Trouble in Eden: Marion Halligan\u27s Shooting the Fox

Although the stories in the Marion Halligan\u27s Shooting the Fox can be read independently, they also form an intricate whole where individual stories complement and reflect one another. A Garden of Eden, fruitful and safely enclosed until corruption and loss intervene, forms the book\u27s central motif. Language and communication are also important themes, as is the writer\u27s role in creating fictional worlds, where, serpent-like she introduces discord and betrayal to advance her narrative. Halligan\u27s opening story, gives the collection its name, establishing most of the book\u27s major ideas so that other stories appear to develop out of or relate back to it