The Home Girls

Realistic details of poverty and family life in rural Australia animate this collection of 20 concise, direct and often ironic short stories by the late, prize-winning author of Amy's Children. Appearance, clothing and such actions as leaving the breakfast dishes unwashed, stepping on a child in a doorway or kicking the dog reveal the emotional states of characters and the dynamics of family relationships. Masters's focus is often on children, who narrate many of these tales: the control they wield over events in the title story and ``Leaving Home''; their subordination to their parents' needs, seen in ``The Snake and Bad Tom''; their capacity to share parents' traits, as in ``The Sea on Sunday,'' or act as foils to adults, as in ``On the Train.'' In Masters's view, marriage is a fantasy unfulfilled (``A Young Man's Fancy'') or a trade-off (``The Done Thing''), with the children essential as observers, go-betweens and the reasons for carrying on. This collection, originally published in Australia in 1983, speaks in no uncertain terms of the difficulties of women's and children's lives. (June)