Introduction: Sketching an Outline
This chapter draws on interviews with James Button and Jenny Sages.
‘For me, particularly…’ ‘Helen Garner in Conversation with Jennifer Byrne Part 1’, youtube.com/watch?v=DREsUqM-INg, published 2 May 2013.
‘because we experience…’ David Shields, NonfictioNow Melbourne 2012: ‘Nonfiction: The Art of Truth—Writerly Perspectives’, 23 November 2012, youtube.com/watch?v=8rfsXsBg3IU, published 28 January 2013.
‘Thank you for telling me…’ Garner, ‘Death in Brunswick’, Monthly, November 2012, themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/november/1351733118/helen-garner/death-brunswick.
‘almost pure invention’ Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer. New York: Knopf, 1990, 159.
‘is the worst…’ Garner, ‘Why writers hate being asked if their work is autobiographical,’ Australian Women’s Weekly, 1985, 291.
‘the intriguing biographical…’ Philip Roth, interview with Hermione Lee, ‘The Art of Fiction’, Paris Review no. 84, theparisreview.org/interviews/2957/the-art-of-fiction-no-84-philip-roth.
‘It was a wonderful encounter…’ Simon Elliot, ‘True Stories: The Story Behind the Creation of the Portrait of Helen Garner by Jenny Sages’, Portrait Magazine, 1 June 2005. portrait.gov.au/magazines/16/true-stories.
‘Writing is how…’ James Button, interview with author, 13 June 2016.
‘close and immediate engagement…’ Kerryn Goldsworthy, Helen Garner. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996, 10.
PART 1: Letters to Axel
‘I think it’s…’ Garner, interview with Leigh Sales, 7.30, 28 March 2016.
This chapter draws on interviews with Sally Ford and Judith Whitworth, the unpublished eulogy for Bruce Ford (January 2005) and Garner’s personal diary from 2003. Additional information came from the Papers of Axel Clark in the NLA, and two recorded interviews with Garner, conducted by Hazel de Berg (October 1982) and Sara Dowse (March 2005), from the NLA Oral History Collection.
‘There are no beloved…’ Garner, ‘A Scrapbook, An Album’, True Stories, Text: Melbourne, 1996, 60.
‘beautiful’, ‘foreign’, Garner, ‘Writing Home’, The Feel of Steel, Picador: Sydney, 2001, 4.
‘yanked’, ‘sneak up’, ‘stab’ ibid., Garner, 6; ‘We are women…’ ibid., 77.
‘a vivid, obstreperous character’, ‘never read a book’ Garner, ‘Dreams of Her Real Self’, Everywhere I Look, Text: Melbourne, 2016, 93.
‘impatient, rivalrous, scornful’, ‘unpredictable possessiveness…’ Garner, Eulogy for Bruce Ford.
‘If I poked…’ Garner, ‘Sad Grove by the Ocean’, True Stories, 44; ‘Why would I go in…’ ibid., 46.
‘get away from bookshop drudgery…’, Garner to Clark, 29 January 1965.
‘Gosh I’m sick…’, ‘in close touch…’, ‘There is such a tremendous gap…’ Garner to Clark, 14 January 1965.
‘tremendously impressed’ Garner to Clark, 3 January 1963.
‘no, I’m not like Sue Bridehead…’ Garner to Clark, 2 January 1965.
‘tight-strained nerves’, ‘everything she did…’, ‘I cannot humiliate…’ Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure. London: Macmillan and Co., 1951, 122 &133.
‘I got a beaut comment…’ Garner to Clark, 6 August 1963.
‘My memories of university…’ Garner email to author, 19 December 2014.
‘I am suddenly remembering…’ Garner email to author, 19 December 2014.
‘unpredictable possessiveness…’ Garner, Eulogy for Bruce Ford.
‘I think he is going to forbid…’ Garner to Clark, 17 June 1966.
‘is our first universe,’, ‘nooks and corridors’, ‘all our lives…’, ‘localization of our memories’, ‘Topoanalysis…would be…’ Gaston Bachelard. The Poetics of Space. trans. Maria Jolas. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992 (1958), 8.
‘can’t understand why…’, ‘have a hard shell…’ Garner, ‘Sad Grove by the Ocean’, 42.
‘hopeless at history, the past is a kind of blank…’ ‘Helen Garner on her Influences and Inspirations’. Sydney Writers’ Festival 2008, youtube.com/watch?v=SKcfvPbF4gQ, published 2 May 2013.
‘Yes, but in that house’ Garner, ‘A Scrapbook, An Album’, 72.
‘image, symbol, site and space’ Kerryn Goldsworthy, Helen Garner, 28.
‘I think I had better…’ Garner, interview with author, 11 August 2015.
‘threads between things’ David Malouf, 12 Edmondstone Street. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1985, 52.
‘Wilde and Swift and Berkeley had trodden’ Garner to Clark, 5 July 1967.
‘I was rather keen…’, ‘I feel that Ford…’ Charlotte Wood, ‘Do you take this man’s name?’, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 July 2002, smh. com.au/articles/2002/07/26/1027497411079.html.
‘I was one of the La Mama widows…’, ‘left out and lonely…’ Liz Jones, Betty Burstal and Helen Garner, La Mama: The Story of a Theatre, Fitzroy, Vic: McPhee Gribble/Penguin Books, 1988, 12.
‘pretty angry’, ‘bourgeois individualism’ Garner, Anna Greive and James Manche (dirs.) The Pram Factory, Lindfield, NSW: Film Australia, 1994.
‘wrestling with our feelings…’, ‘mould them into…’, ‘facile and self-indulgent’ Garner, ‘betty can jump’, dissent: a radical quarterly 28, Winter 1972, 47–50.
‘buzz’ Christos Tsiolkas. ‘Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip,’ ABC TV, 30 September 2014.
‘for a single beat…’ Garner, ‘Why Does the Women Get All the Pain?’, True Stories, 36.
‘own uncertain experience…’, ‘emotionally ecstatic…’ Garner, Digger 8, December 2–16, 1972, 1.
‘ga-ga with love’, ‘but then we…’ Garner, ‘Bisexuality: Joining the Middle’, ibid., 9.
‘popular four-letter words’, ‘the male and female…’ Garner, ‘Beware the wrath of caretakers’, Digger 10, 13–27 January 1973, 6.
‘debauch and corrupt…’ Richard Neville ‘Richard Neville in his own words’, Radio National, abc.net.au/news/2016-09-05/richard-neville-founder-of-oz-magazine-in-his-own-words/7814136, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘Shit, fuck, bum, cunt’ Meg Clancy, ‘The Pram Factory: Personal Memoirs’, pramfactory.com/memoirsfolder/Clancy-Meg.html, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘a bottler’ Garner to Clark, 23 December 1972.
‘Things I wrote…’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question’, True Stories, 3; ‘howled’, ‘hinted that one…’ Garner, ibid.
‘most peculiar attitude…’, ‘tiptoed…’, ‘I am quite sure…’ Garner to Clark, 17 April 1975.
‘all events described…’ Garner to Clark, 17 April 1975.
2: ‘The blind, needing self’: Monkey Grip
This chapter draws on interviews with Jane Clifton and Sally Ford and material from the McPhee Gribble archive in the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.
‘In the journal…’ Susan Sontag, ‘On Keeping a Journal’, 31 December 1957, David Rieff (ed.), Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks 1947–1963, New York: Picador, 2009, 166.
‘I have started…’ Garner to Clark, 4 December 1975.
‘uncontaminated by trends…’ Kate Jennings, Mother I’m Rooted: An Anthology of Australian Women Poets, Kate Jennings (ed.), Fitzroy, Victoria: Outback Press, 1975.
‘to tell us rather diffidently…’ Hilary McPhee, Other People’s Words. Sydney: Picador, 2001, 142.
‘a bit bumpy…’, ‘it was as if…’ ibid., 143.
‘tremendous’, ‘truthful’, Barbara Giles, ‘Reviews,’ Luna 1978, 42.
‘a good old-fashioned love story’, R. F. Brissenden in Katherine Brisbane, R. F. Brissenden and David Malouf, New Currents in Australian Writing, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1978, 26.
‘Immoral and sordid’, Australian, cited by McPhee, Other People’s Words, 143.
‘careless and unstructured’, ‘perverse’, ‘repetitious’, Irina Dunn, ‘The Fringe and the Core’, Nation Review, 3 November 1977, 17.
‘not a book for the prudish’, Veronica Schwartz, ‘Multiplying and Dividing,’ Australian Book Review, June 1978, 64.
‘Head prefect’, ‘at the centre…’, ‘Mr and Mrs Average…’ Jan McGuinness, ‘Helen the Stirrer’, Melbourne Herald, 27 December 1977, 21, 32.
‘the scatological verb’ Peter Pierce, ‘Conventions of Presence’, Meanjin 40.1 (1981), 113.
‘wrong kind of publicity’ John Larkin, ‘Different Style of Living and Surviving,’ Age, 22 October 1977, 24.
‘audacious’, ‘Helen Garner has published…’ Peter Corris, ‘Misfits and Depressives in the Raw,’ Weekend Australian, 5–6 November 1977, 12.
‘half of Carlton…’ Mark Rubbo, Australian Book Review, October 1984, 2.
‘I write entirely…’ Joan Didion, ‘Why I Write,’ New York Times Book Review, 5 December 1976, montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/whitmanhs/academics/english/Why%20I%20Write%20Didion.pdf, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘Why the sneer…’ Garner, ‘I’, Meanjin 61.1, 2002, 40.
‘in the Diary…’ Anaïs Nin, On Writing. Gremor Press, 1947, quotes reproduced at brainpickings.org/2013/09/20/anais-nin-on-writing-1947, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘impolite, brashly explorative…’ Suzanne Edgar, ‘A Feminism That’s Almost Priggish,’ Canberra Times, 4 March 1978, 12.
‘a coldness’, ‘nervous’ Garner to Clark, 7 February 1979.
‘Garner’s women characters…’ Susan Lever, Real Relations: The Feminist Politics of Form in Australian Fiction, Sydney: Halstead Press with the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 2000, 108.
‘a fast faker’ Garner, Monkey Grip, 8.
‘Stupidly for something…’ ibid., 47.
‘This honest book…’ Sean O’Beirne, ‘What I Loved’, Readings Monthly, September 2014.
‘where the sign read…’, ‘only testing the water…’ Garner, Monkey Grip, 2; ‘what it means…’ ibid., 147–148.
‘Monkey Grip’s particular …’ Lever, Real Relations, 110.
‘wished that women…’ Hélène Cixous, ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, Translated by Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs 1:4, Summer 1976, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1975, 876.
‘romantic, exclusive’ Garner, Monkey Grip, 156.
‘like a very complicated…’ ibid., 192.
‘getting a Carlton letter’ Jane Clifton, The Address Book, Camberwell, Victoria: Viking, 2011, 304.
‘I did despicable things…’ Ponch Hawkes, ‘The Pram Factory: Personal Memoirs’, pramfactory.com/memoirsfolder/Hawkes-Ponch.html, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘more story’, ‘passion on the page’ Colin Talbot, email to author, 23 January 2017.
‘such unstructured fiction…rejecting, illuminating’ Tegan Bennett Daylight, ‘A phone call to Helen Garner.’ Australian, 3 November 2012, theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/a-phone-call-to-helen-garner/story-fn9n8gph-1226508428981.
‘artless…naïve and appallingly revealing’, Garner ‘Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip’, documentary, ABC TV 30 September 2014.
‘Ms Garner is…’ Corris, ‘Misfits and Depressives’, 12.
‘The kids begin…’ Garner, Monkey Grip, 9–10.
‘attenuated weeping’ ibid., 66.
‘the one about…’ ibid., 7.
‘sheltered…to see what was…’, ‘bludger because I…’, ‘At 35 you’d think…’ McGuinness, ‘Helen the Stirrer,’ 32.
‘McPhee Gribble are about…’ Monkey Grip launch invitation, [archive], Baillieu Library.
‘easy nor an early…’, ‘heroin addiction…their full humanity’ Joyce Nicholson, Anne Summers and John McLaren. ‘National Book Council Annual Awards for Australian Literature: Judges’ Report.’ Australian Book Review, October 1978, 30–31.
3: Ruptures and Dislocations: Honour & Other People’s Children
This chapter draws on interviews with Jane Clifton and Sally Ford, and material from the McPhee Gribble archive.
‘that mighty institution…’ Garner, ‘Going the Bloody Hard Way: Notes on Micheline Lee’s The Healing Party’, Monthly, 7 June 2016, themonthly.com.au/blog/helen-garner/2016/07/2016/1465264597/going-bloody-hard-way.
‘I finally dragged…’ Garner to McPhee and Gribble, 24 May 1977.
‘I wrote this…’ Garner to McPhee and Gribble, 13 April 1978; ‘people have started…’ ibid.
‘through the streets…’ Alice Garner, The Student Chronicles, Carlton, Victoria: Miengunyah Press, 2006, 86.
‘nervously working on…’ Garner to McPhee and Gribble, 6 October 1978.
‘weird sort of politeness…’, ‘clichéd Carlton type’, ‘ORDINARY LOOKING’, ‘current hero’ and discussion of La Femme qui pleure and casting, Garner to Ken Cameron, 30 January 1979.
‘three main characters…’, ‘short stabs, very little…’ ibid.
‘another layer of the despised…Australian STORY FILM’, response to Mad Max, Garner to McPhee and Gribble, 16 May 1979.
‘stern advice’ Garner to McPhee and Gribble, 8 June 1979.
‘Helen came to…’ McPhee, Other People’s Words, 157.
‘We’ve both been…’ McPhee to Garner, 31 July 1979.
‘Of course I felt…’ Garner to McPhee, 8 August 1979.
‘…Things mattered…pain and loss’ Chris Wallace-Crabbe, ‘Genesis’, The Emotions are Skilled Workers. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1980, 4–6.
‘On summer nights…’ Garner, ‘Honour’, Honour & Other People’s Children, Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1980, 1; ‘lack of interest…’ ibid., 18; ‘himself into a bunch…’ ibid., 3.
‘a force-field’, ‘it was hatred…’, ‘some half-gagged…’ ibid., 26–27; ‘smelled coldly of...’, ‘rattled her fist …’ ibid., 6; ‘wash-house’ ibid., 25; ‘the house of…’ ibid., 26.
‘She wept bitterly…’ ibid., 52.
‘faultless in its structure…’ Jefferis, ‘Men and women and children,’ Sydney Morning Herald, December 1981.
‘A work of art’ Marion Halligan, ‘Excellence in Brevity’, Canberra Times 2 May 1981.
‘you would never…’ Summers, ‘View from the ghetto’, National Times, 23–29 November 1980, 44.
‘What am I…’ Garner, Honour & Other People’s Children, 46’; ‘moment of blessing’, ‘Jenny felt a…’ ibid., 23.
‘They hung in…’ ibid., 56.
‘harness of gloom’ ibid., 85; ‘in the tentative…’ ibid., 73.
‘self-consciously “a writer”’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question.’ True Stories, 5; ‘I tried to apply…’ ibid., 6.
‘the same degree…they strike me’ Garner, ‘I’, Meanjin, 42.
‘Powers of observation…’ Garner, ‘A world apart’, Eureka Street 5.10, December 1995, 29.
‘You may start…’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question’, True Stories, 6.
4: A Blessing on this House: The Children’s Bach
This chapter draws on material from the Scripsi archive in the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, the McPhee Gribble archive and the Papers of Axel Clark.
‘a young woman…’ Mark McKenna, An Eye for Eternity, Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2011, 508.
‘terribly impressive’ ibid., 508. ‘Often after breakfast…’, ‘[i]n Garner…’, ‘it was a typical…’ ibid., 509.
‘conscious compromise’, ‘inexorably refused’, ‘she was stone…’ Henry James, Madame de Mauves, ebook, The University of Adelaide, 17 December 2014.
‘an obsessive memory…’ McKenna, Eye for Eternity, 48.
‘She must be…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1996 (1984), 6.
‘after I’ve been with you…’ Garner to Axel and Alison Clark, 17 November 1985.
‘there would be…’ Kate Grenville and Sue Woolfe, Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993, 64.
‘like trying to make…’ Garner, Australian Women’s Weekly, 291.
‘order she would…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 22; ‘someone saves it…’ ibid., 1.
‘The Angel in the House’, ‘confined to the home…’ victorianpoetry-poeticsandcontext.wikispaces.com/The+Angel+in+the+House, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘saint’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 78; ‘perfect’ ibid., 38; ‘contained, without needs…’ ibid., 26; ‘tremble with holding…’ ibid., 48.
‘probably the greatest…’, ‘the almost moral…’, ‘to perceive form…’ Garner, Making Stories, 68.
‘Take out the clichés…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 89.
‘Polyphony: which is…’ E. Harold Davies (ed.) The Children’s Bach, Melbourne: Allen, 1933, v.
‘weaves her characters’ loves…’ Don Anderson, ‘A Tale of Modern Love: The Children’s Bach’, Hot Copy: Reading and Writing Now, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1986, 35.
‘It occurred to me…’ Anne Olivier Bell, assisted by Andrew McNeillie (eds). The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume Three 1925–1930, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, 339.
‘what happens in…’, ‘The War or that kind of thing…’ Shelagh Rogers, ‘Interview with Helen Garner’, Australian and New Zealand Studies in Canada 1, 1989, 36.
‘men fuck girls…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 18; ‘rules’, ‘modern life’ ibid., 28.
‘because there is…’ Rogers, ‘Interview with Helen Garner’, 36.
‘I have a young…’ Garner to Clark, 31 August 1984.
‘their fingers met…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 57; ‘Perhaps there was…’ ibid., 65; ‘that the day…’ ibid., 88; ‘The Children’s Bach…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 29.
‘moral’ Ellison, Rooms of their Own, 141.
‘tough-talking radical’, ‘I’ve always loved children…’ Eleanor Wachtel, ‘I’m Writing to Save Myself: An Interview with Helen Garner’, Australian and New Zealand Studies in Canada 10 (1993), 65.
‘dream again…’ Garner, The Children’s Bach, 95.
‘and Athena will…’ ibid., 96.
‘One or two people…’ McPhee, Other People’s Words, 245.
‘There are four…’ Don Anderson, ‘A master is rescued’, National Times, 20–26 June 1986, 34.
‘Please give my regards…’ Raymond Carver to Craven, 26 July 1984.
‘It is so painstakingly…’ Garner to Craven, 26 July 1984.
‘this rush of emotion…’ ‘Helen Garner’s Consolation’, Brisbane Times, 16 June 2008, brisbanetimes.com.au/news/books/helen-garners-consolation/2008/06/15/1213468225536.html.
5: Boundary Riding: Postcards from Surfers
This chapter draws on the McPhee Gribble archives in the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.
‘an urgent sense…’ Garner, ‘Tutto Sereno’, The Feel of Steel, 94.
‘big blunt’, ‘looked as if…’ Garner, ‘Postcards from Surfers’, Postcards from Surfers, Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1989 (1985), 9.
‘who’s not going…’ ‘Women like us…’, Garner, ‘The Life of Art’, ibid., 62.
‘I was all over…’ Craig McGregor, ‘The Gospel According to Garner,’ Good Weekend Magazine, 29 February 1992, 30.
‘Philip has turned…’ Ray Willbanks, Speaking Volumes: Australian Writers and Their Work, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1992, 95.
‘bend the bars…’ Garner, ‘Civilisation and its Discontents’, Postcards from Surfers, 96.
‘I turn forty-one’ Garner, ‘A Happy Story’, ibid., 105; ‘I am finally…’ ibid., 106.
‘almost dazzlingly confident…’ Katherine England, ‘Joyful Shocks of Recognition’, Advertiser Magazine, 8 March 1986, 20.
‘the fine sense of scale’, ‘intriguing’ Nicholas Jose, ‘Reviews in Brief’, Age Monthly Review 5.10 (March 1986), 22.
‘position as one of…’ McPhee, Other People’s Words, 244.
‘idiosyncratic vision…’ Kathryn Kramer, ‘A Pleasant Discord’, New York Times, 7 December 1986. nytimes.com/1986/12/07/books/a-pleasant-discord.html.
6: Relinquishing Control: Two Friends and The Last Days of Chez Nous
This chapter draws on material from the McPhee Gribble and Scripsi archives in the Baillieu Library, and an interview with Peter Craven.
‘My method of work…’ Garner, The Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends, Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1992.
‘rough, obsessive, unstoppable’ Craven to Catherine Ford, 18 December 1982.
‘seemed exact’, ‘In Garner small…’ Craven, ‘The Successful Transition of Helen Garner’, Age, 14 October 1992, 4.
‘saw a little story…’ ‘dragged’, ‘really, in a funny sort…’, Garner in Gerry Turcotte (ed.) Writers in Action: The Writer’s Choice Evenings, Sydney: Currency Press, 1990, 164–165.
‘Ah, I LOVE Two Friends…’, ‘I had to learn…’ Garner, interview with author, 11 August 2015.
‘to write “a gay comedy…’, ‘bones of the plot’, ‘BETH and JP…’ Garner, McPhee Gribble archive.
‘dense crazy little…’ ibid.
‘Do you think…’ Garner, Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends, 45.
‘not a bad performance’, ‘it’s simply a pity…’, ‘[Judy] Davis (or Helen Morse)’ Craven, ‘The Successful Transition of Helen Garner’.
‘it seemed a gift…’, ‘A spire, no matter…’, ‘qualities of air…’, ‘the very image…’, Garner, Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends, xi–xii.
‘Dear Peter, I suppose…’ Garner to Craven, 31 October 1992.
7: The House of the Spirit: Cosmo Cosmolino and Other Stories
This chapter draws on material from the Papers of Hilary McPhee, NLA, the Scripsi archive, an interview with Ed Campion and the author’s correspondence with Tim Winton.
‘I feel as if…’ Garner in Turcotte (ed.), Writers in Action: The Writer’s Choice Evenings, Sydney: Currency Press, 1990, 172.
‘to shift the focus…’ Garner ‘Germaine Greer and the Menopause’, True Stories, 133; ‘essential stage…’ ibid., 136.
‘learn the language…’ Garner, ‘On Turning Fifty’, True Stories, 141.
‘an obscure longing…’ Garner, Making Stories, 72.
‘strange, crazy dream-richness’ ibid., 70.
‘the doors open…’ Drusilla Modjeska, Second Half First: A Memoir, North Sydney: Knopf, 2015, 84.
‘This style was…’ Garner, ‘Dreams, the Bible and Cosmo Cosmolino’, True Stories, 121–122.
‘I was very influenced…’ Susan Wyndham, ‘Femme Fatale’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 July 2004, 25.
‘Nothing can be sole…’ Garner, ‘What We Say’, My Hard Heart, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1998, 19; ‘Words which people…’ ibid., 18.
‘one of those…’ ibid., 17; ‘independent breath…’, ‘I gave him my…’, ‘You’ve made a mess…’ ibid., 21.
‘the one doing…’ Garner, ‘The Psychological Effect of Wearing Stripes’, My Hard Heart, 9.
‘is perhaps closer…’, ‘no realist framework…’, ‘a kind of dream…’ Goldsworthy, Helen Garner, 55.
‘laid out with…’ Garner to McPhee, 30 October 1989.
‘Oh yes now…that scared me’ Garner, email to author, 13 August 2015.
‘the way the stories…’, ‘waiting (the world’s)…’ Garner to McPhee, 9 February 1990.
‘They hurt with…’ Garner, ‘A Visitation’, Cosmo Cosmolino, Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1992.
‘I don’t remember…’ Garner, ‘My First Baby’, Everywhere I Look, 199.
‘would not be…’ Garner, interview with author, 11 August 2015.
‘after I had…’ Garner, email to author, 18 August 2015.
‘I feel gloomy…’ Garner to McPhee, 27 February 1990.
‘wicked ways’ Ramona Koval, ‘The Terrible Strength of Angels,’ Introduction to Cosmo Cosmolino, Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2012, ix.
‘to think things…so I do’ Garner to Clark, 22 December 1962.
‘cowardice’ Garner to Craven, 15 November 1988.
‘mighty force’ Tim Winton, correspondence with author, 22 March 2016; ‘star-struck…quite worldly’ ibid.
‘the bodies and…roadtrain of evangelicalism’, ‘I remember a card…’ ibid.
‘soon after the…’ Garner, ‘Recording Angel’, Cosmo Cosmolino, 3.
‘oldest…most loyal…’ ibid., 7; ‘sad girl’, problem…’ ibid., 17. ‘It dropped through…’ ibid., 12.
‘Have you ever…’, ‘like a judge…’ ibid., 19.
‘He was a small…’ ibid., 22.
‘I was very defensive…’ Garner, interview with author, 11 August 2015.
‘complicated, angry, frightened…’, ‘He said he…’ Garner, ‘A World Apart,’ Eureka Street, 30.
‘panicky’, ‘clearly unpublishable’, ‘I can’t quite…’ Garner to McPhee, 24 April 1990.
‘I didn’t start shaking…’ Garner, ‘Death’, True Stories, 229.
‘a bird uttered…’ Garner, ‘A Vigil’, Cosmo Cosmolino, 38; ‘In the passion…’ ibid., 44; ‘calm stone gaze’, ‘unbearable diamond… living, living, living’ ibid., 47; ‘out onto the…’, ibid., 47.
‘head girls’, Moya Costello, ‘Head Girls and Helen Garner’s Women’, Imago 9.3 (Summer 1997), 3–12.
‘bruised’, ‘heart of the…’ ‘Cosmo Cosmolino’, Cosmo Cosmolino, 64; ‘a white-washed tomb…’, ‘nothing but bones’ ibid., 66; ‘ribcage’, ibid., 79; ‘Behind her left…’ ibid., 88.
‘the pleasure of serving…’ ‘skull’, ibid., 57; ibid., 120.
‘It’s quite simple…’ Garner, ‘Sighs Too Deep for Words’, The Feel of Steel, 81.
‘of course the failure…’, ‘when writing this…’ Garner to Craven, 1 August 1991.
‘tears of bliss’ Garner, ‘Cosmo Cosmolino’, Cosmo Cosmolino, 192.
‘grapplings with spirituality…of meaningless hyperprose’ John Nieuwenhuizen, ‘Style without grace,’ Australian Book Review, April 1992, 17.
‘move into religion…’, ‘insubstantial’, ‘just the same…’, ‘soon as writers…’ Susan Chenery, ‘The Cosmos of Helen Garner.’ Australian Magazine, 29 February–1 March 1992, 17.
‘a more wondrous’, ‘write something that…’ Garner, ‘Dreams, the Bible and Cosmo Cosmolino’, True Stories, 122.
‘purple’, Fiona Capp, ‘The Ultimate Deadline: Journalism and Fiction’, Australian Book Review, February–March 1995, 34, and Jenna Mead, ‘Politics, Patriarchy and Death’, Island 53 (1992), 67.
‘the framing had…’ Garner, ‘Cosmo Cosmolino’, Cosmo Cosmolino, 176.
‘The Children’s Bach was…the finest sense’ Winton, correspondence with author 22 March 2016.
Part II: Questions of Judgment
‘The characters of nonfiction…’ Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990, 149.
8: The First Stone: Some Questions About Sex and Power
This chapter draws on interviews with Ross Gibb, Brian Stonier, Hilary McPhee, David Malouf, Barbara Mobbs and Drusilla Modjeska. Additional material came from the Papers of Helen Garner and the Papers of Hilary McPhee in the NLA.
‘In a work…’ Malcolm, The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes. New York: Knopf, 1995, 154.
‘good faith’, Jenna Mead and Amanda Lohrey, ‘Sexual Harassment and Feminism’, RePublica 2, 1995, 166.
‘totally and emphatically’ Garner, The First Stone, Picador: Sydney, 1995, 13; ‘feminists pushing fifty…at the time?’ ibid., 15.
‘heartbreaking…warmest good wishes’, Garner to Alan Gregory, 25 August 1992.
‘moment of irrational…’ David Malouf, interview with author, 21 March 2016.
‘the thoroughbred…tearing her fetlocks’ Barbara Mobbs, interview with author, 30 November 2015.
‘quite dumb…feel myself to be’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question: Forethought and Hindthought about The First Stone,’ LiNQ 24:2 (October 1997), 10–11; ‘awareness of that…’ ibid., 11.
‘felt the first stab…’ Garner, The First Stone, 37; ‘Helen you have been…’ ibid., 70.
‘shot herself…hand too early’ Janet Malcolm, ‘Women at War: A Case of Sexual Harrassment’, New Yorker, 7 July 1997, 73.
‘in my psyche…’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question: Forethought and Hindthought about The First Stone’, 12.
‘haunted’. Garner, The First Stone, 39.
‘Helen, this story…’ Garner, The First Stone, 70.
‘Again and again…on the brakes’ ibid., 175.
‘seems to engage…’ Shirley Hazzard, Letter to Helen Garner, 30 December 1995.
‘her uneconomical, exhausting…’ Garner, The First Stone, 142.
‘put the whole thing…’ ibid., 71; ‘some obscure reason’ ibid.; ‘finding out things…’ ibid., 72.
‘the Ormond drama…’ Goldsworthy, Helen Garner, 73.
‘tragically bereft’, ‘a relatively minor…’, ‘sexual harassment’, ‘abuse of power’ Garner, The First Stone, 165–166; ‘old fear of…’ ibid., 145; ‘I functioned from…’ ibid., 71–72.
‘hate’ ibid., 151; ‘retribution’, ‘out of date…’, ‘terrifically at a disadvantage’ ibid., 97; ‘priggish, disingenuous…’ ibid., 93; ‘constant stress on passivity…’ ibid., 99.
‘revenge of the powerless’, ‘slave’ Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic, trans., Douglas Smith, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 (1887), 20.
‘bruises upon bruises’ Garner, ‘Killing Daniel’, True Stories, 164.
‘right from the…propaganda for war’ Garner, The First Stone, 100; ‘pretty’, ‘conservative’ ibid., 58; ‘daring beauty…authority and power’ ibid., 59.
‘What’s wrong with…’ Elspeth Probyn, ‘Re: Generation. Women’s Studies and the Disciplining of Ressentiment,’ Australian Feminist Studies 13:27(1998), 134.
‘I thought…at fifty…’ Garner, The First Stone, 40; ‘pathetic bravado’, ‘I practically pleaded…’ ibid., 106.
‘So this is…’ ibid., 97.
‘grim-faced Presbyterians…among their legs’ ibid., 35.
‘say more to…’ Goldsworthy, Helen Garner, 82.
‘putty in the hands…’ Garner, The First Stone, 202.
‘nervous sweat’, Candida Baker, Yacker: Australian Writers Talk About Their Work, Sydney: Picador, 153.
‘priggish’, ‘puritan’ ‘conflating the genuinely…’ Goldsworthy, Helen Garner, 79.
‘I dreaded discovering…’ Garner, The First Stone, 146.
‘the famous novelist’, ‘talking to your…’ Cassandra Pybus, ‘Cassandra Pybus reviews Helen Garner’s The First Stone’, Australian Book Review, May 1995, 6–8.
‘implacable ambiguities…’ Ihab Hassan, ‘Australia’, World Literature Today 69.4 (Autumn 1995), 865.
‘thunderstruck’, ‘embarrassed’, ‘I behaved like…’ Garner, The First Stone, 174; ‘What is this fear…’ ibid., 209; ‘felt intensely foolish…’, ‘stupidest of all…’ ibid., 208; ‘was I, like…’ ibid., 209.
‘What is disappearing…’ Jane Gallop and Geraldine Doogue, ‘Consenting Adults?’, ABC Radio 24 Hours, November 1993, 49.
‘The erotic will…’ Garner, The First Stone, 161.
‘But feminism too…’ ibid., 202.
‘The struggle for…’ Zoe Heller, ‘Ill-founded outrage’, Times Literary Supplement, 13 August 1993, 11.
‘craziness’ ‘Helen Garner in Conversation with Jennifer Byrne Part 1’.
‘rips open what…’ Frank Rich, ‘Review: Oleanna; Mamet’s New Play Detonates the Fury of Sexual Harassment.’ New York Times, 26 October 1992, nytimes.com/1992/10/26/theater/review-theater-oleanna-mamet-s-new-play-detonates-the-fury-of-sexual-harassment.html.
‘the risk of sanitizing…teachers and students’ Margaret Talbot, ‘A most dangerous method’, Lingua Franca, January–February 1994, 40.
‘Packwoods and Woody…or as rapists?’ Erica Jong, ‘Fear of Flirting: Let Sense Prevail’, Washington Post, 8 December 1992, 5; ‘I am working…’ ibid., page.
‘victimhood’, ‘power feminism’ see Naomi Wolf, Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century, New York: Vintage, 1993 & Katie Roiphe, The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1993.
‘if only the whole…’ Garner, The First Stone, 222.
‘a less cruel…’ ibid., 222.
‘the freedom to…’ Janet Malcolm, The Silent Woman, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, 41; ‘Writing cannot be…’ ibid., 176.
‘a man accused…’ Garner, The First Stone, 15; ‘just poor bastards’ ibid., 99.
‘sympathetic rendering…’ Marilyn Lake, ‘Three Perspectives on Helen Garner’s The First Stone’, Australian Book Review, September 1995, 26.
‘shifting speculations’ Garner, ‘The Fate of The First Stone’, True Stories, 170.
‘robust discussion’ Ross Gibb, interview and correspondence with author, 19 October 2016.
‘feeding off’ Pybus, ABR May 1995, 8.
‘envy…hatred…’ Jenna Mead, ‘The First Stone: Feminism and Non-fiction’, The Sydney Institute, 20 September 1995, The Sydney Papers (Spring 1995), 127.
‘charges and counter-charges…’ Marilyn Lake, Australian Book Review, 27.
‘primal’ Garner, ‘The Fate of The First Stone’, True Stories, 170; ‘these young idealists…’ ibid., 175.
‘confusion’, ‘ignorance’ Mead, ‘Pity not she who casts the first stone’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 August 1995.
‘More perplexing, however…’ Virginia Trioli, Generation F: Sex, Power and the Young Feminist, Port Melbourne: Minerva, 1996, 21.
‘extra efforts…general ignorance’ Rosi Braidotti, ‘Remembering Fitzroy High’, in Jenna Mead (ed.), bodyjamming, Milsons Point, NSW: Vintage, 1997, 128.
‘persuaded by Garner’s…very empowering indeed’ Zora Simic, ‘Response: On Reading “The First Stone” Ten Years Later,’ Lilith: A Feminist History Journal vol. 15 (2006), 18–31.
‘a kind of robustness…’ Modjeska, email to author, 16 October 2015.
‘The spirit of…’ Garner, ‘A Scrapbook, An Album’, True Stories, 69.
‘vanity and pride…’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question: Forethought and Hindsight about The First Stone’ (1997), 11.
9: Asserting Her Credentials: True Stories and The Feel of Steel
This chapter draws on Sara Dowse’s interview with Garner and unpublished material: the eulogy for Gwen Ford, Garner’s tribute to the Reverend Bill Lawton and her correspondence with the archdeacon, from the Helen Garner archive held at Baillieu Library.
‘opposite me sits…’ Garner, ‘Five Train Trips’, True Stories, 204.
‘favourite character in…’ Garner, ‘The Art of the Dumb Question’, True Stories, 2.
‘capricious, lazy, ill-humoured…’, ‘a little misfortune’ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, 1854, ebook, University of Adelaide, 17 December 2014, ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/thackeray/william_makepeace/rose, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘bleak story of…’ Garner, True Stories, 166; ‘What happened to…’ ibid., 168.
‘sceptical, ironic but…’ Garner, ‘Marriage’, True Stories, 217.
‘changed her way…’ ‘Ramona Koval Talks to Helen Garner About True Stories, a Collection of her Non-fiction Work Over Twenty-five Years’, Ramona Koval, Australian Book Review, May 1996, 24.
‘conviction’ Garner, ‘Death’, True Stories, 229.
‘if you watch…’ Garner, ‘Ramona Koval talks to Helen Garner…’, 24.
‘I saw a woman…’ ibid.
‘an abyss and depth…’, ‘O broad light…’ Francis Webb, ‘Nessun Dorma’, in Toby Davidson (ed.), Collected Poems: Francis Webb, Crawley, WA: UWA Publishing, 2011, 345.
‘This time I’m…’ Malcolm, ‘Women at War’, 75.
‘Therapy was extremely…’ Susan Wyndham, ‘Wiping away the tears’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25–26 August 2001, Spectrum, 7.
‘really home’ Garner, ‘Writing Home’, The Feel of Steel, 6.
‘tourist ships to…greatest mystery of all?’ Garner, ‘Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice,’ The Feel of Steel, 13; ‘scores of ships…’, ‘have shrunk so…’, ‘too sad to…’ ibid., 14.
‘urge to compare…’ ibid., 16; ‘only in abstract terms’ ibid., 17.
‘What if somebody’s…’ Garner, ‘Woman in a Green Mantle’, The Feel of Steel, 35; ‘Writing is a sickness…’ ibid., 37.
‘there are days…’ Garner, ‘Sighs too Deep for Words’, The Feel of Steel, 80–81.
‘a passionate hatred’, ‘Go in peace…’ ibid., 84.
‘the smaller the thing…’ Wyndham, ‘Wiping away the tears’, 7.
‘Everything around me…’ Garner, ‘Tess Bows Out’, The Feel of Steel, 152.
‘At the sight…’ Garner, ‘The Nanna-Mobile’, The Feel of Steel, 188.
‘They were my future’, ‘collapse of ambition…just taking off.’ ibid., 190.
‘a kind but…un-awe-inspiring’ Garner, ‘Against Embarrassment’, Best Australian Essays 2003, Melbourne: Black Inc., 2003, 212.
‘a kind and…’, ‘Somewhere in the background…’ Garner, ‘Whisper and Hum’, Everywhere I Look, 5.
‘“You may be…’ Garner, ‘The Feel of Steel 2’, The Feel of Steel, 204.
‘Four bars in…’ Garner, ‘Dear Professor Molchanov’, in Genevieve Lacey and James Crabb (eds.), Heard This and Thought of You, ABC Classics, Sydney, 9.
10: The Shape of Loss: Lament and Restitution in Joe Cinque’s Consolation
This chapter draws on the Papers of Helen Garner and Hilary McPhee in the NLA. Additional material came from Sara Dowse’s interview with Garner.
‘Remembering is an…’ Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, 115.
‘I had been…’ ‘humiliated and angry’, ‘find out if…’, ‘slip quietly into…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, Sydney: Picador, 2004, 121.
‘are always good…’ ibid., 30; ‘a little movie’ ibid., 76; ‘to call the encounter…’ ibid., 85; ‘declared roundly…’ ibid., 188.
‘A book about her...’ ibid., 80.
‘I was dumb…’ ibid., 270.
‘everything ethical’ Garner, interview with Sara Dowse, 15–16 March 2005.
‘dangerous and exciting…’ Garner, ‘Woman in a Green Mantle’, The Feel of Steel, 42.
‘To mourn avails…’ The Iliad of Homer translated by Alexander Pope, Volume 4, bartelby.com/203/191.html, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘a piece of writing…’ Elizabeth Gloyn, ‘Consolatio’, lizgloyn. wordpress.com/2011/06/27/consolations-and-grief-in-the-ancient-world, accessed 25 January 2017.
‘a mess, full…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 141.
‘enlarge my imagination…’ ibid., 188; ‘Call that mental…’ ibid., 38; ‘a self-centred…’, ‘expendable commodity’, ‘Memories from my…’ ibid., 44.
‘Do we identify…’ ibid., 66.
‘the narcissism, just…’, ‘quite manic…’, ‘either it’s not pathological…’ Susan Wyndham, ‘Femme fatale’, 25.
‘wanted to save…’, ‘thunderstruck’, ‘contemplating the wreckage…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 324; ‘was like everybody…’, ibid., 231; ‘One girl wild…’ibid., 232.
‘a fallible register…’ Morag Fraser, ‘Joe Cinque’s Consolation’, Age, August 14 2004, theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/11/1092102517082.html.
‘bigger, louder, brighter’, ‘because of our…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 178.
‘was uninterested in…’ ibid., 142.
‘wrenched askew’, ‘dragged halfway…’, ‘stained’ ibid., 143–144; ‘youth and tenderness’, ‘beauty and freshness’, ‘thin trickle of…’ ibid., 144.
‘I treasure the memory…’ Garner, ‘On Darkness’, Everywhere I Look, 145.
‘The first time…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 3; ‘friends and family’ ibid.; ‘the whole tale…’ ibid., 178; ‘the jolting visual…’ ibid., 21.
‘forever looking at…’ Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, 55.
‘murder, trial, punishment’, ‘collected horrors…’, ‘it was a long…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 275.
‘not guilty of…’ ibid., 68.
‘Whilst the behaviour…’ ibid., 80.
‘Was there ever…’ ibid., 80; ‘I think there are…’ ibid., 314; ‘in an anxious…’ ibid., 152; ‘there is a good…’ ibid., 153; ‘bizarre’ ibid., 75.
‘embodied and highly…’ Anthea Taylor, ‘Victims and Vixens’, Politics and Culture 4 (2005), politicsandculture.org/2010/08/17/victims-and-vixens-2, accessed 25 January 2017.
‘really believed that…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 325.
‘is an apology…’ Marina Warner, ‘Who’s sorry now?’, Times Literary Supplement, 1 August 2003, 10.
‘ordinariness of…’, ‘flashed’, ‘a bright smile’, ‘a little wave’, ‘Why wasn’t she…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 51; ‘her soul’, ibid., 289; ‘what happened’ ibid., 115; ‘for what she…’, ‘Did words like…’ ibid., 289.
‘rent in the…’ ibid., 280; ‘came anywhere near…’ ibid., 290; ‘bear witness to…’ ibid.
‘in view of…’ Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, New York: Penguin Books, 1994 (1963), 287.
‘If you acknowledge…’ Wyndham, ‘Femme Fatale’, 25.
‘moral dignity’, ‘restraint’, ‘unable to emulate him’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 280.
‘Into my thoughts…’ ibid., 87; ‘read miserably…’, ‘ploughed through books…’ ibid., 280.
‘Difficult? I thought…’ ibid., 241; ‘the original enterprise’, ‘a whole new enterprise…’, ibid., 244; ‘The hide of this…’ ibid., 242; ‘innocent bystander’ ibid., 244; ‘wave of incredulity…’ ibid., 245; ‘With the point…’ ibid., 247.
‘A pimp laid…’ ibid., 256; ‘never thought of…’ ibid., 247.
‘the complex issues…’, ‘unexamined assumptions…’ JaneMaree Maher, Jude McCulloch & Sharon Pickering. ‘“[W]here women face the judgement of their sisters”, review of Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice vol. 16, issue 2 (November 2004), 233.
‘The Garner narrative…’ Inga Clendinnen ‘Making Stories, Telling Tales: Life, Literature, Law.’ 18th Lionel Murphy Memorial Lecture, 17 November 2004. lionelmurphy.anu.edu.au/memorial_lectures.htm, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘limitation’, ‘in Garner’s stubborn…’ Penny Pether, ‘The Prose and the Passion: Penny Pether Searches for an Australian “Constitutional Epic” in our Recent Literature and Cinema’, Meanjin 66.3, September 2007, 43.
‘Everything he said was…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 318–319.
‘Was the law…’ ibid., 280.
‘its historically problematic’, ‘supplement and a…’, ‘We might think…’
Wai Chee Dimock, Residues of Justice: Literature, Law Philosophy, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, 9–10.
‘never seen a case…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 315; ‘Sitting there…’ ibid., p317; ‘awestruck’, ‘Her outburst after…’ ibid., 131.
‘What’s the use…’, ‘What freshness can…’ ibid., 281.
‘Oh, if only…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 114.
‘Helen it’s good’ Susan Wyndham, ‘Femme Fatale’, 25.
‘moving, enraging, poignant…’ Kate Grenville, Australian, 9 December 2006.
‘a tragic drama…’ Susan Lever, ‘Truth found under another stone’, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 August 2004, 9.
‘exceptional case of…’ Maryanne Dever, ‘Hanging Out for Judgement?’, Australian Women’s Book Review 16.2 (2004).
‘I blessed him…’ Garner, ‘Dreams of Her Real Self’, Everywhere I Look, 92.
‘What are you…’ Garner, ‘Recording Angel’, Cosmo Cosmolino, 7.
‘those wonderful Jungian…’ Garner, ‘Moving Experience’, Monthly, September 2005, republished as ‘White Paint and Calico’ in Everywhere I Look, 16.
11: Telling It Like It Is: Love and Tyranny in The Spare Room
‘To have a friend…’ Jacques Derrida, ‘The Taste of Tears’, The Work of Mourning, Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas (eds.), Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001, 107.
‘Death will not…’ Garner, The Spare Room, Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2008, 89.
‘tall, striding’, ‘staggering…’ ibid., 1; ‘I pushed [Bessie]…’, ‘Go home, sweetheart…’ ibid., 12.
‘almost all subject-verb-predicate…’ Robert Dessaix, ‘Kitchen-table Candour: Helen Garner’s The Spare Room,’ Monthly, April 2008.
‘On Tuesday’, ibid., 41, 163, ‘That night’, ibid., 39, 63 ‘On Friday’, ibid., 118, ‘That afternoon’ ibid., Garner, The Spare Room, 92, 171.
‘Who was I…’, ‘dragged’, ‘I looked at…’, ibid., 69; ‘Death was in… vitality surged’, ibid., 80.; ‘“I’ve learnt that…’ ibid., 94–95.
‘What did I know…’ ibid., 37; ‘She laid down…’ ibid., 35.
‘The flesh was…’ ibid., 17.
‘I didn’t know…’ ibid., 189; ‘thrilling alto drone’ ibid., 192; ‘I had no idea…’, ‘If I did not…’ ibid., 193.
‘…when she was dead…’ Shannon Burns, ‘Shannon Burns Talks with Helen Garner’, Wet Ink 24 (September 2011), 32.
‘elegance and taut…’ Kate Bateman, ‘A Taut Telling of a Tough Treatment’, review of The Spare Room, Irish Times, 2 August 2008, irishtimes.com/news/a-taut-telling-of-a-tough-treatment-1.925914.
‘extraordinary, exhilarating novel’ Olivia Laing, ‘A Passionate End to a Bohemian Rhapsody’, Guardian, 6 July 2008, theguardian.com/books/2008/jul/06/fiction.reviews.
‘great fiction’, ‘demand[ing] us to reset…’ Mukherjee, Neel, review of The Spare Room, Times, 28 June 2008, neelmukherjee.com/2008/06/the-spare-room-by-helen-garner, accessed 27 January 2017.
‘it’s a fiction…’ Davies, Stevie. ‘A Literary Revelation from the Final Chapter of a Life,’ review of The Spare Room, Independent, 17 July 2008, independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-spare-room-by-helen-garner-5475274.html.
‘The Spare Room is a far more…’ James Wood, ‘James Wood on the books of 2009’, New Yorker, 9 December 2009, newyorker.com/books/page-turner/james-wood-on-the-books-of-2009.
‘a quietly devastating…’ Dessaix, ‘Kitchen-table Candour’.
‘It is morally…’ Burns, ‘Shannon Burns Talks with Helen Garner’, 28.
‘When I started…’ ibid., 30.
12: The Darkness Within: Bearing Witness in This House of Grief
This chapter draws on Garner’s research material for This House of Grief, which has now been deposited in the NLA. It is yet to be catalogued. Additional material came from Garner’s unpublished eulogy for Diana Gribble, her unpublished launch speech for A Sense of Humanity: The Ethical Thought of Raimond Gaita and her unpublished opening address to participants in the Judicial College of Victoria workshop.
‘Night. Low foliage…’, ‘Oh Lord…’ Garner, This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial, Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2014, 2.
‘he had done…’ ibid., 10.
‘I’m left with…’ Garner, ‘The Rules of Engagement’, Everywhere I Look, 180.
‘a lean, contained…to watch’ Garner, This House of Grief, 7; ‘silver-haired man…’ ibid., 8; ‘Homeric’ ibid., 24; ‘gargantuan’ ibid., 156, ‘energy-thieving’ ibid., 136, ‘catastrophically lacking…’, ‘a jelly of…’ ibid., 23.
‘surged into the…’ ibid., 185; ‘scared, and small…’ ibid., 7; ‘in a series…’, ‘people in the court…’ ibid., 30; ‘soundlessly, without…’, ‘a great knotted…’ ibid., 35, ‘the day’s wild…’ ibid., 235, ‘along, bowed over…’ ibid., 231.
‘Figures were scattered…’ ibid., 154, ‘Marks. The light…’ ibid., 166, ‘They were tackled…’ ibid., 22.
‘By now…the very words…’ ibid., 73; ‘someone who spent…’ ibid., 7; ‘in a full…’ ibid., 242; ‘every man and…’ ibid., 12; ‘did rock through…’ ibid., 43; ‘if he did it’, ‘the least interesting…’ ibid., 115.
‘the innocence or…’ Garner, The First Stone, 40.
‘an abyss of…’ Garner, This House of Grief, 37.
‘To have my…’, ‘to think like…’ ibid., 92.
‘if only Farquharson…’ ibid., 93.
‘There are no…’ James Ley, ‘Gut Instinct’, Sydney Review of Books, 19 December 2014, sydneyreviewofbooks.com/this-house-of-grief-helen-garner.
‘calm and shrewd…’ Garner, ‘On Darkness’, Everywhere I Look, 149.
‘Again, eyes shut…in her hands’ Garner, This House of Grief, 46–47; ‘tender reverse-midwifery’, ‘water creatures’, ‘three silvery, naked…’ ibid., 49.
‘empathetic unsettlement’, Dominick LaCapra, Writing History, Writing Trauma, Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press, 2001, 42; ‘middle voice’, ‘modulations of proximity…’, ibid., 26, 30.
‘land a blow…’ Garner, This House of Grief, 114; ‘sentimental fantasy…’ ibid., 44.
‘Surely Freud was…’ ibid., 45; ‘to amputate his…’ ibid., 57; ‘We were women…’ ibid., 2–3.
‘only a teeth-baring…’ ibid., 185; ‘You poor bastard…’ ibid., 186.
‘relentless loyalty…’, ‘a treasured boy’ ibid., 146; ‘big sister’ ibid., 19.
‘daylight dry desolate…less than hideous’ Garner to Clark, 28 December 1963.
‘stood like a…’ Garner, This House of Grief, 196.
‘formed a dark…’ ibid., 204.
‘to know a man…’ E. L. Doctorow, ‘Edgemont Drive’, New Yorker, 26 April 2010, newyorker.com/magazine/2010/04/26/edgemont-drive.
‘pondering again some…’ Ken Crispin, email to Garner, 25 March 2009.
‘dragging great shaggy…’ Garner, NonfictioNow, ‘An Evening with Helen Garner, 22 November 2012, youtube.com/watch?v=8rfsXsBg3IU, published 23 January 2013.
‘annoyed’, ‘upset’ Garner, This House of Grief, 272; ‘like watching some…’, ‘motherly woman’ ibid., 273; ‘about the water…’ ibid.
‘By the time…’, ‘Court Eleven, where…’ ibid., 274.
‘But we weren’t…’ Garner, Joe Cinque’s Consolation, 319.
‘patriotic’, ‘bent over backwards’ Garner, This House of Grief, 251; ‘surge of adrenalin…’ ibid., 6.
‘brilliant, poetic work…’ Felicity Plunkett, ‘Helen Garner and Our Terrible Projections: Helen Garner and the Corridors of Empathy,’ Australian Book Review, September 2014, 16.
‘I wanted to…’ Garner, This House of Grief, 190.
‘Garner’s wider interests…’ James Ley, ‘Gut Instinct,’ Sydney Review of Books.
‘cloud of unknowing’ Garner, This House of Grief, 261.
‘one day I…’ Joanna Field (Marion Milner), An Experiment in Leisure, London: Virago, 1986 (1987), 232.
‘Staying with the…’ Peter Ellingsen, ‘Haunted by details missing in the struggle for objectivity,’ Age, 4 June 2009, 19.
‘thought of the law…’ Garner, email to author, 22 May 2016.
‘fantasy of one…’ Garner, This House of Grief, 250.
‘Dura lex sed…’ ibid., 197; ‘The children’s fate…’ ibid., 300; ‘What sort of…’ ibid., 294.
‘magnificent’ Peter Craven, ‘Robert Farquharson Murder Case Takes Helen Garner Into the Abyss’, Review This House of Grief, Weekend Australian, 23 August 2014, theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/robert-farquharson-murder-case-takes-helen-garner-into-the-abyss/news-story/0e9af664ab31bb6f9efd401b2b5f84d1.
‘compelling’ Kate Clanchy, ‘This House of Grief by Helen Garner Review—a Triumph by One of Australia’s Greatest Writers’, Guardian, 8 January 2016, theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/08/this-house-of-grief-helen-garner-review.
‘[t]ender and electrifying’ Review ‘This House of Grief’, Saturday Paper, 23 August 2014.
‘Garner’s spare, clean…’ Plunkett, ‘Helen Garner and Our Terrible Projections’, 292.
‘mastery’, ‘has perfected’ Ley, ‘Gut Instinct’, Sydney Review of Books.
‘utterly rivetting’, ‘demands of the…’ Marilyn Warren CJ to Garner, 26 July 2014.
‘it’s a moment…’, ‘the room was’ Stephen Romei, ‘Garner’s Farquharson Book House of Grief an Uneasy Masterpiece,’ Australian, 1 August 2015.
13: Versions of Herself: Everywhere I Look
This chapter draws on the eulogy for Bruce Ford and an interview with Michael Gawenda.
‘A biography is…’ Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 (1928), 295.
‘This is not…’ Julian Barnes, ‘Some of My Best Friends are Biographers,’ Sydney Writers’ Festival address, Roslyn Packer Theatre, 19 May 2016. Transcribed by author.
‘puritanical savagery’ Garner, ‘Whisper and Hum’, Everywhere I Look, 4.
‘defensive primness’ Garner, ‘While Not Writing a Book: Diary 1’, Everywhere I Look, 74.
‘crudely jammed’, ‘raw’, ‘warm, dark glow’ Garner, ‘Some Furniture’, Everywhere I Look, 8–9.
‘aspects of myself…’ Garner, ‘White Paint and Calico’, Everywhere I Look, 11.
Garner does not regret burning her diaries, Gideon Haigh, ‘True Voices’, The Weekend Review, 30–31 March, 1986, 3 and ‘Helen Garner in Conversation with Jennifer Byrne Part 1’.
‘expresses a hard-won…’, ‘It brings you closer’ Anna Goldsworthy, ‘Felled by Grace’, Monthly, April 2016, themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/april/1459429200/anna-goldsworthy/felled-grace.
‘tender, witty, whimsical’, ‘unsettling savagery’, ‘shame and admirable…’ Felicity Plunkett, ‘Helen Garner’s Tough Gaze and Tender Touch’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 April 2016, 26.
‘I saw you…’ Garner, ‘Dear Mrs Dunkley’, Everywhere I Look, 31.
‘bohemian contempt’, ‘to speak up…’ Garner, ‘Suburbia’, ibid., 23.
‘still an only child’, ‘strong’, ‘she is my mother…’ Garner, ‘Dreams of Her Real Self’, ibid., 105.
‘deep and inconsolable…’, ‘He left us…’ Garner, eulogy for Bruce Ford.
‘But there she…’ Garner, ‘Before Whatever Else Happens: Diary 3’, Everywhere I Look, 110.
‘Autobiography is an…’ Janet Malcolm, ‘Thoughts on Autobiography from an Abandoned Autobiography,’ Forty-One False Starts, 298.
‘see all sides…’, ‘everything becomes richer…’, ‘a pest of…’ Garner with Phillip Adams, Late Night Live.
‘convalescent sofa’, ‘lanky white’, ‘In two strides…’, ‘Everyone to whom…’ Garner, ‘The Insults of Age’, Everywhere I Look, 213–214.
‘So my attack…’ Garner postcard to author, June 2015.
‘personality of many’ Fay Zwicky, ‘Between Two Worlds’, The Judith Wright Memorial Lecture 2006, delivered at Sydney Grammar School, 10 September, Five Bells 13.4 (2006), 15–21.
‘in order to be…’ ‘Helen Garner in Conversation with Jennifer Byrne Part 1’.
‘Helen has the…’ Michael Gawenda, interview with author, 11 June 2016.
Epilogue: No Sense of an Ending…
This chapter draws on interviews with Raimond Gaita, David Malouf, Helen Elliott, Sally Ford, Catherine Ford, James Button and Nam Le.
‘You never have…’ Deidre Bair, ‘In Search of the Real Simone de Beauvoir’, ABC Radio 24 Hours, April 1991, 34.
‘Why do books…’ Janet Malcolm, ‘A House of One’s Own’, Forty-One False Starts, 87.
‘One day these…’ Garner to Clark, 24 November 1962.
‘more compassionate practices’, ‘the issue of…’ ‘Letters to the editor’, Age, 13 February 2002, 14.
‘pen a letter…’, ‘add up to one…’ Garner, ‘The Letter I wish I’d written’, The Lifted Brow no. 8 (2010), 39–40.
‘absolutely proper’ Raimond Gaita, interview with author, 18 March 2016.
‘trivial’, ‘I would like…’, ‘is some kind…’ Dowse, interview with Garner, 15–16 March 2005.
‘a real pain…’ Sally Ford, interview with author, 16 June 2016.
‘a fundamental lightness…’ Helen Elliot, interview with author, 9 June 2016.
‘beloved sister, mentor’ Catherine Ford, correspondence with author, 25 May 2016.
‘jokes, shouts of…’ James Button, interview with author, 13 June 2016.
‘an independent thinker…’ Robert Dessaix (ed.), Speaking their Minds: Intellectuals and Public Culture in Australia, Sydney: ABC Books, 1998, 29.
‘three big tormentuous…’ Garner, email to author, 23 June 2016.
‘stung…I stopped going…’, ‘a weird lonely…’ Garner, email to author, 9 September 2013.
‘straight-on grace…’, ‘It’s hard to…’ Nam Le, email to author, 5 July 2016.
‘his’, ‘pair of eyes’, ‘a field-glass’, ‘perched aloft’, dead wall’ Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1977(1881), ix.
‘the new group…’ Garner, email to author, 26 June 2016.