Author picture

Gretchen Shirm

Author of Having cried wolf

4+ Works 25 Members 4 Reviews

Works by Gretchen Shirm

Having cried wolf (2010) 11 copies
Where the light falls (2016) 9 copies
The Crying Room (2023) 3 copies
The Crying Room (2023) 2 copies

Associated Works

The Best Australian Stories 2011 (2011) — Contributor — 16 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1979
Gender
female
Nationality
Australia
Birthplace
Kiama, New South Wales, Australia
Places of residence
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Education
University of Sydney
Occupations
lawyer

Members

Reviews

If anything in this review raises issues for you, help is available at Beyond Blue.

The Crying Room is Gretchen Shirm's second novel: you can read my review of Where the Light Falls (2016) here. The novels share similar preoccupations: failures of communication, mismatched personalities and an enigmatic disappearance that leaves damaged people in its wake. But though both novels are quiet, reflective meditations that reveal the inner worlds of introspective characters, The Crying Room begins with a striking evocation of the commodification of grief in our time.

The Crying Room is literally, just that. Susie, who cries easily, is employed to monitor people who use it, who come in to shed their tears and then leave. She intervenes only if someone comes in on three consecutive days because it is her job to determine whether or not these recurrent visitors would benefit from counselling sessions. There is a questionnaire to be completed, and a list of recommended counsellors. They are not allowed to listen to their stories, or offer comfort. Their responsibility ends when the person departs with the list in hand. They are not trained psychologists, because it costs less to pay people who are not qualified.

Susie does not depart from the script even when a bereaved woman departs from the rules:
'She was such a good friend,' the woman said. 'You know, one of those people in your life you could say anything to?' And she looked up at Susie, and Susie could tell she wanted her to respond, to give some indication that she understood how she felt. But Susie had no words to offer her, even though she could tell that they were all she wanted: kind words to pass from Susie to her, a sentence carefully aligned like a row of buttons covered in silk.

Instead, Susie reverted to what she'd been taught in her training. And so, what Susie told her was that she thought she would benefit from counselling. Susie pushed the piece of paper across the desk, the one with the names of the psychologists printed alphabetically. (p.10)

Ashen, the woman leaves, and Susie knows that she doesn't feel consoled, she feels reprimanded. The woman has been singled out because her grief didn't follow a predetermined sequence, and sent on her way with what we know is a recipe for hours on a phone hearing about waiting lists...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/07/21/the-crying-room-2023-by-gretchen-shirm/
… (more)
 
Flagged
anzlitlovers | Jul 20, 2023 |
At school, it was always the quiet ones who concerned me. In whole class discussions – even in small group discussions with carefully chosen participants with empathy and patience – the students who would take forever to make any contribution used to worry me. These were smart, thoughtful children, often capable in non-verbal activities of producing original ideas in creative ways. But in the rough and tumble of a classroom or a playground, their habit of thinking long and hard while we waited for what seemed to be a forthcoming response only to have them lapse into an impenetrable silence, made things difficult. What would become of them in a workplace, I used to wonder, and how would their relationships work out?

Gretchen Shirm’s debut novel Where the Light Falls features a character like this. Andrew has solved the workplace problem by becoming a notable photographer. He works his own hours – free from routines, suits and deadlines – and by moving from Australia to Berlin he has been able to build a career that doesn’t have to include photographing cat food or weddings. He’s not wealthy, but enough art lovers buy his photographs for him to have solo exhibitions.

He has a nice girlfriend too. She’s a dance teacher called Dom (Dominique) and she wears bright and colourful hats that are a cry of protest in the grey Berlin streets. But – consistent with Andrew’s interest in the honesty in broken things – she is wounded by her experience as a dancer never having quite got the break she wanted. Andrew admires the way she can talk about failure. He doesn’t seem to be able to talk about anything.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/04/05/where-the-light-falls-by-gretchen-shirm/
… (more)
 
Flagged
anzlitlovers | Apr 4, 2017 |
This is yet another book of linked short stories (which seems to be becoming a bit of a thing lately). In these stories Shirm draws together a handful of characters living in a small (fictional) NSW town. They're almost uniformly sad stories, dealing with the disintegration of relationships, the inability to communicate with others or even understand yourself and, of course, death. The language is crisp and evocative and the stories on their own are powerful snapshots. I didn't think the linking across stories always worked - I had to flip back and forwards a few times to remember exactly how some characters had popped up before - but there were neat moments and reverberations throughout and the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.… (more)
 
Flagged
mjlivi | 1 other review | Feb 2, 2016 |
Excellent collection of short stories, by a new Australian writer. Reviewed at whisperinggums.wordpress.com: http://whisperinggums.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/gretchen-shirm-having-cried-wolf/
 
Flagged
minerva2607 | 1 other review | Nov 9, 2010 |

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Statistics

Works
4
Also by
1
Members
25
Popularity
#508,561
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
4
ISBNs
7