. Surely, these are matters that deserve careful attention. This is not to deny the importance of such critical studies. Though few and far between they are welcome additions to our libraries and would be very welcome for scholars of Australian studies who face paucity of critical materials. Only, one wishes for meticulous care in the production of such works.

Santosh Sareen
sareen@vsnl.com