One of the great joys in a book of short stories, is being able to pick it off the shelf and read just one brief tale to transform your perspective. Helen Garner’s Postcards from Surfers, as the title might suggest, does just that. But it doesn’t just take you out of your own little view of the world. It can also take you deeply into your world, and touch something in you invisible before, but awakened now.The tale which really made me feel this was “Civilisation and Its Discontents”. In fourteen brief pages continents collide, earthquakes tremor and icecaps settle into another long still silence. And all this through a simple conversation between lovers. Garner is a true master storyteller. From journalism to screenplays, short stories to epic exposes, she can be guaranteed to turn your head to some great thought through some delicate depiction of detail. It is for this mastery that I return to her now as I work on the most appropriate style for a masterwork of my own. Much to learn, as well as much simply to enjoy.
