SOURCE: "Elizabeth Jolley: An Appreciation," in Meanjin, Vol. 42, No. 2, June, 1983, pp. 153-57.

Garner is an Australian novelist and short story writer. Below, she praises various aspects—such as imagery, themes, and characterization—of Jolley's fiction.

I first came across Elizabeth Jolley's writing in Meanjin in 1979. A story called "The Bench" (now retitled "Adam's Bride" in her Penguin collection Woman in a Lampshade) opens with these sentences:

All small towns in the country have some sort of blessing. In one there is a stretch of river which manages to retain enough water for swimming in the summer; in another, the wife of the policeman is able to make dresses for bridesmaids, and in yet another, the cook at the hotel turns hairdresser on Saturday afternoons.

This is a perfect introduction to one of Jolley's dominant modes: the confident, attractive generalisation, the use of the word 'blessing', the easy feeling...