SOURCE: “Patrick White's ‘Five-Twenty,’” in Westerly, Vol. 40, No. 1, Autumn, 1995, pp. 39-44.

In the following essay, Spinks praises White's short story, “Five-Twenty,” for its “austerity” and insight into human character.

The pages of The Cockatoos, Patrick White's second collection of short stories, are littered with ruined epiphanies. In the title story each character interprets the migratory birds as a symbol for an experience of transcendence they neither expect nor feel they deserve. Compelled by years of lovelessness into a bitter and silent marriage, Mick and Olive Davoren begin to develop a new language of tenderness in the presence of their mysterious visitors. The cockatoos appear to offer a glimpse into a world of harmony, order and beauty; but their departure leaves death, silence and aching loneliness in its wake. Meanwhile “The Full Belly” depicts the horror of Greece under German occupation, where villagers make faltering attempts to spiritualise their...