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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'A profound and sensuous novel of grace and beauty from a stunning young Australian talent. Innocent and unworldly, Mema is still living at home with her mother on a remote, lush hinterland property. It is a small, confined, simple sort of life, and Mema is content with it. One day, during a heavy downpour, Mema saves a stranger from a raging creek. She takes him into her family home, where, marooned by rising floods, he has to stay until the waters recede.
'His sudden presence is unsettling - for Mema, her mother and her wild friend Anja - but slowly he opens the door to a new world of beckoning possibilities that threaten to sweep Mema into the deep.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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(Re)claiming Barbara Baynton’s Gothic Creek : An Analysis of Gillian Mears’ Foals’ Bread and Jessie Cole’s Deeper Water
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Etropic , vol. 16 no. 2 2017;'The creek is a threatening site for women in Barbara Baynton’s Bush Studies (1902). The female characters in her stories are routinely represented as vulnerable, drowning, or murdered at the creek, and the slippery banks and murky waters have been established by Baynton as an Australian gothic space where women (and their bodies) are denied agency. Gillian Mears and Jessie Cole are two contemporary writers who challenge Baynton’s representation of the gothic creek. The female protagonists in their most recent Australian gothic novels, Noah in Mears’ Foal’s Bread (2011) and Mema in Cole’s Deeper Water (2014), understand the creek as a subversive site that accommodates alternative female corporeal experiences. While Noah in Foal’s Bread finds body autonomy in her use of the creek as a birthing space for her firstborn child, Mema in Deeper Water experiences body empowerment in her use of the creek as a space of sexual awakening. Though the gothic creek is a fearful site for women in Baynton’s establishing Australian gothic text, Bush Studies, both Foal’s Bread and Deeper Water demonstrate that the contemporary gothic creek is able to (re)negotiated as a site of female body autonomy and empowerment.' (Publication abstract)
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The Reformer
2015
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11 April 2015; (p. 15-18) -
Review : Deeper Water
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 366 2014; (p. 70)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel -
Deeper Water : Review
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 6 December 2014; (p. 19)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel 'Exquisite writing fro a sterling new Australian talent, Jessie Cole's second novel deserves to be mentioned...' -
Well Read
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 4 October 2014; (p. 27)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel ; Nest 2014 single work novel
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From Small Observations Comes a Larger Perception
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 9-10 August 2014; (p. 18)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel -
Jessie Cole : Deeper Water
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , September 2014;
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel -
Deeper Water
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 16 September 2014; (p. 7)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel -
Well Read
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 4 October 2014; (p. 27)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel ; Nest 2014 single work novel -
Deeper Water : Review
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 6 December 2014; (p. 19)
— Review of Deeper Water 2014 single work novel 'Exquisite writing fro a sterling new Australian talent, Jessie Cole's second novel deserves to be mentioned...' -
Jessie Cole
2014
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2 August 2014; (p. 24-25) 'Susan Chenery meets an author whose career is the antithesis of literary ambition.' -
Life in a Secret World
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 2 August 2014; (p. 41) -
The Reformer
2015
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11 April 2015; (p. 15-18) -
(Re)claiming Barbara Baynton’s Gothic Creek : An Analysis of Gillian Mears’ Foals’ Bread and Jessie Cole’s Deeper Water
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Etropic , vol. 16 no. 2 2017;'The creek is a threatening site for women in Barbara Baynton’s Bush Studies (1902). The female characters in her stories are routinely represented as vulnerable, drowning, or murdered at the creek, and the slippery banks and murky waters have been established by Baynton as an Australian gothic space where women (and their bodies) are denied agency. Gillian Mears and Jessie Cole are two contemporary writers who challenge Baynton’s representation of the gothic creek. The female protagonists in their most recent Australian gothic novels, Noah in Mears’ Foal’s Bread (2011) and Mema in Cole’s Deeper Water (2014), understand the creek as a subversive site that accommodates alternative female corporeal experiences. While Noah in Foal’s Bread finds body autonomy in her use of the creek as a birthing space for her firstborn child, Mema in Deeper Water experiences body empowerment in her use of the creek as a space of sexual awakening. Though the gothic creek is a fearful site for women in Baynton’s establishing Australian gothic text, Bush Studies, both Foal’s Bread and Deeper Water demonstrate that the contemporary gothic creek is able to (re)negotiated as a site of female body autonomy and empowerment.' (Publication abstract)