An Odd Collection Of Stories

-Happy Families Are All Alike” is the title of Peter Taylor’s collection of short stories with an American setting, but the real clue to what this book contains is the rest of the quotation from Anna Karenina” —“every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way .

MOST of Peter Taylor’s charac ters are unhappy, “sick”, and in fact downright queer. So that when you have read this book you’ll probably feel you have had a bigger dose than y° u , want of the kind of “sick humour” that for some extraordinary reason is popular on the long-play discs and in some cartoons these days.

Author Taylor tells of all kinds of nastiness in the woodshed brother and sister with a sexual problem and children who can see through it; a negro who is allowed to get into all kinds of trouble be cause it is good for the souls of his

white benefactors; a negress who looks forward to being married m

tor '““lssmtef's? l “mSES

of va ™>us assorted St. Trimans

type .

Peter Taylor is a clever writer who goes about his job in a master ful way. He can certainly create a picture of horror but it s not the kind of horror of an Edgar Allan Poe. Taylor’s is a creeping kind, and after reading some of his stories you feel a bit dirty.—Sl (happy families are all alike.

Published by Macmillan & Co. Australian price. 20/-.)