SOURCE: "Mini-Novel Excellence," in Canadian Literature, No. 38, Autumn, 1968, pp. 94-6.

Stephens is a Canadian educator, critic, and an editor for the journal Canadian Literature. In the following review of Ten Green Bottles, he lauds Thomas as an exemplary practitioner of the short story.

The short story expresses a succinct and personal reaction to some specific aspect of life that has moved the writer at a particular moment; the short story exists as a separate point on the canvas that is the writer's experience, yet it exists as a point that is linked, irrevocably, to other points within that experience. The fortunate thing about the short story is that it can be considered as a small, isolated unit, or it can be compared with other stories. The short story writer needs only to consider the form and development of a particular moment, and is consequently freed from the responsibility...