SOURCE: "Tales of Gender," in The Canadian Forum, Vol. LXIX, No. 796, January-February, 1991, pp. 29-30.

In the following review, Barnwell praises The Wild Blue Yonder, observing that Thomas expertly portrays women made cynical by the brutality of the male arena.

Audrey Thomas's latest collection of short stories is an often-painful exploration of gender roles as they have been constructed in the post-Second World War period. The stories themselves are woman-centred, candid and at times deeply disturbing, revealing the frightening vulnerability of women to the "charming" ineptitude and, indeed, the murderous misogyny of men.

Many of the men are "blue-eyed boys" who, with their innocence, child-like playfulness and feckless attitude to work, manage to make the women in their lives seem cynical, uptight and humourless by contrast. They are "enchanting" even though their charm is usually a disguise: they feign soft voices and Texan accents, pretend to be Peter Pan...