Tag Archives: AWW

I Love the Whole World! by Victoria Hannan

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I went to the launch of Victoria Hannan’s new novel, I Love the Whole World!, last week. Hannan was in convo with fellow author, Kate Mildenhall, who described this book as a ‘joy bomb’. And I absolutely agree.

In summary, it’s about a woman named Leslie. Leslie’s husband, Dennis, a physiotherapist, divorced her (and quickly re-partnered with Kimberley, his Alexander Technique teacher). Leslie, having drifted along in the marriage for decades, is indifferent to what happens next…

Dennis had been the only man she had ever loved, and was now a person she felt a numbing ambivalence towards. Thinking about Dennis was like going to the dentist to get a filling: a slight pinch, and then nothing. Continue reading →

The Season by Helen Garner

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I never thought my footy pre-season would include Helen Garner… but then came her glorious memoir, The Season.

But this is not an ordinary book about football. As Garner explained –

Blokes I know get excited when I tell them I’m trying to write about footy … I think they’re imagining the books they would write. Their books would be full of facts and stats and names and memories. They have been formed by footy. I can’t do it their way. I don’t know how. I get panicky. The only thing I can think of to say is, ‘It’ll be a nanna’s book about footy.’ Short silences fall. Continue reading →

Thanks for Having Me by Emma Darragh

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Thanks for Having Me by Emma Darragh recently won the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize 2024. I can see why it caught the eye of the judges – it’s all about structure. And the small, but well-observed domestic details.

The novel follows three women from the same working-class community in Wollongong, New South Wales. Their stories are told as stand-alone episodes but as the book progresses, it becomes clear how their stories are interlinked. Maryanne, a mother in the late 1970s, sacrifices everything for her family, but as her two daughters become teenagers she realises that she has lost touch with her true self, and takes drastic action.

Every year, Christmas had felt less like something they did and more like something that was done to them. At least it felt that way to Mary Anne. Continue reading →

Time of My Life by Myf Warhurst

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

If you were born between 1970 and 1975, and grew up in Australia – more specifically, Melbourne – Myf Warhurst’s memoir, Time of My Life, is for you (obviously I meet the readership criteria).

Warhurst is known for her career in radio and television – predominantly on Triple J and as a team captain for the much-loved Spicks & Specks music trivia show. More recently, she became SBS’s Eurovision commentator, alongside comedian Joel Creasey. Continue reading →

Love, Death and Other Scenes by Nova Weetman

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Every time we experience grief, it is different. It’s why I keep reading grief memoirs – they always provide a new perspective. Love, Death and Other Scenes by Nova Weetman offers extraordinary insight into many aspects of grief.

Weetman’s memoir opens with the memorial of her husband, playwright and director Aidan Fennessy.*

It is like being at a party where the guest has forgotten to arrive. Everyone is waiting for you. And you are nowhere and everywhere. In all the conversations. In all the memories. But gone too. Continue reading →

Infidelity and Other Affairs by Kate Legge

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

I feel like the integrity of memoir as a genre has cropped up a bit lately. I mentioned it in my review of Unquiet (Ullmann classes her book as a blend of fiction and memoir) but before that, I was discussing it with a friend who saw Leslie Jamison speak about her memoir, Splinters, which focuses on the break-up of her marriage. I haven’t read Splinters yet, but my friend said that Jamison emphasised the importance of not casting her ex wholly as the bad guy, that in memoir you had to show the ‘good bits’ as well, or risk losing the trust of your readers.

I had that in mind as I began journalist Kate Legge’s memoir, Infidelity and Other Affairs. It’s also about her marriage, which eventually ended after her husband had an affair. In terms of my curiosity about portraying the ‘bad guys’ in memoir, I was rewarded early in the book: Continue reading →

Ravenous Girls by Rebecca Burton

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

I recently reviewed a memoir by Hadley Freeman, who had been diagnosed with anorexia as a teenager, so it was interesting to read a fictional account of the illness, this time from the perspective of a family member.

Ravenous Girls by Rebecca Burton tells the story of 14-year-old Frankie, who is trying to understand her older sister Justine’s admission to hospital with anorexia. Justine, a talented pianist, was about to begin studying music at university when anorexia takes over her life. Continue reading →

The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

In The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop, author J.B. Blackwood, takes her husband, Patrick, a famous film director, on a cruise to celebrate their anniversary. J.B. is nursing a secret – she has won a yet-to-be-announced major literary prize. A storm hits, and Patrick falls from the ship. That might sound overly dramatic, but actually, this book is a moral thriller, and the story unfolds from that point onward (and there’s a lot more to it).

In a story… the feeling of not knowing what happens next is often a thing of pleasure: the cornerstone of our delight… But the same feeling of not-knowing, as it happens in one’s real life, is rarely so pleasurable… Continue reading →