I Came to Say Goodbye

Well written.

I wasn't sure about this book at first, I was afraid the narrator was going to be difficult to read. But just 10% in, I was completely hooked. I read it in just 7hrs, during a long-haul flight; no TV/movies, my Kindle propped by my in-flight meal, I was totally absorbed.

Although set in Australia, there was a lot about this book that could have taken place in England, maybe about ten years earlier, but it was still very nostalgic. The narrator is Med, now in his late fifties, setting forth his whole life story in the hope of convincing a judge of his argument. We don't know what he is after until the end, but by that time we are enthralled by the ups and downs he and his family have suffered over the years.

Ms Overington has show more presented us with some excellent characterisations. In addition to Med, the father, there are his three offspring, Kat, Donna Faye (nick-named Fat) and son, Blue. Donna Faye's unfortunate loser boyfriend, Paul, completes the set, along with Med's wife Pat, who is no longer around but whose absence has long lasting effects

The style of the book is interesting - we know from the start that a baby is abducted from a hospital nursery but it is well into the book that we finally discover whose baby this is and who has taken her and why. There is also an interesting mix of mental illness and overbearing authorities who take decisions from the parents, sometimes causing more problems than they solve.

An excellent read that should make for some interesting book club discussion. show less

This is another novel by Caroline Overington that sits on the perimeter of crime fiction. Certainly a crime is committed, probably more the one, but the primary focus of the novel is social issues: parents who fail their children, community services that fail their users, bureaucracy that gets in the way of understanding, systems that leave families and their members in limbo.

Two primary narrators, Med and his daughter Kat, tell the reader about the tragedies that have overtaken their family through letters to a Family Court judge who is to give a ruling about the custody of a child. We learn of Med's struggle to raise his family on his own after his wife walks out when his youngest child is just two. Med does a pretty good job, but, in show more his own judgement, just not good enough.

The setting is a small coastal town in rural New South Wales. Med's two older children leave, leaving him to raise the younger daughter on his own.

Underpinning the story, and giving it a biting edge, is criticism of Australian services that should be providing support for families. Clearly bureaucracy gets in the way of empathy, and cost cutting means that services are reduced. And above all, this novel is well constructed, and a really good read.

There are plenty of things to discuss with this novel, and the author provides some further discussion questions after the text. show less

This story by an Australian author and set in New South Wales, starts when a young women walks into a hospital nursery where a young child is sleeping, picks up the young child and places her in the shopping bag she is carrying and leaves the hospital. She then gets into her car and drives off.
What follows is the story of this family told mostly in the voice of the woman's father, Med, as he writes to a judge. It is the story firstly of a broken marriage. After falling pregnant with a third child she never wanted Med's wife Pat walks out and leaves him to bring up the three children. Med focusses mainly on the difficulties of bringing up his youngest child Donna Faye who was only two when her mother left. This was the child who was show more given the unfortunate nickname of Fat to rhyme with her mother's name Pat, and her sisters nickname Kat. Kat herself takes over the story during some of the latter part of the book.
I very much liked the letter writng style. I felt that I could really empathise with Med, the and his struggles raising the children. Because of the very personal way it is written we experience with him his feelings of inadequacy, and his frustrations and confusion. Many confronting social issues are raised in this book - - child abuse, welfare, mental health treatment, the family court and legal system, social support services, and the integration of refugees into the community. We are involved in the tragic breakdown of this family, and feel their helplessness. We are left with a lot to think about.. Not a book that could be called enjoyable, and it may be too upsetting for some but a book that is well worth a read. show less

It was OK in the manner that I kept turning the pages wanting to find out what happens and I liked the voice of Med which is such a quintessential australian male of that generation and location (much like my Dad). Unfortunately while I could kind of relate to some of the characters and their plight it still left me feeling as though it was quite one dimensional.

I normally don't read books like this one. My husband brought it for me as a christmas gift and it was fantastic.

I found that the start was a little slow but once I was a few chapters in, I was hooked. The characters are excellent and feel so real, as if they could be apart of your family.

This book pulls at your heart strings and is one of the very few books that has ever made me cry. An excellent read.

3.5

I Came to Say Goodbye was another book that I read for Australian Literature Month, hosted by Reading Matters. This was the first book that I had read by Caroline Overington (although I do have a free ebook of Ghost Child, which wins the award of Worst Ebook Cover Ever- it’s a black screen – but I digress). I was surprised at how light and easy this was to read – I finished it in two days (again, I must admit that I didn’t have a functioning leg at the time which curtailed my ability to hop away from the couch). Once again, the cover doesn’t really seem to link to the book, no matter how hard I tried to do so.

This book is somewhat unusual in which it opens with almost the end of the story – a baby being stolen from a Sydney show more hospital by a woman. It then travels forward in time and we meet Med Atley (short for Meredith, but Med is a typical salt of the earth Aussie bloke) who needs to prepare a statement for an upcoming court case. He can’t bring himself to talk about it, so he writes it all down. It starts with his childhood in Forster, New South Wales, a pretty coastal town, goes through his marriage and sudden departure of his wife, Pat. Med is left to bring up his three children – Kat, Blue and Fat (Donna-Faye) as best he knows how. Kat goes to high school and university in Sydney before departing for New York; while Blue goes opal hunting in Lightning Ridge. Fat falls in with the wrong man and that’s where things go downhill, with the involvement of child safety services, police and mental health services. Exactly what happened to Fat’s first child Seth and why was he removed from their care? What is the trigger for Fat’s breakdown? Finally, who is the woman who stole the baby and what did she do with it?

It’s easy to get lost in the story, but there are a couple of sticking points for me. Why did the Atleys not think to ask if they could see Seth after his accident – or even check if he was still alive? How does a baby get stolen from a hospital after hours? (All the hospitals I know have one entrance open after the end of visiting hours – the emergency entrance). Why does the hospital in Newcastle (a city) have only a registrar doctor for paediatrics? It seems Overington didn’t really know a lot about the ‘levels’ of doctors. I know that part of the point of this story is to demonstrate the differences between bureaucracy and real life, but sometimes a seemed a little too hung up on the ‘Aussie battler = good’ side of things. The voice of Kat also came across as somewhat false at times – like she is restraining herself, distancing herself from the family issues but all the same being a big part of them! The ending was also a bit strange, catching everything and tying up all the ends.

In summary, it’s an okay read, suitable for being caught short in an airport but for me there were several holes in the narrative that needed some more thought put into it.

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