Jim Brown reviewed This House of Grief by Helen Garner
True Crime page-turner
I don't really read true crime, but this one was part of my N+1 Bookmatch recommendations for 2025. The writing is very good, and the courtroom drama is laid out in a compelling way. The author is more certain of things than I am, which I find interesting.
An example of the writing - the author is sitting with a friend and watching an episode of 60 Minutes that features people involved in the crime/mystery plot. Her friend falls asleep while watching the videotape:
"Once I would have jostled her, shouted, 'Wake up! Pay attention!' - but I had been learning, during the second trial, that the desire for sleep does not betray only boredom or fatigue. In these weeks of long, slow trauma interspersed with bloody skirmishes, I had found that suddenly falling asleep was a way of defending oneself against the unbearable." (247)
I don't really read true crime, but this one was part of my N+1 Bookmatch recommendations for 2025. The writing is very good, and the courtroom drama is laid out in a compelling way. The author is more certain of things than I am, which I find interesting.
An example of the writing - the author is sitting with a friend and watching an episode of 60 Minutes that features people involved in the crime/mystery plot. Her friend falls asleep while watching the videotape:
"Once I would have jostled her, shouted, 'Wake up! Pay attention!' - but I had been learning, during the second trial, that the desire for sleep does not betray only boredom or fatigue. In these weeks of long, slow trauma interspersed with bloody skirmishes, I had found that suddenly falling asleep was a way of defending oneself against the unbearable." (247)