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The After Life: A Memoir by Kathleen StewartThere’s no doubt in my mind that this memoir is excellent. The prose is literary with a reflective tone, and I enjoyed the fact that this book is not structured with a blow-by-blow commentary of the author’s life.Published 1 May, 2008 
The After Life: A Memoir (Kathleen Stewart, Vintage, $34.95, tpb, ISBN 9781741667271, May) **** There’s no doubt in my mind that this memoir is excellent. The prose is literary with a reflective tone, and I enjoyed the fact that this book is not structured with a blow-by-blow commentary of the author’s life. Instead Kathleen Stewart, an acclaimed writer of novels, short stories and poems, focuses on one year: 1976. She invites readers to accompany her as she herself revisits and reflects upon this tumultuous year in which a number of events (mostly awful) played out: her relationship with a guy she refers to as Martin, her brutal rape, her mother’s desertion, her own suicide attempt and subsequent period in a psychiatric hospital. Oh, but that’s not all. Heck no. The year is rounded off with the suicide of her father, an autocratic man whom I found quite detestable. Stewart’s mother is presented as a remarkable yet flawed woman—nothing seems to please her. By the end of the book I didn’t like her. Neither did the doctor in the psychiatric hospital! The two women had such a disturbing, tension-filled relationship. This book is very bleak. Very good, but very bleak. Julia Jackson is a freelancer reviewer and works at Readings in Carlton This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker More from Non-Fiction Book Reviews
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My Kid Is Back gives voice to 10 Australian families whose children have suffered anorexia. Interviewed by journalist June Alexander, they talk frankly about the onset of the disease, their sometimeslengthy struggle to find effective help, and their relief at discovering the Maudsley Approach of family-based treatment.24 March, 2009 
Lorraine McGee-Sippel always felt like an outsider but never knew why.23 March, 2009 
Gallipoli: The End of the Myth is an in-depth and intense look at the minutiae of the Gallipoli campaign.23 March, 2009 |
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