SOURCE: “Frank Moorhouse's Discontinuities,” in Southerly, Vol. 36, No. 1, March, 1976, pp. 26-38.

In the following essay, Anderson explores stylistic aspects of Moorhouse's fiction, in particular his use of the “discontinuous narrative.”

Frank Moorhouse “writes short stories and does not intend to write a conventional novel. At present completing another discontinuous narrative called The Americans, Baby. Is opposed to all censorship.” Thus, in the biographical note to the first edition of Futility and Other Animals (Gareth Powell & Associates, Sydney, 1969), Moorhouse threw down his gages. Both have been taken up. Publishers, distributors, and governments have continued to censor him; reviewers have insisted on referring to his books as “novels.” One can only wonder which he finds the more offensive.

In a prefatory note to Futility and Other Animals, which is subtitled “a discontinuous narrative,” Moorhouse adumbrates his themes and insists upon his method.

These are interlinked stories and although the narrative...