Postcards from Surfers
by Helen Garner
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From one of Australia's most celebrated writers comes eleven stories about the complexities of life and love; of looking back and longing; of what it means to be a stranger, on foreign ground and known, told with the piercing familiarity and resonance we have come to expect from Helen Garner. Remarkably honest, often very funny and always woven in ways that surprise, these stories tease out everyday life to show the darkness underneath - but also the possibilities of joy.Tags
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An interesting little book of short stories written in the early eighties by someone who has become one of Australia's well known writers.
The stories are all very Australian, even though they are not all set in Australia. And they're all very much 'Helen Garner'. Not sure really why I say that, they just feel like that to me. Perhaps it's the raw honesty, (which has also become a hallmark of all her later writing), perhaps it is her ear for dialogue, perhaps it's the skilful combination of darkness and light, weaving hope into despair.
The stories are all different of course, although they have an over-arching theme of relationships (most of them unsatisfactory) between the sexes. As with any collection, I enjoyed some more than others, show more some rang truer than others, some very forgettable and others stay with you. They are sad, funny, poignant, searingly honest, and unique. show less
The stories are all very Australian, even though they are not all set in Australia. And they're all very much 'Helen Garner'. Not sure really why I say that, they just feel like that to me. Perhaps it's the raw honesty, (which has also become a hallmark of all her later writing), perhaps it is her ear for dialogue, perhaps it's the skilful combination of darkness and light, weaving hope into despair.
The stories are all different of course, although they have an over-arching theme of relationships (most of them unsatisfactory) between the sexes. As with any collection, I enjoyed some more than others, show more some rang truer than others, some very forgettable and others stay with you. They are sad, funny, poignant, searingly honest, and unique. show less
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Author Information
28+ Works 5,270 Members
Helen Garner was born on November 7, 1942 in Geelong, Australia. She received a bachelor's degree with majors in English and French from the University of Melbourne. Throughout her career, she has written both fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, Monkey Grip, was published in 1977. Her non-fiction books include The First Stone, Joe Cinque's show more Consolation, The Feel of Steel, True Stories and Everywhere I Look. She has also written for film and theatre. She has won numerous awards for her work including Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction for The Spare Room, For the This House of Grief, she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Barbara Jefferis Award, and the Ned Kelly Award in 2015, and in 2016, the WA Premier's Book Award for nonfiction. She was one of three winners of the 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction. Everywhere I Look won the 2017 Indie Book Award for Nonfiction. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Work Relationships
Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Postcards from Surfers
- Original publication date
- 1985
- First words
- We are driving north from Coolangatta airport.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'This is it. I am finally on the far side of the line.' Habe Dank!
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 171
- Popularity
- 192,638
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.64)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
