A new author to me. I sometimes think you can get a good insight into a writer through their shorter fiction. Unfortunately, although she writes expressively with an interesting and stimulating vocabulary, with the eye of a poet I struggled with the prose.
With short sentences and a clipped observation narrative I felt at a distance, unable to engage with characters or be moved.
Maybe this is harsh and will set fans of Helen screaming at my review. I would welcome a fresh idea of how best to be won over and of course I will not give in. I will dip in to this diverse set of short stories and hope all things will click in that moment.
Suggestions and recommendations gratefully encouraged but I have more accessible authors to read just now.

This was a collection of somewhat interconnected short stories - particularly following a young woman and a man named Phillip. It gives glimpses into everyday life, snapshots shared from Australia as well as stints overseas in places like Germany and France. I found the writing gritty, and as a reader I felt an overwhelming sense on intrusion. This is not a collection that I enjoyed reading unfortunately.

Helen Garners clear concise writing marries an emotional heart with a cool ability to capture the essence of things. Like House of Grief, these stories are clear-sighted and well-written. A fantastic introduction to a wonderful writer.

I didn’t enjoy Helen Garner’s stories which is disappointing. I found the characters hard to follow and the plots, generally, not that interesting. However, I can appreciate the writer’s skills here -they’re just not for me.

Thanks for my copy, but I'm passing on this one as I don't like to write reviews for a book that I didn't care for. I loved this author's non -fiction book (I recently reviewed this) but wasn't that keen on this.

Reading Helen Garner's short stories is like glimpsing intimate snapshots of people's lives. For a brief time they are sharply in focus with a hint of backstory and character oozing out of their dialogue and feelings. This volume of Garner's short stories was put together to celebrate her 75th birthday in 2017 is a chance to re-discover favourite tales and and discover new gems.
I first read "Postcards from Surfers" more than twenty years ago and enjoyed re-reading this story from an older perspective. In it a young woman is visiting her aging parents who have moved to the Gold Coast and writing observations and memories on postcards to someone called Philip who is no longer part of her life. Garner most often writes about the everyday, particularly of love and loss. Her characters are usually unremarkable but recognisable as someone you might have once met and her prose is often sparse but full of meaning, often poignant but also humorous. Of the stories I hadn't read before, I loved "All those Bloody Young Catholics" where a man sitting at the bar in a pub greets an old mate who's just walked in and then proceeds to hold forth in a continuous monologue about the state of their friends and the world in general - I think we've all met someone like that in a pub or at a barbecue! I'm sure that everyone who reads this will find a story out of this very stylish collection that resonates with them.

Published in honor of Helen Garner's 75th birthday, This collection contains 14 of Garner's best.

Every story is layered, with multi-facted characters. It feels almost like an invasion, like I'm a Peeping Tom, seeing into someone else's life, looking at the secrets and mysteries that they keep.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

There's much to learn from Australia's leading journalist here.

Garner is a gifted storyteller, I thoroughly enjoyed both this book and her non-fiction stories. Garner's work is not well known outside of her native Australia but I am so glad I discovered her and can recommend this book to friends.

My opinion of this collection of short stories keeps wavering.

Yes, Garner can write. No one would ever question that idea. But being an intelligent and talented writer is only the beginning of a successful book. We all know you don’t need to be talented or produce anything intelligent to have readers fall in love with your works. (Case in point, the popularity of rubbish like the Twilight and 50 Shades series.)

I certainly loved the way she set the mood with each story. The settings in each story were instantly familiar, especially the Gold Coast one. I could taste the salt in the air, see the colour changes of the ocean’s horizon and the shimmering hazy outline of the Surfers Paradise skyscrapers in the north of the story's setting of Coolangatta. Often, it was like I was looking at postcards with a sepia tone instead of words on a page.

The mood too, is distinctly Australian. Even when the setting was overseas, it felt Australian.

I also had no issues with the characterisation. Given the brevity of each of the stories, the characters were fully formed within a few sentences. (Although, now that I reflect, quite a few of the leading females could have almost been perceived to be the same person. In fact, I think some have suggested many of the leading females could be Garner herself.)

There is plot in each story which, again, is very clever considering the short format.

There is no real joy in any of them, however. Rape, other sexual and physical assaults are all common themes throughout. Husbands cheat on wives, mothers are oblivious to the abuse directed towards their children. Everyone is alone, everyone is helpless and hopeless.

But taking away from my enjoyment more than the depressing nature of the stories is that I didn’t feel the stories were complete. I screamed out for just one resolution. Not only did I get no happy endings, I got no endings at all. Now, perhaps Garner has done this deliberately, as some type of intellectual impression we’re supposed to understand. But…

Actually, if I was cynical, I would say Garner had written scenes for books that had been cut and she’d hoarded them all in a folder until one day some friend suggested she shove them together and sell them to the public as short stories.

Another thing that annoyed me was the needless graphic terms used in some of the stories. I have a potty mouth myself, but found the way these words were used had more to do with Garner trying to sound edgy than adding to the narrative or characterisation in any way.

So you see, I’m still torn. I hate pretentious books, and I’m afraid I found this collection of stories fell into that category at times. I think if you want to read intelligent reading, this collection is perfect, but if you want to be entertained, not so much.

3 and ½ out 5

Stories is the short companion volume to the much longer True Stories, the compendium of Helen Garner's short non-fiction work.

Unsurprisingly, then, Stories are the short fiction. Except that Helen Garner's work is notoriously hard to categorise. These are not really stories, they are essays written from the point of view of someone who just happens not to exist. The quality is apparent in that you have to keep reminding yourself that it is not memoir or editorial. And it is not the life of Helen Garner portrayed by actors, in that the characters are so completely different: flighty women, abused women, strong women, a gay man, a nationalist drunk, ... Always Australian, though. Mostly the stories don't have what you'd think of as a narrative arc. They start with no preamble and the reader is required to piece together what it is they are reading, And the ends tend to just peter out rather than reaching any real resolution.

So this is not an easy read. Nor is it what would traditionally be called entertaining. It's not even that thought provoking. But there is a beauty in it when looked at closely, in just how perfectly some moments and some details are captured. Invariably uncomfortable moments.

Helen Garner is an Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. Her first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977, and established her as an original voice on the Australian literary scene. At 75, she is a hugely experienced writer; James Wood of the New Yorker calls her ‘A natural storyteller'. 25 January, 2018 sees the UK publication by Text of her collected short fiction: Stories.
There's a timeless quality to Garner's work which means it isn't limited to Australian culture or society. She minutely dissects life as it is lived with a dizzying clarity of vision and deals with the smallest incidents and moments of unhappiness. She's bracingly honest and psychologically acute; there is sometimes humour, but her stories are always challenging. She is working at the limit of the short story form.
Until I read this collection I'm embarrassed to say I was unfamiliar with Garner's work; this fascinating collection has made me want to read more.

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book *

One of Australia's premier writers of novels and of non-fiction, Helen Garner turns her hand here to the short story form. This is a collection that captures the vulnerability and doubts of a series of protagonists at key times in their lives.

Some of the stories are linked by recurring characters. A woman and her lover, Philip, have had a complex relationship over time. These stories, told from the woman's point of view, suggest the Philip ended their relationship and that she has not dealt with the issue, although she has brought herself to forgive him. This relationship first appears in the story Postcards from Surfers and is revisited in other stories.

Garner is at her best when writing in this fashion. Her occasional attempt to write from a man's point of view is much less successful. I found the story All Those Bloody Young Catholics to be crude and grating. But, apart from those occasional mis-steps, this is a very good collection.

It should be noted that quite a few of these stories were published in an early collection called Postcards From Surfers and readers familiar with that book may not find much new here.

Helen Garner is a versatile wordsmith. Should she ever require a curriculum vitae (though it seems unlikely), her résumé would include: novelist, short fiction writer, journalist, critic, translator and screenwriter among her superabundance of literary skills.

Born in the port city of Geelong, Australia, in 1942, Garner (neè Ford) worked as a high-school teacher from 1966 until she was sacked for "giving an unscheduled sex education lesson to her 13-year-old students” in 1972. She published her first novel, Monkey Grip, in that same year, since when it has become a key, though sometimes fiercely debated, part of the Australian canon. She is now widely regarded as one of the foremost Antipodean writers of her time.

Stories: The Collected Short Fiction - released to coincide with Garner’s 75th birthday - is a selection of neoteric tales from a hugely accomplished storyteller. Her characters are finely portrayed and believable, because flawed, and the narrative is wholly absorbing, often intense, although never to the point of seeming contrived.

Her protagonists tend to be lonely or desperate people who have Freudian dreams and bouts of anxiety, but an undercurrent of humour is detectable in each piece. Her stories never lack wit. Garner reaches her zenith in La Chance Existe and Dark Little Tales, but there are no weak parts to this collection – it is simply that some stories are more brilliant than others.

I started reading this book as a Helen Garner greenhorn. Appetite now whetted, I am keen to explore her substantial back catalogue, starting with The Children's Bach , which is held by many to be one of the greatest short novels ever written by an Australian.

A truly bonzer discovery!

4.5★
“At home I answered the phone. A young woman asked for my husband.

‘He’s not here,’ I said, ‘at the moment. This is his wife speaking.’ I told her my name.

‘Oh yes!’ said the young woman. ‘He told me he was involved with you.’

‘Involved!’ I said. ‘He’s MARRIED to me.’

‘Oh well,’she said with an airy laugh. ‘Married… involved…’”

Oh, Helen Garner! You share such cringe-worthy moments that I’d be embarrassed if I met these people outside the pages of your work. Some seem so raw and uncomfortable.

The characters here range from lovers breaking up and friends reuniting to children trying to make sense of grown-up conversations and intertwined bodies they weren’t meant to see.

‘Postcards From Surfers’ is a particularly poignant story about an adult family – parents, adult daughter and auntie – holidaying as usual at Surfers Paradise. The women are knitting as always, and their conversation is exactly like those I have with one of my oldest friends (also a knitter).

“My mother and Auntie Lorna, well advanced in complicated garments for my sister’s teenage children, conduct their monologues which cross, coincide and run parallel.

. . .

Their two voices run on, one high, one low. If I speak they pretend to listen, just as I feign attention to their endless, looping discourses: these are our courtesies: this is love. Everything is spoken, nothing is said.”

Garner is an acclaimed Australian author, candid about the broken marriages behind her and the grandchildren she adores and for whom she’s discovered a whole new layer of love. She writes fiction and non-fiction, both long and short, and recently won the 2017 Walkley award for journalism. There seems to be nothing she can’t do. I am an admiring fan.

Many of these seem as if they could be from her own life and experience, but I would hesitate to point to any particular one. She is such a keen observer of people and their relationships, that she may well have invented something from watching a couple in an airport. I’ll never know. Whether Elizabeth was a real friend or invented, it doesn’t matter. She’s real to me.

“In the café Elizabeth told me her husband was dying of a tumour.

‘I used to think there was justice,’ she said, ‘and fairness. That there was a contract, that things meant something. Now I know your foot can go straight through the floor.’”

What people face, how people cope, this is the stuff of Garner’s work. It doesn’t always take a book. She can reach you with a story.

I’m very grateful to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.