A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories

by Elizabeth Harrower

Shortlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize

Internationally acclaimed for her five brilliant novels, Elizabeth Harrower is also the author of a small body of short fiction. A Few Days in the Country brings together for the first time her stories published in Australian journals in the 1960s and 1970s, along with those from her archives—including ‘Alice’, published for the first time earlier this year in the New Yorker.

Essential reading for Harrower fans, these finely turned pieces show a broader range than the novels, ranging from caustic satires to gentler explorations of friendship.

Elizabeth Harrower is the author of the novels Down in the City, The Long Prospect, The Catherine Wheel and The Watch Tower—all of which have been republished as Text Classics—and In Certain Circles, which was published in 2014 and in early 2015 was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Elizabeth lives in Sydney.

‘Harrower has the disconcerting knack of looking at life and seeing it unadorned.’ Australian Financial Review, Best Books of 2015

‘Vital, vivid stories by a master storyteller.’ Joan London, Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Best Books of 2015

‘One has to think hard of a book in which so much pleasure has been wrenched from so much pain. While the skies are overcast here, what happens on the ground is brightly lit, hilariously cast by lashings of irony and overstatement...This is the work of an activist in disguise as an entertainer.’ John Freeman, Australian

‘Enchanting...That Harrower has, up until recently, been denied a place in the Australian literary canon, is a tragedy—one that can only be remedied by reading her. A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories is a fantastic place to start.’ Lip Mag

‘Lyrical, insightful and finely tuned.’ Otago Daily Times

‘The range of stories and styles demonstrates Harrower’s extraordinary literary skill…A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories offers no sure-fire formulas, but through its interrogation of characters’ psychological motivations it affords a deeper understanding of human behaviour.’ Australian Book Review

‘[Harrower] reveals an astonishing facility to reveal a world in a few brush strokes.’ West Australian

‘A Few Days in the Country continues [Harrower’s] remarkable literary rejuvenation.’ Australian, Best Books of 2015

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Australia, Literary Fiction

256 pages, ebook

First published October 21, 2015

About the author

Elizabeth Harrower is an Australian novelist and short story writer.

(from Wikipedia)

Elizabeth Harrower is regarded as one of Australia's most important postwar writers, and is enjoying a recent literary revival. Born in Sydney in 1928, her first novel, Down in the City, was published in 1957 and was followed by The Long Prospect (1958) and The Catherine Wheel (1960). Her most well-known work, The Watch Tower, was published in 1966 to huge acclaim. Four years later she finished In Certain Circles , but withdrew it before publication for reasons she has never publicly spoken of. The manuscript was rediscovered recently by her publisher who felt it should be published immediately. Harrower has since received rave reviews, including comparisons with Emile Zola and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Reviews

[Michael Livingston · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are about women - women oppressed by family, women uncertain about themselves and women finding small moments of self-belief. Harrower's a lovely writer, but the short story format doesn't give her the time to build up the deep and pervading dread that she manages in The Watch Tower - although she comes close in The Beautiful Climate, the best story in this collection.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it fascinating that in a short story collection readers will select very different stories to mention. One reviewer will find the short story collection superlative, another that it lacks cohesion. Most of the reviewers cited quite different stories as their favourites; all the stories in Harrower’s collection look at how people treat other people, particularly women - how the men (for the most part) dominate, manipulate and sometimes abuse women. And ultimately the effect the abuse has on those victims.
For me A Few Days in the Country & Other Stories would have been superlative without two stories and they are English Lessons and The Cornucopia, which has been marked out for praise by severals reviewers. The former seems to be a study of how useless words are to convey our thoughts and feelings and ultimately words fail the hapless Laura. Unfortunately whatever Harrower was trying to impart in this short story was lost on me as well.
The latter story comes across to me as simply a rant, an elegant one, but perhaps I missed the significance of the last line. The main character’s manoeuvres are foreshadowed by Miss Frazer, Claire Edwards’s boss in Summertime, and to see how Miss Frazer manipulates her employee was much more effective for me than all the details about Julia the High Society autocrat in The Cornucopia.
I also appreciated Summertime because it captures the city mid last century. What I think of as the tone of those times is rendered very evocatively by Harrower. Here is the coffee lounge (a term now almost dead) that Claire visits with her friend Annette.
“By mutual consent they saved the news for some minutes. Removing their short white gloves with casual deliberation, they studied the menu with the air of detachment they had practised since they were sixteen.
Their order given, they gazed at the other coffee drinkers with bored, haughty faces. Their own reflections were scrutinised even more carefully in a full-length mirror conveniently close to their table.” Wonderful! The story The City at Night, although not a favourite, is also interesting for capturing the 1960s and the attitudes of the two young women exploring a new friendship.
The Beautiful Climate is a story very close to home and is my top pick for a number of reasons. Firstly I spent many weekends as a teenager on my parent’s cruiser moored in Pittwater and sometimes around in the Hawkesbury, passing Scotland Island on the way. Luckily I didn’t have a father like the one in the story but there are many things I love about this one, particularly the subtlety of the depiction of the abuse. There’s no screaming and shouting but the father manages to completely dominate their lives. For instance Hector Shaw deliberately makes his wife and daughter come out with him on their small boat although he knows its the last thing they want to do:
“Mrs Shaw put on her big straw sunhat, tied it solemnly under her chin, and went behind him down the seventy rough rock steps from the house. She said nothing. The glare from the water gave her a migraine. Since a day years before when she was a schoolgirl learning to swim and had almost drowned, she had had a horror of deep water. Her husband knew it. He was a difficult man, for what reason no one had been able to discover, least of all Hector Shaw himself.” Stories like this one should be compulsory reading for young girls in High School, I believe, to clearly show manipulation in all its forms.
And then there is the technically brilliant Alice. What can I say about this one other than you really have to read it for yourself. Yes, it is unusual and understated but it is masterly in its depiction of a wasted life. Unfortunately a lot of women like Alice lived such lives where the men were valued over the women, even by their own mothers. Hopefully it is an attitude that will gradually die out. The story for me, I believe, holds the key somehow to Harrower’s own psyche and the long years during which she didn’t write at all.
Two of the stories in this collection I enjoyed because of the characterisations and they happen to be the two stories with male points of view. Lance, Harper His Story is one of the most unusual stories with a very clever last line and in The Cost of Things, my favourite character is Clea: “I’d be bored, Dan.” Severals others are interesting reading but, strangely, it is The North Sea that lingers. What will be your favourite? Read A Few Days in the Country & Other Stories and find out. Highly recommended.

[Theresa Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories by Elizabeth Harrower is one I picked up on a whim this week for two reasons: my Elizabeth Harrower reading immersion and as a #shortstoryseptember contribution. I had intended on reading this collection after I had finished all of her novels – I have three remaining to be read – but Lisa at ANZ LitLovers LitBlog is hosting Short Story September, and I immediately thought, oh, I have just the thing for this. And indeed, this collection fit the criteria perfectly. Each of the stories can be read in under an hour, which was pretty much the criteria, so thanks to Lisa for keeping it simple!

There are twelve short stories in this collection. At least two are most definitely autobiographical – The Beautiful Climate and It Is Margaret. While some bear the same stifling atmosphere as her novels, others have a different tone and focus, and it was so refreshing to experience this range in Harrower’s writing. You get glimpses of this in her novels of course, but that can be overshadowed and buried by the more urgent thematic aspects of her work. All of the stories have themes that explore the socio-political landscape of Australia in the post-war era, which is of course characteristic of her work, with the divides between class in our ‘classless’ society an ever-present topic of exploration for her, and she does this deftly within the contexts of friendships, marriages, and access to education. Personally, it is this focus within her work that I gravitate to and devour from a social history point of view. It was wonderful to find this so prevalent throughout these short stories.

I didn’t really read these with an intent on reviewing the stories individually, I was more just immersing myself into Harrower’s work within a different form. Each story has its own impact but if I am to be specific, I liked The North Sea for its themes of hope as the character is taking a break on the Scottish coast as she steps from one life into another. Lance Harper, His Story was a standout for me, about a young man who is seeking an answer to the question: What is a Classic? In this story, we see the barriers to education and classism within Australia on show. The last story in the collection, A Few Days in the Country, about a young woman who has gone to stay in the country for what appears to be a wellness break, but she has brought someone else with her, suicide, which Harrower writes as its own character. This story was written with such empathy and the kind of insight that only comes from knowing something intimately yourself. I found it a deeply affecting, but also intensely sad story for the collection to end on.

If you’ve never read Elizabeth Harrower before and would like to dip a toe in, these stories are a brilliant introduction to her work. This quote that I am ending on, to me, perfectly encapsulates the very meaning of what it is that Harrower seems to be always asking, in all of her writing.

‘Here it was again – the mystery that pursued her through life in one form, in another, returning and returning, presenting itself relentlessly for her solution: how should human beings treat each other?’

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m back in familiar-short-story-territory with Elizabeth Harrower’s A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories. And that territory is uneven. Some of the stories in this collection shone but others, not so much. There are twelve stories, predominantly exploring the different roles of women – in friendship, as mothers and daughters, and as wives.

Despite the overarching theme, the collection lacked cohesion. The stories didn’t feel like they belonged together – changes in pace and style jolted me from one to the next. This may be because the stories were drawn from various sources – archives, journals, published and unpublished (written in the 1960s and 1970s) – as opposed to imagined together, written as bedfellows. But here they are together, bound in a striking blue jacket.

My favourite was Alice, a story that is biting and relevant, despite being set in the 1920s. Although the ending is a little introspective, it is satisfying and thoughtful. Equally good was Lance Harper, His Story – the only story told from a male perspective, it had an unexpected twist that ticked all my short-story boxes.

There were others that I enjoyed – The Beautiful Climate was reflective of a time when women had little or no say in the way the family operated and The Cost of Things was weirdly relevant to a discussion I had with someone last night (and I’ll be sending them a few insightful quotes from this story).

In the more successful stories, Harrower quickly established the scene and built the characters. Of Alice’s overbearing mother –

“Her mother was Scottish born and bred – irrational, raucous, bony, quick-tempered, and noisy. She had no feelings. She was bright, like anything burning: a match, a firecracker, a tree. Alice was as watchful as a small herbivorous animal. Mother and child were unsatisfied.”

And in a simple statement, Harrower gets to the root of so many complex mother-daughter relationships –

“Because her mother was her mother, and there was no one else, Alice thought she was marvelous”.

And to the heart of the uneven ‘friendship’, where one women is the ‘banker’ of information* –

“One must start a conversation in some way and, although Miss Frazer’s interest lay more in the rich deep seams of pain, problem, and frustration than in the thin surface soil of mere chatter, she understood the art of mining for such drifts.”

Comparing a writer of Harrower’s calibre to others may be rude but as this book will be compared to the nth degree as part of the Stella Prize judging, I’m going there. The collection did bring to mind the work of Rose Tremain and Elizabeth Taylor. While I prefer Taylor (who manages to combine the comedy-of-manners with satisfying moral dilemmas) it’s worth noting that you’re likely to enjoy Harrower if Tremain and Taylor are your cup of tea.

2.5/5 Something tells me I’d feel differently about Harrower if I read her novels.

Will it win the Stella? No – it may get a sentimental vote but pitted against Daylight’s short story collection, it comes up short.

*as an aside, I’m glad I’m grown-up enough to avoid these ‘friendships’ like the plague.

[Lizzy Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first AWW challenge read for the year: A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories by Elizabeth Harrower. I'm fascinated by the post-war world of working women in Sydney that Harrower draws on in this collection. Her sharp observation of character and the way she conveys nuances of relationships, especially between women, make these stories compelling reading.

My favourite was probably the penultimate story, "It is Margaret", the title inspired by one of my favourite poems, one by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Harrower is the master (mistress?) of suggestion: often conveying the emotional impact of human interactions, rather than the interactions themselves in a way that, initially, creates a sense of mystery and, later, simply admiration for her technique.

At times deliciously vicious; at times, brutal and sad, these stories are well worth reading individually or one after the other. I can see why the collection made the 2016 StellaPrize shortlist. Highly recommended.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An entertaining, engaging, enjoyable collection of twelve fairly short stories, (the book is 204 pages), mostly set in Australia and about a particular moment in the lives of various women.

[Louise Omer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiet stories which paint characters in the most remarkable of ways. A true pleasure to read and great introduction to the work of Elizabeth Harrower.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14191764

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't familiar with Elizabeth Harrower or any of her other work before reading this collection of short stories, which was enclosed by mistake in my latest review bundle.

Having read the collection, there are one or two good stories but unfortunately the majority were disappointing or at best left me feeling indifferent about them.

Not my cup of tea I'm afraid, but maybe fans of her work will like them.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these stories at work during my lunch break (admittedly perhaps not the best way to enjoy them) and liked them (Harrower is a lovely writer) but I much prefer her novels. I don't think her style is well-suited to the form.

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some great writing and an overall theme of women trapped, in relationships with friends, parents, & lovers. While this was a bit of a time capsule, I struggled to connect with any of the stories and often had to re-read paragraphs. It just didn't work for me. 2.5 stars.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quick read but I sadly didn't find many of the stories that memorable, despite them often dealing with rather serious issues. I think my favourite stories were 'It Is Margaret' and 'A Few Days in the Country', even though they both deal with some pretty intense situations.

[Gabriela Lemos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ordinarily, I don't really like short stories. They are these little snippets of the character's life, and because of that, there is often no resolution or feeling of peace in an ending.
So I read this one recommended by a person with good reading taste, expecting to leave my comfort zone and maybe enjoy something new.
Elizabeth's writing is bleak. Throughout the book, there is no sense of hope. The common denominator is these women who are lost and at this pivotal point in their lives.
Alice, the second story, is so good. It is depressing but good. I wanted to shake Alice at the same time I recognized her blindness.
Blindness, I guess that's a theme too. The blindness to reality, to life, people trapped in their own realities and perceptions, who just can't see or think out of it and the author writes it with such dryness and dispassion, like she is an unhappy dischanted human being and that's scary as hell. I guess that's also why I like Alice, because in the end, she finds freedom in herself.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collection of very short stories, usually interior monologues of a life or moment. Psychologically perceptive and agonising tales of social nastiness, everyday cruelty, battling deep inner despair and the quiet, hidden brutality lurking within families. The most outstanding were recent publications - “Cornucopia” - about a vicious North shore socialite, “The Beautiful Climate” - about a mother and daughter terrorised by the just repressed anger & violence of the father and “Alice” - a woman never anywhere near good enough for her mother. Brilliant and hard to put down.

[Harvard · Rating 3 out of 5]

2022 continues my ongoing journey to stan elizabeth harrower, but I admit her novels are better - these short stories have all the same themes of her other work: imbalanced relationships, psychological control, the misguided trust we have in family and partners; but I realise the quality I enjoy about Harrower's work is being fully immersed in that complex feeling, and not many of these stories are long enough to achieve that. The standouts are The Beautiful Climate, The City at Night, It Is Margaret

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I keep reading how Elizabeth Harrower is a rediscovered literary genius. I've tried more than once to read her novels and hoped I'd have better luck with her short fiction. Nope, I just don't connect with it. Well written, absolutely, but strangely cold and removed. I just can't engage.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is customary for short story collections, I enjoyed some more than others, but Harrower’s ability to depict human nature shines throughout all. She is a perspicacious writer. I am currently enjoying her biography and I look forward to reading more of her fiction.

[Jane Gregg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely writing - a very low mood collection.

[Dulcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deft, perceptive & exquisitely tuned, these slices of a vanished Sydney are brilliant. I am new to Harrower; based on this I will be going through here complete works.

[Cassandra Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love her writing, mad about her other books, found these less-er. Still plenty to enjoy, just not the brilliance of her novels, for me.

[Rosalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the writing but I’ve never been a fan of the short story. There just isn’t enough time to develop the dread that was so good in the watchtower.

[Kathy Schuller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish

[Gail Kennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

cared about the characters and enjoyed the plots, mostly strange little tragedies.

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books)]

I read the first four stories and each of them was vaguely unsatisfying: not quite banal, just this side of dreary. But close enough that I shan’t be continuing.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. I actually gasped out loud a few times, the writing is so beautiful. Searing, gorgeous, sad, hopeful. Truly a breathtaking collection.

[Anne-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, not so enjoyable.

[Angela Long (Carter) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of the short story collections, listed for the 2016 Stella Prize, goes beyond the angst of adolescence to delve, with sharp insight, into the emotional states of the human collective.

This is the first work I have read by Elizabeth Harrower who was primarily published during the 50’s and 60’s. A contemporary of well loved authors such as Christina Stead and Patrick White, Harrower returned to publishing her work in 2014 with her novel In Certain Circles and in 2015 has brought together her collective ‘A Few Days in the Country’. From the opening sentences I was taken by the adept insight that Harrower communicates through her powerful and rich prose. It is easy to recognise the individuality in each character, they come to life and an intimacy is formed between the reader and the narrative.

The stories focus on the basics of human needs and emotions, mainly from the female perspective but in such a way that they are relevant for men and women. Although some of the pieces are time stamped with the sensibilities of the era they were written, their themes are as relevant today as 60 years ago. Topics such as depression, suicide, perfection, self confidence and friendship don’t go out of date and neither has Harrower’s work.

I loved the rituals of friendship, deftly depicted in The City at Night. The tentative acknowledgement of like souls; the reticence of the Australian culture to expose itself; compared to that of Europeans; the explosion of ‘the strange silent world of adolescence’ brought a flood of memories and a smile to my face. In an age of electronic connection this intimate convergence of like minded souls, like two prize fighters circling each other, is a tradition that hasn’t faded. Similarly the topic of mental abuse in ‘It Is Margaret’ is just as fresh albeit a darker topic. When Clelia’s mother dies, Clelia is left to handle her affairs including her step-father Theo; abuser of a woman who was ‘so gentle-seeming that, when she did face what she knew, her nature was unchanged.’ The serene commitment, of Clelia, to show compassion in the face of manipulation and tragedy, underlines the strength of the human soul. She has power for the first time in her relationship with Theo, and yet she chooses not to be reduced as a human being not to be made ‘over in his image’. This piece is a quiet, unflinching reflection on how we all have the opportunity to choose the way we treat our fellow human beings. The theme of manipulation is echoed in ‘The Cornucopia’, ‘The Beautiful Climate’ and ‘Summertime’, and yet none are repetitious but seen with a keen eye for social dominance.

There are several themes of the human condition that are repeated in various stories. Depression and futility; ‘A Few Days in The Country’, ‘The North Sea’ and ‘Lance Harper, His Story’; indifference ‘The Cost of Things’, Cornucopia; as well as compassion, independence, virtue all overlapping into the stories to create a complete picture of the characters and their circumstance. Even the ingenious metafiction piece ‘English Lessons’ is a reflection on ‘state of mind’; the power of words to wound, and our ability to sweat-the-small-things in life—an aside, an oversight. We allow our thoughts to turn septic until we bring events into perspective and regain equilibrium.

Harrower confronts life in a realistic manner. Nothing is tied up at the end for the reader’s satisfaction, but nothing leaves you dissatisfied either. Her acute eye for the human paradigm makes this one of my favourite collections and an a strong contender for this year’s Stella Prize.

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to escape the intensity of the Ferrante novels with a dip into Elizabeth Harrower's book of short stories, A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories, long-listed for this year's Stella Prize. Coincidentally, I found in Harrower's deceptively simple language many similarities with the Italian novelist's way of communicating the world: the tales are often first person, full of introspection and existential angst, asking questions about the purpose of love, anger, grief - all human behaviour, examining self-awareness amongst such themes as parental/child bonds, suicide, domestic abuse, migration and the Depression. She explores loneliness, bereavement and loss. Perhaps this is the universal style of great writing. Some of the stories in the collection are previously unpublished, some have been published recently (only in the last few years), and some were published as far back as the 1960's. Some - The North Sea - struck me as terribly funny. Others are sad, poignant, hopeful. But all are written with a deft touch, investigating the human condition as surely as if Harrower is surgically opening a wound in the flesh and peering inside to see how everything works, how it is connected, what is required to keep the blood pumping and the breath inflating the lungs. In The Beautiful Climate, "...Del had been taught that happiness was nothing but the absence of unpleasantness...[which she knew] could be extremely disagreeable." In English Lesson, "...acquiescence, had pacified the country for miles around. Concord - everyone to be, if not happy, at least not looking bitter thoughts at people..." And in It Is Margaret, "Here it was again - the mystery that pursued her through life in one form, in another, returning and returning, presenting itself relentlessly for her solution: how should human beings treat each other?...How to treat people who, when the opportunity was theirs, ill-treated you?" And this, ultimately, is perhaps the combined message of these stories - how to be in the world, how to relate to others, and how to remain accountable to oneself - while the unknowable mysteries and undeserved trials and accidental happinesses of life attach themselves to the ordinariness of your daily existence. Another strong contender for The Stella Prize.

[Belinda Rule · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, wow. Normally I dogear favourites in a collection, but I liked everything enough that I didn't want to. These are such economical, powerful, truth-telling stories about toxic relationships - and also despair, and how people get trapped. Which sounds unfun, but the sheer feeling of recognition makes it electrifying and uplifting, for me.

I bought the collection after being bowled over by 'It is Margaret' when it appeared in Aus Book Review a while ago. About a woman clearing out the house with her mother's abusive partner after her mother has died, it only hit me harder on rereading, and is probably the standout in the collection. Though I would also call out 'A few days in the country', which hit with the force of a truck - about a woman quietly contemplating suicide after an unspecified disappointment; this felt so truthful.

[Kate (Lillytales) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up Elizabeth Harrower’s collection of short stories, which spans 50 years of her writing, after it was shortlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize. I actually took it away with me when Sim and I had a weekend away at Leongatha and the cosy, country cabin we stayed in was the perfect setting to read Harrower’s collection. A Few Days in the Country contains 12 works of fiction, most of which feature a female lead character at various ages and stages of their lives.

Themes of country and identity and strong throughout this collection and Harrower’s writing is subtle, witty and striking. I loved how Harrower was able to create complex characters with real depth in just a few pages and I was engrossed by each and every story – not a common feeling with most short story collections!