As a literary genre, the short story is the most fickle of partners. At one moment she is open and welcoming, the next she is difficult and closed. She can be gay, free spirited, happy and joyful and then without warning, spiteful, mean spirited, sad and sorrowful with all doors definitely closed against you. This is perhaps the main reason why it is such an attractive genre for many writers. The challenges offered by the short story are so much more stringent than in any other form of literary expression and the relationship between it and the writer is almost as interesting than the content of the stories themselves.

AThis relationship is perhaps the most, although by no means the only, intriguing, aspect of Fred Bazler's first collection entitled "To The Skies", just published. One senses from the beginning the writer struggling with the techniques of the genre and as the collection moves on, he is gradually gaining control, the stories improving in strength and subtlety, but he never fully masters the genre, he is never allowed that privilege.

Fred Bazler has been one of the quieter figures in the Galway Arts Community over the last twenty years or so, and one of the reasons why Galway could call itself Cosmopolitan long before Dublin discovered there was another language besides English. Born in Hartford Connecticut in 1934, he received a Masters in Painting and the History of Art in Tulane University. He worker for many years as a senior Arts Lecturer in England before moving to Galway where he taught Art in The GMIT from which he eventually retired as principal. He now lives in Kinvara.

Although mainly a painter, Fred has always been interested in literature and writing. His poetry has appeared in many journals and he has already published one collection entitled "I Once Saw My Heart". This is his first book of short stories.

The first stories deal with childhood and the impingement of the outside world into the innocent and totally self-absorbed world of the child. There are some wonderful vignettes in these stories such as the bent penny that is kept with pride because FDR's train ran over it and the Camp Master who tries to convince his young charges to commune with nature.

As the collection moves on, so does the discussion becoming more adult and dealing with the aesthetics of art and music. This is where the relationship between writer and the genre becomes more interesting. One almost feels the genre challenging the writer, letting the writer gain so much ground then all of a sudden withdrawing her favours. Here, too, the author is at his best displaying his own knowledge and experience of The Art and History of Painting and Music. One can feel the author gaining the upper hand when with a little flourish, a slight pinprick and he is brought down to earth again in a flash.

On top of this literary debate the stories are most entertaining, if at times a little wordy. There are wonderful flashes of humour such as the arrogantly self absorbed English guide who is dragged away by the Egyptian police for giving a lecture in the Cairo Museum, the sole domain of the local guides, or the Irishman who crashes his van in a small Italian village and wins over the local populace so that they drop all charges. More often than not, the joke is on the author himself as his academic knowledge is often met with derision by a native population, such as the smooth rejection of the professor of music who seeks to record the songs of the native Hungarian singer. Bazler also excels in his portrayal of innocence, particularly in the stories relating to childhood.

As a first collection, this volume of stories may have some technical faults, but, on the whole, it is hugely entertaining, informative and most enjoyable. Thankfully the Short Story as genre is generous enough to allow this author to show his full range of talents enough to make us want to look forward to the next volumes