This exploration of his own formative years [Once is Enough] is conducted by Sargeson with a smiling ease made possible not only by his complete assimilation of the material he deals with but by the mastery of his prose medium. Having throughout his career as a narrator practised the impersonation of his characters, he appears here to come 'down again' to his own personal voice. This is not to say, however, that either the tale he tells or the manner in which he tells it is to be taken as 'perfectly true' or 'perfectly natural', if indeed such things can ever be. This 'memoir' must be regarded as a portrait of the artist by the same artist as has fashioned the stories and the novels. (p. 70)

The second half of the book has been fully prepared for. Sargeson's story passes by the lightest of movements from accounts of...