Allan Gurganus

I picked up Allan Gurganus’ new collection of short stories from this month’s literature pages, and now have everything he’s ever written on order. His style of writing reminds me why I love reading. Here’s an expample from the first story in the collection, The Wish for a Good Young Country Doctor: ‘Until moving there on a scholarship, I had not known the Middle West. New Englanders are sometimes called emotionally frozen. Southerners, considered armed traditionalist hotheads. I soon learned Midwesterners have flukes, too. They’re simply better at hiding. Everything. They practice Nordic shunning. They know you can kill your neighbor’s soul simply by ignoring it.’ As with my other favourite American short story writer, Jim Shepard, I’ve consumed these tales in one gulp, and am immediately returning for a re-read. Can’t wait for his prize-winning novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, to arrive.

Also This month I’ve been reading Kate Ellis’ Sex, Lies and Question Time—an even-handed (considering) discussion of the treatment of women in Australian politics, and something that would fit well into any ‘empathy training’ curriculum. Australian girls should definitely be encouraged to read it, especially if, as Ellis reports, after the euphoria of having a woman PM 2010 to 2013 when all girls could see themselves in the role, in a 2017 Plan International Australia survey showed that zero per cent of the young women aged eighteen to twenty-five surveyed would consider entering politics as a future career. Zero. Maybe they’re all planning revolution.