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The Bed-Making Competition
From teenage rebellion to the most painful of goodbyes, The Bed-making Competition chronicles the coming of age of Hillary and Bridgid. Told over five sections, each separated by years and kilometres, we follow the sisters as they manage abandonment, motherhood, illness and the ineffable connections of the families that we are born into and those that we create. Spiked with dark humour and bracingly familiar depictions of the overwhelming ambivalence of filial love, Anna Jackson’s novella is a book of riotous energy and great heart.
- GenresFiction
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 17, 2018
The Bed-Making Competition has just won the 2018 Seizure "Viva la Novella" prize. The competition is open to residents of Australia and New Zealand - this year both winners were from New Zealand.
I know Anne Jackson as a poet, having read and reviewed "Pasture and Flock" a few months ago. The subjects covered were as diverse as Roman history, keeping chickens and family living. In the acknowledgements to this book, Anne notes that she wrote a chapter while on a residency at the Michael King Writing Centre in Devonport - a time that she was supposed to be writing poetry.
This gem of a little book has five chapters - all have a date and move us through time. We begin in 1991 and end in 2011, neatly covering a twenty year period in the lives of two sisters Hillary and Bridgid. The first two chapters are narrated by Hillary, the younger sister, before we switch to Bridgid for the last three. It is a simple narrative of family life and events, of birth and impending death, parents and siblings. It has a wonderful simplicity - there is no great description of place or scene, these are incidental details to the actions of the characters.
Most of all there is a sense of symmetry in this short book. The first chapter has the sister's mother leaving the family. Their Father then leaves in order to pursue her and bring her back. He leaves the two girls to look after themselves and gives them his credit card. Bridgid is already twenty and back from university, while Hillary is still at school. They buy take-aways and new clothes for themselves and even bottles of champagne. In other words they go mad with some free money. Eventually both parents come home.
The final chapter sees the sister re-united after twenty years and travels around the world, their mother is dying and their father has disappeared looking for someone. They go out together buying clothes and drinking, surprised by the freedom of being away from home and families. There is another bottle of champagne. Behaviour reverts to the same carefree innocence of twenty years before. It is a mirror of earlier adolescent events.
There is lots of humour in the book, tiny vignettes of life, especially those with small children at a beach, are caught brilliantly. The children want to dress a certain way, Fred wants to wear a dress, but they fall in the water, get sand and slime everywhere and all need spare clothes, as do the adults before they can be taken into the library to hear a reading. The writer who is reading her work, cannot continue while children squirm around in their seats and shush each other.
The slim book is crowded with lovely little episodes that are real and genuine, easy to see and be part of. This is a lovely book about lives and about the friendship of sisters and families. Viva la Novella.
I know Anne Jackson as a poet, having read and reviewed "Pasture and Flock" a few months ago. The subjects covered were as diverse as Roman history, keeping chickens and family living. In the acknowledgements to this book, Anne notes that she wrote a chapter while on a residency at the Michael King Writing Centre in Devonport - a time that she was supposed to be writing poetry.
This gem of a little book has five chapters - all have a date and move us through time. We begin in 1991 and end in 2011, neatly covering a twenty year period in the lives of two sisters Hillary and Bridgid. The first two chapters are narrated by Hillary, the younger sister, before we switch to Bridgid for the last three. It is a simple narrative of family life and events, of birth and impending death, parents and siblings. It has a wonderful simplicity - there is no great description of place or scene, these are incidental details to the actions of the characters.
Most of all there is a sense of symmetry in this short book. The first chapter has the sister's mother leaving the family. Their Father then leaves in order to pursue her and bring her back. He leaves the two girls to look after themselves and gives them his credit card. Bridgid is already twenty and back from university, while Hillary is still at school. They buy take-aways and new clothes for themselves and even bottles of champagne. In other words they go mad with some free money. Eventually both parents come home.
The final chapter sees the sister re-united after twenty years and travels around the world, their mother is dying and their father has disappeared looking for someone. They go out together buying clothes and drinking, surprised by the freedom of being away from home and families. There is another bottle of champagne. Behaviour reverts to the same carefree innocence of twenty years before. It is a mirror of earlier adolescent events.
There is lots of humour in the book, tiny vignettes of life, especially those with small children at a beach, are caught brilliantly. The children want to dress a certain way, Fred wants to wear a dress, but they fall in the water, get sand and slime everywhere and all need spare clothes, as do the adults before they can be taken into the library to hear a reading. The writer who is reading her work, cannot continue while children squirm around in their seats and shush each other.
The slim book is crowded with lovely little episodes that are real and genuine, easy to see and be part of. This is a lovely book about lives and about the friendship of sisters and families. Viva la Novella.
August 25, 2024
3.5 An enjoyable read. LOVE the cover artwork!
September 9, 2018
Finished: 09.09.2018
Genre: novella
Rating: A+++
#AWW2018
Trivia Winner 2018 Viva La Novella Prize
@AUPBooks @seizureonline
Conclusion:
Absolutley stunning....and here is why!
Review
Genre: novella
Rating: A+++
#AWW2018
Trivia Winner 2018 Viva La Novella Prize
@AUPBooks @seizureonline
Conclusion:
Absolutley stunning....and here is why!
Review
October 17, 2018
The Bed-making Competition with its quirky title and impressive credentials as joint-winner of the 2018 Viva La Novella competition is a book that will make you wish you had sisters, or that the ones you have were like the ones in this story.
The novella is in five parts, tracing the evolution of the relationship between Hillary and Bridgid as they negotiate a rebellious adolescence, the deliberate disappearance of one and the motherhood of the other, and a surprisingly amusing reunion at their mother’s deathbed. The tone is both tender and hilarious, making it very satisfying to read.
I loved reading about these two girls, and how as teenagers they romped through a large amount of cash and their father’s credit card after he inexplicably left them to their own devices while he went after the wife who had deserted them. My, how they shopped! They ate out every night. They wagged school and university. And gosh, they even drunkenly gate-crashed a teacher’s dinner party with such aplomb, they must have taken master-classes from Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous.
Yes, they partied as if there were no tomorrow, which came eventually but—such wicked girls! they knew exactly how to play their parents off against each other...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/10/17/t...
The novella is in five parts, tracing the evolution of the relationship between Hillary and Bridgid as they negotiate a rebellious adolescence, the deliberate disappearance of one and the motherhood of the other, and a surprisingly amusing reunion at their mother’s deathbed. The tone is both tender and hilarious, making it very satisfying to read.
I loved reading about these two girls, and how as teenagers they romped through a large amount of cash and their father’s credit card after he inexplicably left them to their own devices while he went after the wife who had deserted them. My, how they shopped! They ate out every night. They wagged school and university. And gosh, they even drunkenly gate-crashed a teacher’s dinner party with such aplomb, they must have taken master-classes from Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous.
Yes, they partied as if there were no tomorrow, which came eventually but—such wicked girls! they knew exactly how to play their parents off against each other...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/10/17/t...
April 24, 2019
This novella was surprisingly good and I recommend it to others (particularly those who enjoy New Zealand fiction). The story spans several decades of life for two sisters Hillary and Brigid - travelling up and down New Zealand and even overseas to England, Spain and the United States.
February 20, 2026
Disappointingly dull. Didn’t engage with the characters or their lives.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews