SOURCE: “Polish and Pathos.” Times Literary Supplement (17 July 1969): 769.

In the following excerpt, the critic provides a stylistic examination of Spencer's stories in Ship Island.

Official patrons of the arts in Britain might give some thought to the state of the short story here and in the United States. Here it is virtually dead as a serious art form, sustained only by one or two literary magazines and the occasional willingness of publishers to produce the lesser works of their celebrated names. In America, the form thrives, kept very much alive by a variety of large middlebrow journals, prosperous campus quarterlies and periodical volumes like Best American Short Stories. Collections like the three under review testify to the range and vigour of the American short story, even if they sometimes point to a circumscription of content and treatment according to the requirements of the magazines.

There is no questioning...