Stephanie Johnson

All The Tenderness Left In The World
ISBN:
Published by University of Otago Press
First Published: 1993

"All the Tenderness Left in the World" was Stephanie's second collection of short stories, published in 1993 by University of Otago Press. The stories were written over a period of five years, set in Australia and New Zealand.

Reviews of All The Tenderness Left In The World

Tough to the point of insolence, they stab and shatter any barricade of composure we might have developed for our comfort. She comes at the reader from a multitude of angles, speaking in a variety of sharp contemporary voices, at times playing devil’s advocate, at others summoning beauties, angels, the misshapen and the damaged to convey her messages… The 14 stories in this entertaining collection make a lively, thought provoking gallery of contemporary images: sharp, focused, street wise, very relevant. Read them and you’ll know just where the world is at.
(Sheridan Keith, Sunday Star)

Some of the stories are simply light and amusing but, like all good satirists, Johnson balances the lighter shades with plenty of dark corners. The intensely written blacker pieces, like “Hold Fast”, the title story, and “Piripi’s Clothes”… tear at the imagination of the reader. Johnson peoples her stories with very believable characters and writes dialogue with the keen ear of a musician.
(Bryan James, Otago Daily Times, 2.10.93)

If she wasn’t a writer, Stephanie Johnson would make a great spy… Hers is a combination of rich contradictory talents: empathy shot with bravado exploded by wild humour is what she does best.
(Elizabeth Smither, Quote Unquote, October, 93)

Conventional virtues and attitudes take a fair cuffing. But Stephanie Johnson’s accuracy and sympathy, plus her wicked inventiveness and crafted understatement, bring lucid glimpses of the world’s endless weirdness.
(David Hill, The New Zealand Herald, 6.11.93)