AustLit

'The narrator of Angela O’Keeffe’s first novel, Night Blue (2021), wants to tell the reader their “inner story”. A story of being made, exhibited and judged, it is narrated by Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionist painting known as Number 11, 1952. Later named Blue Poles, the painting was purchased in 1973 by the National Gallery of Australia for $1.3 million. Because this sum was beyond the gallery director’s budget, it was controversially authorised by then prime minister Gough Whitlam.' (Introduction)    

'Are women obliged to mourn an abortion? Must we perform the role of La Llorona, condemned to weep for a lost child, even one we never wanted? Will it ever be possible to treat a termination as a simple medical procedure and feel uncomplicated relief? Even from the pro-choice camp there is sometimes a defensive argument that the choice is never easy. There is a tacit acceptance that the decision is necessarily a heavy one, even though the heaviness often comes not from the decision itself, but from the political weight society, particularly the anti-abortion minority, puts on the act of abortion and the bodies of those who have them.'(Introduction)