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A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work
Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most important and most admired writers. She is revered for her fearless honesty in the pursuit of her craft.
But Garner also courts controversy, not least because she refuses to be constrained by the rules of literary form. She has never been afraid to write herself into her nonfiction, and many of her own experiences help to shape her fiction. But who is the ‘I’ in Helen Garner’s work?
Bernadette Brennan’s A Writing Life is the first full-length study of Garner’s forty years of work, a literary portrait that maps all of her books against the different stages of her life.
Brennan has had access to previously unavailable papers in Garner’s archive, and she provides a lively and rigorous reading of the books, journals and correspondence of one of Australia’s most beloved women of letters.
But Garner also courts controversy, not least because she refuses to be constrained by the rules of literary form. She has never been afraid to write herself into her nonfiction, and many of her own experiences help to shape her fiction. But who is the ‘I’ in Helen Garner’s work?
Bernadette Brennan’s A Writing Life is the first full-length study of Garner’s forty years of work, a literary portrait that maps all of her books against the different stages of her life.
Brennan has had access to previously unavailable papers in Garner’s archive, and she provides a lively and rigorous reading of the books, journals and correspondence of one of Australia’s most beloved women of letters.
352 pages, Paperback
Published April 3, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 26, 2025
The publication of ‘The Mushroom Tapes,’ a collaboration between Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, on the triple murder trial and conviction of Erin Patterson, warrants a revisit of Bernadette Brennan’s sensitive and probing 2017 study.
I’m not a fan of the ‘true crime’ genre and have even shunned Garner’s controversial covering of the theme in ‘Joe Cinque’s Consolation’ (2004) and ‘This House of Grief (2014) to date. Brennan’s lengthy and dense unpacking of these works makes me almost regret this. Her blunt assessment that Garner’s ‘need to put distance between herself and the experience about which she writes continues to be fraught terrain…She is not very good at it. She feels for people, deeply and viscerally. She throws herself into traumatic stories with an instinctual, full-blown and personally destructive openness.’
This is what makes Garner’s diaries such compulsive and necessary reading. Track them down and be astonished.
My original 2017 review of Brennan’s portrait (below) still stands:
______________________________
A beautifully realised analytical exploration of Garner's life and work to date (although, as I write, two new collections have just been published to mark her 75th birthday). Part biography, part critical analysis, 'A Writing Life' sensitively and evocatively draws the reader into Garner's mind and world, resulting in a longing to return and revisit each work afresh, with newfound relish and vigour. Luminous.
I’m not a fan of the ‘true crime’ genre and have even shunned Garner’s controversial covering of the theme in ‘Joe Cinque’s Consolation’ (2004) and ‘This House of Grief (2014) to date. Brennan’s lengthy and dense unpacking of these works makes me almost regret this. Her blunt assessment that Garner’s ‘need to put distance between herself and the experience about which she writes continues to be fraught terrain…She is not very good at it. She feels for people, deeply and viscerally. She throws herself into traumatic stories with an instinctual, full-blown and personally destructive openness.’
This is what makes Garner’s diaries such compulsive and necessary reading. Track them down and be astonished.
My original 2017 review of Brennan’s portrait (below) still stands:
______________________________
A beautifully realised analytical exploration of Garner's life and work to date (although, as I write, two new collections have just been published to mark her 75th birthday). Part biography, part critical analysis, 'A Writing Life' sensitively and evocatively draws the reader into Garner's mind and world, resulting in a longing to return and revisit each work afresh, with newfound relish and vigour. Luminous.
January 15, 2018
‘A book for those who want to understand Garner’s work more. But, it is also a book which makes clear the significant contribution Garner has made to Australian literature. And, in doing that, it is itself a significant book.’
Whispering Gums
‘Billed as “the first full-length study of Garner’s 40 years of work, a literary portrait that maps all of her books against the different stages of her life”. Well, who wouldn’t want to read that?’
Australian
‘Brennan’s depiction of Garner’s fearless approach to the very difficult subjects of The First Stone, Joe Cinque’s Consolation and This House of Grief is beautifully modulated and a real triumph. She has captured and interpreted an important writer and her work beautifully.’
Books + Publishing
‘The New York Times journalist Richard Eder once wrote that a skilled interviewer needs “alertness to the answer that hints at a life half-hidden and stimulates a question that gets it to emerge, shake itself and look around”. Brennan possess this rare talent and she proves a canny interlocutor for Garner, their conversations forming an essential and fascinating part of the book…Brennan herself writes with an eloquence and perceptiveness equal to her subject. Her tone is never overly reverential or adulatory, the close analysis of the texts is lucid and intelligent and she is not afraid to prove difficult and controversial aspects of Garner’s life and work.’
West Australian
‘Brennan is an astute and sensitive reader of Garner’s work.’
Big Issue
‘This is literary critique and biography at its finest.’
Australian Financial Review
‘The writing is clear, measured, and graceful throughout…The readings of the fiction are astute and straightforward, tracing Garner’s development from the allegedly unstructured Monkey Grip, which in fact offers a formal equivalent to the push-me pull-you vagaries of love and junk, through the perfection of The Children’s Bach and the experiments in voice and style in Postcards from Surfers, to the late-style bareness and hardness of The Spare Room.’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘This book offers an illuminating discussion of Garner’s boundary crossing work. Its own magic lies in bringing elements of memoir and criticism into an absorbing conversation that begins with a rich contextualisation of Garner’s work, and extends into the literary and ethical questions with which Brennan has long been concerned.’
Australian
‘Absorbing, informative and engaging read.’
Conversation
‘Brennan examines both assumptions by tracing Garner’s steps to becoming a full-time writer in a style that is both thoughtful and readable.’
Australian Book Review
‘Bernadette Brennan brings a calm eye and an easy grace to her descriptions of Garner’s life, literature and impact on Australia’s cultural and socio-political landscape…She draws a more complex picture of one of our best known and most skilled writers than we’ve enjoyed in a full-length volume before.’
A Bigger Brighter World
‘Probably my favourite book so far [this year]. A marvellous tribute to one of Australia’s great writers.’
Mark Rubbo, The Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far) 2017, Readings
‘Bernadette Brennan’s first full-length study of Helen Garner’s work, A Writing Life, has inspired me to pile Garner’s books on my bedside table, and to look at each of them again with fresh eyes.’
The Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far) 2017, Readings
‘A remarkably shrewd study of Garner’s work knitted with a tender representation of her personal life.’
Mascara Literary Review
‘Brennan performs a kind of call for literature, its criticism as well as creation.’
Sydney Review of Books
‘Bernadette Brennan’s ingenious A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work, which gets around the subject’s resistance to biography by viewing her life through her writing, as Garner herself does.’
Susan Wyndham, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review
Whispering Gums
‘Billed as “the first full-length study of Garner’s 40 years of work, a literary portrait that maps all of her books against the different stages of her life”. Well, who wouldn’t want to read that?’
Australian
‘Brennan’s depiction of Garner’s fearless approach to the very difficult subjects of The First Stone, Joe Cinque’s Consolation and This House of Grief is beautifully modulated and a real triumph. She has captured and interpreted an important writer and her work beautifully.’
Books + Publishing
‘The New York Times journalist Richard Eder once wrote that a skilled interviewer needs “alertness to the answer that hints at a life half-hidden and stimulates a question that gets it to emerge, shake itself and look around”. Brennan possess this rare talent and she proves a canny interlocutor for Garner, their conversations forming an essential and fascinating part of the book…Brennan herself writes with an eloquence and perceptiveness equal to her subject. Her tone is never overly reverential or adulatory, the close analysis of the texts is lucid and intelligent and she is not afraid to prove difficult and controversial aspects of Garner’s life and work.’
West Australian
‘Brennan is an astute and sensitive reader of Garner’s work.’
Big Issue
‘This is literary critique and biography at its finest.’
Australian Financial Review
‘The writing is clear, measured, and graceful throughout…The readings of the fiction are astute and straightforward, tracing Garner’s development from the allegedly unstructured Monkey Grip, which in fact offers a formal equivalent to the push-me pull-you vagaries of love and junk, through the perfection of The Children’s Bach and the experiments in voice and style in Postcards from Surfers, to the late-style bareness and hardness of The Spare Room.’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘This book offers an illuminating discussion of Garner’s boundary crossing work. Its own magic lies in bringing elements of memoir and criticism into an absorbing conversation that begins with a rich contextualisation of Garner’s work, and extends into the literary and ethical questions with which Brennan has long been concerned.’
Australian
‘Absorbing, informative and engaging read.’
Conversation
‘Brennan examines both assumptions by tracing Garner’s steps to becoming a full-time writer in a style that is both thoughtful and readable.’
Australian Book Review
‘Bernadette Brennan brings a calm eye and an easy grace to her descriptions of Garner’s life, literature and impact on Australia’s cultural and socio-political landscape…She draws a more complex picture of one of our best known and most skilled writers than we’ve enjoyed in a full-length volume before.’
A Bigger Brighter World
‘Probably my favourite book so far [this year]. A marvellous tribute to one of Australia’s great writers.’
Mark Rubbo, The Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far) 2017, Readings
‘Bernadette Brennan’s first full-length study of Helen Garner’s work, A Writing Life, has inspired me to pile Garner’s books on my bedside table, and to look at each of them again with fresh eyes.’
The Best Books We’ve Read This Year (So Far) 2017, Readings
‘A remarkably shrewd study of Garner’s work knitted with a tender representation of her personal life.’
Mascara Literary Review
‘Brennan performs a kind of call for literature, its criticism as well as creation.’
Sydney Review of Books
‘Bernadette Brennan’s ingenious A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work, which gets around the subject’s resistance to biography by viewing her life through her writing, as Garner herself does.’
Susan Wyndham, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review
February 3, 2018
What an achievement this is - a thoughtful and rich analysis of Garner's life and writing (as if the two could ever be separate). I still have some issues with Garner, but this is a triumph, that places her writing squarely in the social and personal contexts from which it emerged.
July 27, 2017
Bernadette Brennan has done a marvellous job here of weaving together illuminating details from Helen Garner's life with her progress as a writer. There should be more literary biographies like it: perfectly balanced between biography, wider social / cultural context and the work itself, with the latter given the most attention. It helps that Brennan herself is a fine and elegant writer, the chapters focussed on particular works were so well-plotted and never became rote, despite the inevitable cycle of idea-gestation-execution-reception. As soon as I finished, I wanted to go back and start reading Helen Garner's work all over again.
June 5, 2017
If I could, I'd give this book six stars. I'm a longtime fan of Helen Garner's work, and this is a very rewarding read. Bernadette Brennan develops two really interesting strands, Helen's life, alongside a record of her writing. Brennan has finally clarified for me why some readers criticise Helen for making herself part of her books. I find this aspect of her work so valuable, it brings her together with us to try to understand things we totally reject. It's in her personal reactions to the troubling events of her nonfiction where we most benefit from this sharing. I don't give a toss about who the characters in her novels may be based on. The novels are just such compelling reading about modern life and its more commonly experienced ups and downs. While Brennan is very perceptive and informative about Helen's way of writing, I got even more pleasure from learning about her as a person. It left me wishing she was my friend.
October 15, 2017
This is an excellent literary biography of Helen Garner, told chronologically through her books. In each chapter, Bernadette Brennan interrogates the conditions and concerns that produced one of her books, along with the receptions and responses that followed publication.
I found this book enormously useful, in a practical sense, in that it helped me gain a sense of the contexts – social, cultural, literary – that have deeply informed Garner's work. Particularly fascinating were the sections about the critical and popular responses to Monkey Grip and The First Stone: Some Questions of Sex and Power, both of which I first read many years after their initial publications.
One can revere and admire an author like Garner regardless of whether one shares her experiences in the eras that produced her, but Brennan's book fills in some of the crucial gaps around her books. It is also beautifully written, clear-eyed and restrained.
I found this book enormously useful, in a practical sense, in that it helped me gain a sense of the contexts – social, cultural, literary – that have deeply informed Garner's work. Particularly fascinating were the sections about the critical and popular responses to Monkey Grip and The First Stone: Some Questions of Sex and Power, both of which I first read many years after their initial publications.
One can revere and admire an author like Garner regardless of whether one shares her experiences in the eras that produced her, but Brennan's book fills in some of the crucial gaps around her books. It is also beautifully written, clear-eyed and restrained.
June 6, 2017
Fantastic biography encompassing the technical, masterly writing of Garner's work, but more importantly the psychological and emotional investment she gave to her writing. Brennan does a good job of staying neutral. As I'm so used to picking up anything by Garner and having her perspective right there, this muddled me a little and I kept expecting Brennan's voice to appear, and it did, carefully and with purpose in the final chapters.
Great book, would read again. A wealth of insight to any writer, or maker of any art form.
Great book, would read again. A wealth of insight to any writer, or maker of any art form.
February 25, 2018
Helen Garner is the same age as me, was in the year below me at University, studying the same subjects with the same tutors, yet I never met her there. I was a conservative and conscientious student, still living at home and on the verge of engagement to the man I was married to for nearly 55 years. As a teenager I wrote all the time but I soon recognised that my creative writing urge wasn't backed up by talent, although I have continued to write (and read!) all my life.
These personal reflections were borne in on me by reading this book about Helen. At times I felt confronted by what she had done, that I hadn't been able, inclined or gifted enough to do. It made me reflect on the 'why' of my life and hers. But I eased past feeling personally disturbed to feelings of admiration and empathy for Helen Garner, for her unflinching honesty and for the achievements, joys and griefs of her personal and writing lives.
I know people (as well as some critics) have criticised Garner for drawing so blatantly on her own experiences for her fiction and for inserting herself into her more recent non-fiction. This book answered the 'why' of that for me too, although I have never minded it - indeed I have always appreciated how she blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction, in a way that was ahead of her time.
So thank you, Bernadette Brennan, for this wonderful book, and Helen Garner for your remarkable place in Australian writing and cultural life, and for the joy your insights and language have given me over so many years.
These personal reflections were borne in on me by reading this book about Helen. At times I felt confronted by what she had done, that I hadn't been able, inclined or gifted enough to do. It made me reflect on the 'why' of my life and hers. But I eased past feeling personally disturbed to feelings of admiration and empathy for Helen Garner, for her unflinching honesty and for the achievements, joys and griefs of her personal and writing lives.
I know people (as well as some critics) have criticised Garner for drawing so blatantly on her own experiences for her fiction and for inserting herself into her more recent non-fiction. This book answered the 'why' of that for me too, although I have never minded it - indeed I have always appreciated how she blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction, in a way that was ahead of her time.
So thank you, Bernadette Brennan, for this wonderful book, and Helen Garner for your remarkable place in Australian writing and cultural life, and for the joy your insights and language have given me over so many years.
July 12, 2017
A compelling book that is both a study of Helen Garner's full works and a literary portrait of Garner herself (not a biography, Brennan is careful to point out). I really enjoyed how this book explores Garner's literary output - everything from Monkey Grip to her screenplays and latter day works - within the context of what was going on in her life at the time, and maps her development as a writer. If you've ever wondered why Garner writes the way she does, or picks the subjects she does, this book goes some way to answering that. Fascinating and insightful, it's a must for Garner fans and anyone curious about the life, influences and creative process of one of Australia's most interesting writers. I loved it!
July 4, 2017
I am a huge Helen garner fan so this study of her works was a joy to me. It was very readable (not too literary) and I sped thru it in a couple of days. Yes it does give an insight into her actual life events but is largely a study of her work and how those events affected her work. This is a very accessible and interesting study of a woman and her body of work.
June 25, 2017
Such a beautifully written and exemplary approach to Garner's life/work. Every chapter is immersive, engaging, and tackles its texts with an attention to genre that is riveting. I just loved it.
August 16, 2017
This book is exactly what the title promises: a study of Helen Garner and her work. It’s not, and nor does it purport to be, a full biography but is instead a ‘literary portrait’, firmly based on and in Garner’s own writings and writing practices.
...It is not necessary to have read Garner’s books to enjoy this literary portrait, but it certainly helps to have done so. Critiques of short story and essay collections are always difficult to write and read because the act of describing them often eviscerates them, and several of Garner’s publications fall into this genre. Nonetheless, Brennan gives enough of the flavour of Garner’s works to jog the memory or provide sufficient background for her analysis to make sense.
For my complete review see:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
...It is not necessary to have read Garner’s books to enjoy this literary portrait, but it certainly helps to have done so. Critiques of short story and essay collections are always difficult to write and read because the act of describing them often eviscerates them, and several of Garner’s publications fall into this genre. Nonetheless, Brennan gives enough of the flavour of Garner’s works to jog the memory or provide sufficient background for her analysis to make sense.
For my complete review see:
https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...
June 19, 2017
Before I begin, I declare I am a great admirer of Helen Garner and her writing. I think she is one of Australia's greatest writers. Bernadette Brennan's study of Garner's life and writing over the past 40 years is revealing and honest as Garner is in her own writings. ' A Writing Life', encompasses all Garner's books (fiction and non-fiction), with an in-depth study of each; plus her song writing and play writing. Brennan had access to Helen's archive material, diaries, letters, family and friends. Garner has faced a fair amount of criticism for her views and rightly so at times. She admits her faults but stands by what she believes. I, and many others will appreciate Bernadette Brennan's analysis of Helen Garner and her importance to Australia, and Australian literature.
June 15, 2017
As a Helen Garner fangirl, have to own up and say that it's impossible for me to be objective about this book - I love it!. Structured around the writing and release of each of Garner's books, Bernadette Brennan had access to HG's archive, as well it seems, her massive circle of friends and family. By accounts, Garner's not always an easy woman, a seeker, an observer with an enormous need to sort out her thoughts and feelings in writing. An understated intellectual, who is fully immersed in many communities. The book is full of wonderful stories, some jar ... but the ending, in particular, is magnificent. I am so happy that I've read this book.
November 6, 2017
A very original mix of biography and literary criticism. Brennan is an engaging writer and her interrogation of Garner's body of work in the context of both Garner's life and the wider social climate is a fascinating and illuminating read.
August 12, 2017
This fascinating and well written book gave me fresh insight into one of my favourite Australian authors. Highly recommended
January 7, 2018
And 3/4 stars.
I don’t often read literary biographies; am glad that this was one of very few.
Very fine writing about (and with?) a very fine writer.
I don’t often read literary biographies; am glad that this was one of very few.
Very fine writing about (and with?) a very fine writer.
March 28, 2018
#AWW2018
Review
Review
July 8, 2018
An academic book about Helen Garner, one of my favourite Australian authors, and her work. The last two pages I found quite fascinating.
December 20, 2018
Really enjoyed this. Its a mix of bio and commentary on HG as a writer. It explained my mixed feelings about her but also meant I discovered who wrote a book I read that has haunted me for ages about a woman who cares for her dying friend but couldn't recall who wrote it. I loved Monkey Grip but hadn't read the others but now going in search. I liked it most however for the portrait it draws of a writer determined to be truthful to herself and her craft who is not afraid to step on toes if they get in the way. (Its also got my favourite Aust Lit photo in it of herself and friend Tom Winton (another favourite) laughing together at an Adelaide Writers' festival.)
February 10, 2018
Reading beyond bedtime to finish this amazing work of biographical literary critique. Is that even a genre? This is essential reading for fans of Helen Garner, or indeed anyone interested in writing.
The chapter on Garner’s creation of This House of Grief has haunted my heart and is one of the best things I’ve read this year. Fingers crossed for this work to be short listed for The Stella Prize. Highly recommended.
The chapter on Garner’s creation of This House of Grief has haunted my heart and is one of the best things I’ve read this year. Fingers crossed for this work to be short listed for The Stella Prize. Highly recommended.
May 25, 2018
Quite dense and once again I wasn’t very familiar with the books talked about, but it was very interesting to learn so much about Garner’s writing process and career. Her courage in tackling personal stories and themes and personal responses to other people’s stories and putting it out there for others to critique is inspiring. Also the breadth of research and the amount of work and redrafting that went into her non-fiction works shows enormous dedication and perseverance.
May 21, 2018
Interesting info on Helen garners life and how it relates to each of her books. I would like to have heard this straight from hg rather than the author. More Interesting when it related to books I had read.
October 3, 2017
Brilliant and sensitive account of Helen Garner and her work.
January 17, 2018
Brilliant! Like having a great conversation with an insightful and generous friend about your favourite author!
June 5, 2022
In the intro to this book, Brennan references Philip Roth who wrote: “the intriguing biographical issue- and critical issue, for that matter – isn’t that a writer will write about some of what has happened to him, but how he writes about it, which, when understood properly, takes us a long way to understanding why he writes about it.” (p4)
It would have been a hard task to write about Garner despite the fact that Brennan had access to Garner, to an archive, and to her work, and so she decides early on to create a “literary portrait” rather than a biography. Having just read all Garner’s diaries, and also Brennan’s book about Gillian Mears, which I loved, I came to this book with high expectations – which weren’t quite realised.
Brennan writes: “It is too simple to say that Garner’s body of work is one book, but everything she has written is interrelated. Over a period of forty years she has revisited themes, relationships, situations, characters and questions. Because houses, and their domestic spaces of intimacy and negotiation sit at the core of all Garner’s fiction, I originally thought to structure this study around Garner’s primary spaces: bedrooms, kitchens, courtrooms and public institutions… Such readings, however, do not lend themselves to a full and coherent appreciation of Garner’s development as a writer…. In the end I decided to structure this portrait so that each chapter, dedicated primarily to literary analysis, can be read as a room describing Garner’s house of writing. Some rooms have alcoves, others debouch into wider spaces; all are connected by passageways.” (p. 7)
There are revelations about influences which I found interesting – such as in the chapter about Honour and other people’s children, Brennan writes about the French film maker Doillon: Short stabs, very little explanatory stuff, between each stab a moment of blank screen so as to separate them firmly, almost no background of characters. In terms of classic structure – rising to climax, denouement, slide to end – it took all sorts of liberties.” (p53) Such an influence on her writing!
One reviewer writes: “…But the subject matter is much tighter – it tends to be domestic and relationship-based, but with a particular focus, because it grapples, says Brennan, with the problem of balancing “the desire for personal freedom with ethical responsibility”. Garner’s concerns are ethical and moral. She explores these values in the daily lives of ordinary people, in both her fiction and non-fiction, whether it’s a mother deserting her family (in The children’s Bach) or a father driving his car full of children into a lake (This house of grief), and she doesn’t separate herself from the issues. She shows her own failings, her own ugliness, with a breathtaking vulnerability, and brings, Brennan shows, much distress upon herself. She doesn’t, in other words, write what she writes lightly.” (https://whisperinggums.com/2017/12/29...)
I enjoyed the read but I think Brennan made a much better fist of her next piece of work – the Mears biography. Maybe it’s easier if the subject is dead. Ultimately I agreed with this quote: “Being such a devoted Garner scholar, Brennan possesses a knack for concision, clarity and an eye for detail but unlike Garner’s work we see it all from an arm’s length. Brennan is prepared to delve into Garner’s thoughts and motivations but not her own, certainly not with Garner’s characteristic candour. In this case, the artist and the art remain for the most part distinct.” (https://www.mascarareview.com/joshua-...)
It would have been a hard task to write about Garner despite the fact that Brennan had access to Garner, to an archive, and to her work, and so she decides early on to create a “literary portrait” rather than a biography. Having just read all Garner’s diaries, and also Brennan’s book about Gillian Mears, which I loved, I came to this book with high expectations – which weren’t quite realised.
Brennan writes: “It is too simple to say that Garner’s body of work is one book, but everything she has written is interrelated. Over a period of forty years she has revisited themes, relationships, situations, characters and questions. Because houses, and their domestic spaces of intimacy and negotiation sit at the core of all Garner’s fiction, I originally thought to structure this study around Garner’s primary spaces: bedrooms, kitchens, courtrooms and public institutions… Such readings, however, do not lend themselves to a full and coherent appreciation of Garner’s development as a writer…. In the end I decided to structure this portrait so that each chapter, dedicated primarily to literary analysis, can be read as a room describing Garner’s house of writing. Some rooms have alcoves, others debouch into wider spaces; all are connected by passageways.” (p. 7)
There are revelations about influences which I found interesting – such as in the chapter about Honour and other people’s children, Brennan writes about the French film maker Doillon: Short stabs, very little explanatory stuff, between each stab a moment of blank screen so as to separate them firmly, almost no background of characters. In terms of classic structure – rising to climax, denouement, slide to end – it took all sorts of liberties.” (p53) Such an influence on her writing!
One reviewer writes: “…But the subject matter is much tighter – it tends to be domestic and relationship-based, but with a particular focus, because it grapples, says Brennan, with the problem of balancing “the desire for personal freedom with ethical responsibility”. Garner’s concerns are ethical and moral. She explores these values in the daily lives of ordinary people, in both her fiction and non-fiction, whether it’s a mother deserting her family (in The children’s Bach) or a father driving his car full of children into a lake (This house of grief), and she doesn’t separate herself from the issues. She shows her own failings, her own ugliness, with a breathtaking vulnerability, and brings, Brennan shows, much distress upon herself. She doesn’t, in other words, write what she writes lightly.” (https://whisperinggums.com/2017/12/29...)
I enjoyed the read but I think Brennan made a much better fist of her next piece of work – the Mears biography. Maybe it’s easier if the subject is dead. Ultimately I agreed with this quote: “Being such a devoted Garner scholar, Brennan possesses a knack for concision, clarity and an eye for detail but unlike Garner’s work we see it all from an arm’s length. Brennan is prepared to delve into Garner’s thoughts and motivations but not her own, certainly not with Garner’s characteristic candour. In this case, the artist and the art remain for the most part distinct.” (https://www.mascarareview.com/joshua-...)
April 5, 2020
It goes without saying you have to be a Helen Garner fan to appreciate this deep-dive into her work, process and life, or at the very least have read her books. Naturally I responded best to the sections dissecting Garner’s work which I have responded most to - her early novels, which I adore, and her “true crime”, which I find frustrating at best but for some reason always persist with. I also really want to find a copy of her film Two Friends!
Brennan includes criticism Garner has received from others but sadly holds off on making any of her own. To me Helen Garner is a brilliant but inconsistent writer: some of her books are definitely better, or more successful, than others (which is to be expected especially when a writer crosses genre or often defies it altogether as Garner does). To laud each work as if it is a standalone masterpiece is wrong. As part of a greater body of work, certainly - but not always on their own.
I appreciated the structure and form of A Writer’s Life and think I’ll revisit as I re-read Helen Garner’s work. I wouldn’t usually read a book about a writer - too meta for me - but this was really enjoyable.
Brennan includes criticism Garner has received from others but sadly holds off on making any of her own. To me Helen Garner is a brilliant but inconsistent writer: some of her books are definitely better, or more successful, than others (which is to be expected especially when a writer crosses genre or often defies it altogether as Garner does). To laud each work as if it is a standalone masterpiece is wrong. As part of a greater body of work, certainly - but not always on their own.
I appreciated the structure and form of A Writer’s Life and think I’ll revisit as I re-read Helen Garner’s work. I wouldn’t usually read a book about a writer - too meta for me - but this was really enjoyable.
September 19, 2022
If you are a fan of Helen Garner's work, Brennan's deconstruction of her work is a must read. Brennan is able to take you to the stories behind the words Garner has put on the page, to illicit the joy and struggle of bringing prose for public consumption. While Garner is well respected as an Australian author, Brennan provides perfect balance by letting the detractors be heard.
There is many of Garner's work you will want to go back and revisit as Brennan gives you a new appreciation and insight.
There is many of Garner's work you will want to go back and revisit as Brennan gives you a new appreciation and insight.
June 13, 2019
I read this for an essay I was writing. It is a slightly odd book in that it doesn't really go deeply into Garner's life or her writing, so is neither biography or lit.crit but somewhere in between. It was easy to read, though, and I did learn more about Garner.
August 3, 2020
What an excellent book! Helen Garner is an Australian national treasure and Bernadette Brennan's thoughtful, well written and thoroughly entertaining book explains why. (Gift from an Australian friend)
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