Giselle Borg Olivier's review of Anna Maria Buhagiar's collection of elegantly written short stories, A Very Decent Exposure (The Sunday Times, June 13), is very short on approval.
Reviewers, of course, are entitled to their views and their readers are equally entitled to agree or disagree with what they say. What puzzled me was Ms Borg Olivier's statement that the author's vocabulary tends to be relatively basic. This gives the reader who has not read the book the idea that its vocabulary may not be quite of the 'Janet and John' variety, but probably not greatly distanced from it.
I shall not call this unfair, but plainly wrong. Buhagiar's vocabulary may not be riddled with polysyllabic and erudite words, but it is subtle and sophisticated as any attentive reading will certainly reveal.