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y separately published work icon House of Sticks single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2010... 2010 House of Sticks
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Bonnie has given up her life as a musician to become a stay-at-home mum. She tells herself she has no regrets, but sometimes the isolation and the relentless demands of three small children threaten to swamp the love between Bonnie and her partner, Pete.

'Then an old mate of Pete's arrives. Doug is eccentric and intrusive, and his unsettling presence disrupts Bonnie's world further. Yet as the cracks really start to show in the life Bonnie and Pete have built together, it seems the dangers might also come from within.

'House of Sticks is a revealing portrait of contemporary family life, its joys and compromises, and how quickly things can unravel. It's about trying to stay connected in our disconnected society; a story of identity and community, loyalty and love.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 2010
    • Carlton North, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Scribe , 2011 .
      image of person or book cover 6914813913866566517.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Goodreads.
      Extent: 288p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: September 2011.
      ISBN: 9781921844270 (pbk.)

Works about this Work

Made in Suburbia : Intra-suburban Narratives in Contemporary Australian Women’s Fiction Belinda Burns , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 163-179)

'Within twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia has long been trivialised, satirised, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation, a location from which to flee. However, little critical attention has been directed on contemporary realist tales of the female protagonist located within the confines of suburbia—an increasingly contested yet arguably still feminine/feminised zone. This chapter examines contemporary representations and narrative trajectories of the suburban female protagonist in twenty-first-century fiction. Drawing on “postfeminist” literary theory and emerging reappraisals of the “everyday” and “home”, the chapter presents evidence of intra-suburban narratives of feminine transformation, which contradict second-wave feminist flight trajectories, thereby reclaiming and elevating fictional suburbia as a critical space in which Australian women writers may locate their stories.'

Source: Abstract.

Less Than Feminine Zones : Postfeminist Cession in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks Belinda Burns , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Women's Writing , March vol. 10 no. 1 2016; (p. 56-66)
'Throughout twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia is generally depicted as a feminine domain, set in opposition to the masculine city or bush landscapes. The suburban, domestic setting is trivialized, satirized, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation – a location from which to flee. Traditionally, the male protagonist embarks upon these flight narratives, leaving the female characters to endure dull lives of “domesticated conformity” in the suburbs. Not until second-wave feminism of the 1970s and 1980s is the female protagonist liberated from her suburban “cage” by women writers, many of whom identify as feminist. More recently, “postfeminist” scholars such as Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, Mary Vavrus, and Susan J. Douglas observe the rise of a “retreatist” narrative in popular media such as “chick-lit,” television drama, and film. This overtly restorative narrative typically features a female protagonist rejecting the public (assumed masculine) sphere and returning to a more domestic (assumed feminine) domain as the ultimate solution to a problematized state of “incompleteness.” This essay explores contemporary representations and narratives of the female protagonist in domestic, suburban settings in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks, both published in 2011. Of particular interest is evidence supporting rejection, interrogation, or subversion of the retreatist narrative as a viable postfeminist solution, or, alternatively, more creative reimaginings of the suburban setting, which permit “new” narratives of feminine transformation.' (Publication abstract)
Book Review – House of Sticks by Peggy Frew Joanne Peulen , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Booklover Book Reviews 2011;

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
Untitled Monika Roberts , 2011-2012 single work review
— Appears in: Inscribe , Summer no. 5 2011-2012; (p. 22)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
House and Home Invasion Naomi Milthorpe , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 15 October 2011; (p. 25)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
Review of the Week John Bailey , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 4 September 2011; (p. 20)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
What's Left When the Music Stops Ed Wright , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 - 4 August 2011; (p. 26-27)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
She of Frew Words Hits the Right Notes Carlene Ellwood , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 17 - 18 September 2011; (p. 23)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
Mother's Labour of Life Strikes a Chord Chris Flynn , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 17 September 2011; (p. 27)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
Untitled Eloise Keating , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 91 no. 2 2011; (p. 29)

— Review of House of Sticks Peggy Frew , 2010 single work novel
Less Than Feminine Zones : Postfeminist Cession in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks Belinda Burns , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Women's Writing , March vol. 10 no. 1 2016; (p. 56-66)
'Throughout twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia is generally depicted as a feminine domain, set in opposition to the masculine city or bush landscapes. The suburban, domestic setting is trivialized, satirized, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation – a location from which to flee. Traditionally, the male protagonist embarks upon these flight narratives, leaving the female characters to endure dull lives of “domesticated conformity” in the suburbs. Not until second-wave feminism of the 1970s and 1980s is the female protagonist liberated from her suburban “cage” by women writers, many of whom identify as feminist. More recently, “postfeminist” scholars such as Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, Mary Vavrus, and Susan J. Douglas observe the rise of a “retreatist” narrative in popular media such as “chick-lit,” television drama, and film. This overtly restorative narrative typically features a female protagonist rejecting the public (assumed masculine) sphere and returning to a more domestic (assumed feminine) domain as the ultimate solution to a problematized state of “incompleteness.” This essay explores contemporary representations and narratives of the female protagonist in domestic, suburban settings in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks, both published in 2011. Of particular interest is evidence supporting rejection, interrogation, or subversion of the retreatist narrative as a viable postfeminist solution, or, alternatively, more creative reimaginings of the suburban setting, which permit “new” narratives of feminine transformation.' (Publication abstract)
Made in Suburbia : Intra-suburban Narratives in Contemporary Australian Women’s Fiction Belinda Burns , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 163-179)

'Within twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia has long been trivialised, satirised, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation, a location from which to flee. However, little critical attention has been directed on contemporary realist tales of the female protagonist located within the confines of suburbia—an increasingly contested yet arguably still feminine/feminised zone. This chapter examines contemporary representations and narrative trajectories of the suburban female protagonist in twenty-first-century fiction. Drawing on “postfeminist” literary theory and emerging reappraisals of the “everyday” and “home”, the chapter presents evidence of intra-suburban narratives of feminine transformation, which contradict second-wave feminist flight trajectories, thereby reclaiming and elevating fictional suburbia as a critical space in which Australian women writers may locate their stories.'

Source: Abstract.

Last amended 26 Oct 2023 13:15:17
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