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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Richard Glover's favourite dinner-party game is called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?'. It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob, who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed-toy collector. There was his father, a distant alcoholic, who ran through a gamut of wives, yachts and failed dreams. And there was Richard himself, a confused teenager, vulnerable to strange men, trying to find a family he could belong to. As he eventually accepted, the only way to make sense of the present was to go back to the past - but beware of what you might find there. Truth can leave wounds - even if they are only flesh wounds.
'Part poignant family memoir, part rollicking venture into a 1970s Australia, this is a book for anyone who's wondered if their family is the oddest one on the planet. The answer: 'No'. There is always something stranger out there.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Epigraph: 'Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humour to console him for what he is.' –Sir Francis Bacon
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Dedication: For Dan and Joe
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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‘First the Misery, Then the Trauma’ : The Australian Trauma Memoir
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , no. 42 2017;'This article focuses on the trauma memoir as an identifiable type of creative writing. It begins by tracing its popularity, especially in the 1990s, in the process recognising what can be proposed as key works internationally, many of which—but not all—are American, as well as how these texts were received by critics and readers, in order to place the Australian trauma memoir in this broader context. The so-called ‘misery memoir’ is also discussed. As little investigation has focused on the Australian trauma memoir as a form of memoir, this article will profile some (mostly recent) examples of Australian trauma memoir in order to begin to investigate what these texts contribute to our understanding of the trauma memoir as a form of creative writing. This recognises debates over the literary and social value of memoirs.' (Publication abstract)
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Richard Glover, Flesh Wounds
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 19 September 2015;
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
Review : Flesh Wounds
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , July vol. 95 no. 1 2015; (p. 22)
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
The Game of Life Full of the Weird and the Wonderful
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19-20 September 2015; (p. 25) The Sunday Age , 20 September 2015; (p. 25)
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
My Life as a Self-raising Man
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 August 2015; (p. 22)
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography
-
My Life as a Self-raising Man
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 August 2015; (p. 22)
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
The Game of Life Full of the Weird and the Wonderful
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19-20 September 2015; (p. 25) The Sunday Age , 20 September 2015; (p. 25)
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
Review : Flesh Wounds
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , July vol. 95 no. 1 2015; (p. 22)
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
Richard Glover, Flesh Wounds
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 19 September 2015;
— Review of Flesh Wounds 2015 single work autobiography -
‘First the Misery, Then the Trauma’ : The Australian Trauma Memoir
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , no. 42 2017;'This article focuses on the trauma memoir as an identifiable type of creative writing. It begins by tracing its popularity, especially in the 1990s, in the process recognising what can be proposed as key works internationally, many of which—but not all—are American, as well as how these texts were received by critics and readers, in order to place the Australian trauma memoir in this broader context. The so-called ‘misery memoir’ is also discussed. As little investigation has focused on the Australian trauma memoir as a form of memoir, this article will profile some (mostly recent) examples of Australian trauma memoir in order to begin to investigate what these texts contribute to our understanding of the trauma memoir as a form of creative writing. This recognises debates over the literary and social value of memoirs.' (Publication abstract)
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form
y
The Book Club [December 2015]
Sydney
:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
,
2015
15258855
2015
film/TV
Host Jennifer Byrne joins regular panelists Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger, and guests Michael Williams and Leigh Sales to discuss "Five of the Best", including Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski, Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread, The Whites by Harry Brandt, Relativity by Antonia Hayes and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
Awards
- 2016 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Biography of the Year
- 2016 shortlisted Indie Awards — Nonfiction
- 2016 shortlisted Australian Booksellers Association Awards — BookPeople Book of the Year