Shirley Hazzard Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Brigid Brophy

Critical Essay by Brigid Brophy

The 10 substantial stories in Cliffs of Fall are almost without imagery and description, their vehicle being dialogue and simple reportage of gesture. The characters are literates, the settings American and Italian, the theme the psychological interpenetration of opposite sexes. Admirably acute herself, Miss Hazzard lets her characters be acute, too…. Miss Hazzard is an outstanding, gifted, expert writer, who knows the precisely most economical point at which to make the incision into her highly interesting situations. (p. 578)

Brigid Brophy, "A Sight of Intriguers: 'Cliffs of Fall'," in New Statesman (© 1963 The Statesman & Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.), Vol. 66, No. 1702, October 25, 1963, pp. 578-79.