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"'Why is he like this?' Christine wails. 'Remember what he's been through,' says Martha in heavy loaded tones to excuse him. Every war is different, but all wars have casualties. This is a story about a family of damaged survivors, their ongoing inner turmoil, their battles with each other, and their strategies for escape. During the Second World War, Jack is a prisoner on the Changi railway before being shipwrecked on his way to the saltmines. After clinging to wreckage in the shark-infested ocean watching his companions die, he returns home to peace-time. However, although he has survived the war, he has been so shaped and changed by it that not only Martha, his long-suffering wife, but each of their six children are forced to develop survival strategies to cope with him. Jill discovers hers in being top of her class; Johnnie finds refuge in sleep; May designs elegant dresses and dreams of wearing them; the twins have each other; and Christine finds comfort in the wild stallion her imagination has awarded her and Jack's stories of war and heroism. As the world changes and his children start growing up, Jack is left increasingly bewildered and angry. Women's Rights organisations are bad enough, but when Jill joins the anti-Vietnam War movement it feels like the ultimate betrayal. Drastic measures must be taken and nothing will ever be the same again. Patricia Cornelius's evocative debut novel is set in Melbourne between WW2 and the Vietnam War." Source: Publisher.
Adaptations
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My Sister Jill
2023
single work
drama
'Against the backdrop of 1950s and 60s suburban Melbourne and in the wake of the Second World War, multi-award-winning writer Patricia Cornelius delivers a poetic, heart-rending tale that unpacks the shadow of war, and the trauma it leaves behind.
'The youngest of Jack and Martha’s five children, Christine idolises her father, especially his stories of wartime heroics. She cannot understand why her siblings – Jill, Johnnie and twins Door and Mouse – don’t share her love for their dad. Jill, meanwhile doesn’t understand why their mum puts up with him. As Christine watches on, one by one her siblings start to rebel against the tumultuous environment they are growing up in. Once fascinated by her father’s war stories, they slowly start to lose their shine as the conflict in Vietnam intensifies and war once again becomes front of mind for the family.'
Source: Production blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Patricia Cornelius
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 20-26 March 2021;'Multi-award-winning playwright Patricia Cornelius is working on an adaptation of her novel about the fallout of the Vietnam War, My Sister Jill – when she’s not gardening. By Maddee Clark .'
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'All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance' : The Vietnam War Protest Movement in Australian Women’s Fictions by Janine Burke, Patricia Cornelius, Nuri Maas, and Wendy Scarfe
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 2 no. 1 2011; (p. 123-141) 'Nearly fifty years ago, the Australian government sent thirty military advisers to South Vietnam, thereby initiating a commitment to a war which was to last for over a decade. Altogether, nearly 47,000 Australians, including 17,500 national servicemen served in Vietnam; 500 died and 2500 were wounded. Almost as disturbing as the results of the battlefield were the shockwaves that reverberated throughout Australian society, for the war years turned out to be one of the most turbulent periods in the nation’s history. The events of these tumultuous years are examined in five little-known Australian women’s fictions—Nuri Maas’s 1971 As Much a Right to Live, Janine Burke’s 1984 Speaking, Wendy Scarfe’s 1984 Neither Here Nor There and her 1988 Laura, My Alter Ego: A Novel of Love, Loyalty and Conscience, and Patricia Cornelius’s 2002 My Sister Jill. Together these texts chronicle the politicization of Australian youth, recount the kinds of overt challenges to the traditional standards of masculinity which had prevailed in Australian society since its inception, and document the emergence of the secondwave feminist movement.' Source: Donna Coates. -
The Future of Australian Fiction
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 176 2004; (p. 94-96)
— Review of I Knit Water 2002 single work novel ; A Secret Burial 2003 single work novel ; Ninety East Ridge 2002 single work novel ; My Sister Jill 2002 single work novel -
At Home with Poverty
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 23 November 2002; (p. 9)
— Review of My Sister Jill 2002 single work novel
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The Future of Australian Fiction
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 176 2004; (p. 94-96)
— Review of I Knit Water 2002 single work novel ; A Secret Burial 2003 single work novel ; Ninety East Ridge 2002 single work novel ; My Sister Jill 2002 single work novel -
At Home with Poverty
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 23 November 2002; (p. 9)
— Review of My Sister Jill 2002 single work novel -
'All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance' : The Vietnam War Protest Movement in Australian Women’s Fictions by Janine Burke, Patricia Cornelius, Nuri Maas, and Wendy Scarfe
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 2 no. 1 2011; (p. 123-141) 'Nearly fifty years ago, the Australian government sent thirty military advisers to South Vietnam, thereby initiating a commitment to a war which was to last for over a decade. Altogether, nearly 47,000 Australians, including 17,500 national servicemen served in Vietnam; 500 died and 2500 were wounded. Almost as disturbing as the results of the battlefield were the shockwaves that reverberated throughout Australian society, for the war years turned out to be one of the most turbulent periods in the nation’s history. The events of these tumultuous years are examined in five little-known Australian women’s fictions—Nuri Maas’s 1971 As Much a Right to Live, Janine Burke’s 1984 Speaking, Wendy Scarfe’s 1984 Neither Here Nor There and her 1988 Laura, My Alter Ego: A Novel of Love, Loyalty and Conscience, and Patricia Cornelius’s 2002 My Sister Jill. Together these texts chronicle the politicization of Australian youth, recount the kinds of overt challenges to the traditional standards of masculinity which had prevailed in Australian society since its inception, and document the emergence of the secondwave feminist movement.' Source: Donna Coates. -
Patricia Cornelius
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 20-26 March 2021;'Multi-award-winning playwright Patricia Cornelius is working on an adaptation of her novel about the fallout of the Vietnam War, My Sister Jill – when she’s not gardening. By Maddee Clark .'
- Melbourne, Victoria,
- 1960s
