NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL 2015: Helen Garner in conversation with Caroline Baum

This was the session we had all been waiting for...ok, I had been waiting for.

 

Helen Garner in conversation with Caroline Baum, talking about her latest book and hopefully other topics.

 

And it was all this and more.

 

I am relying on my memory and a few notes here, as I was so engrossed I did not write a lot down.

 

Caroline started by asking Helen to read page one of her latest book, This House of Grief.  Caroline said it reads like a twisted fairy tale, especially with the use of 'Once' within that section. Helen agreed that that had been her intention. She also says she writes her first page last and thought of the story as a bad country and western song, in fact she wished she could have turned it into a song.

 

They spoke about how terribly difficult this book was to write and how she struggled with it, especially as it went to a second trial, she did not know if she had it in her to finish it. Her sister told her to free herself. She did put it aside for a while with the intent of not coming back to it, but it lured her back.

 

Caroline and Helen then went over some of the topics from Friday night's opening night, including sentimentality within endings. Helen spoke about her love of the film, 12 Angry Men - another favourite of mine, and that it had a happy ending which some would call sentimental, she doesn't agree. Sometimes endings are happy or sentimental, it can be irritating, but also true. This is interesting as I have never really been a fan of the happy ending, my experience in life has just not been that, so I can find them false and irritating. Yet, there are some, which really ring true and they make me smile, a gift of hopefulness I guess.

 

Caroline told Helen that David Marr had called her our greatest writer of Non-Fiction. Helen was taken aback by this strong praise.

 

They then went on to talk about the bit of trouble Helen found herself in by making a comment about the trial at The Wheeler Centre, while the trial was still on. She commented that "only one person knows what happened that night and he's not talking." meaning that Farquharson was behind the wheel but couldn't remember anything that happened. The talk went up on Youtube and she was called on contempt of court and asked to get the video down asap, which she did. She believes now, she was bluffed!

 

She spoke about Fiction versus Non-Fiction, explaining that when you are writing Fiction and you get into a jam, you just make up stuff, but not so with Non Fiction, there is a duty to the facts.

 

Helen also spoke about her relationships with people she shared the courtroom with, including the police, she believes a good cop is a really fabulous person. I agree with her wholeheartedly.

 

Helen then went on to talk about the thing that struck me about her and the book the most, her portrait of Farquharson himself. She was struck by his sadness, and only described what she witnessed and was taken to task on it by many people. She was told she was making excuses for him and she was rocked by it. She felt she had been fair to all involved and she realised people want wanted to hear he was a monster. And this is what I love about Helen the person and Helen the writer - for they are the same - she said she writes these books so we can get an insight into that person. Not to feel sorry or to feel hatred, but so we might be able to see that person coming and prevent such things happening again.

Powerful stuff huh?

 

She explained the events leading up to what happened and how you can see he was effected, this means no blame to his wife, it is what it is. She was saddened by people's reactions to her descriptions, saying it was crude and simplistic to be so black and white about human behaviour, it was like trying to find an algebraic equation that did not exist.

 

I could feel her helplessness as she described all of this, her kindness and her disappointment in the more judgmental, simplistic views of people. I understood where she is coming from, I whispered to my friend B, "she just gets people". 

And this is what makes her writing superb. She is matter of a fact, and to the point, spare of words, and deep in humanity. The subject matter of her Non Fiction is not what I would normally read, but I immerse myself in it, because she is not only our best writer of Non Fiction, but our best writer full stop.

  

NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL 2015: Opening Night, The Book That Changed Me

It's been a few weeks since the Opening Night of the Newcastle Writers Festival and I am still thinking about the wonderful panel discussion about "The Book That Changed Me."

After all the important speeches by those involved in the festival, including the luminous founder of the festival Rosemarie Milsom, we were delighted by the outstanding panel as we sat in Newcastle City Hall, our home for the next few days.

The panel, hosted by Caroline Baum, were Helen Garner, Jessica Rudd, and Michael Robotham.

Now I have to say I worship the ground Helen Garner walks on, so you have been forewarned. And she made me love her even more, which I didn't think possible. However, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Jessica Rudd and Michael Robotham also, both being authors I don't read.

Listening to them all talk about the books that changed their lives was fascinating. As a Librarian, I always love insight into people's choices in terms of literature.

Helen started it off by mentioning Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopeadia. This immediately struck a chord with me, I remember pawing through them at my grandparent's when I was a child. I couldn't get enough, and Helen was the same when she was a child. Surely this would make us firm friends if we were to meet! She also mentioned Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which is one of my life changing titles, so I then knew we would be firm friends, though I knew if I ever came close to meeting her my knees would shake and words would never form, thus making any thoughts of friendship fail before I ever had a chance!

Caroline moved through the panel many times with interesting questions and here is what I remember.

Helen belongs to a Reading Group - this is different to a bookclub - they select a book and take turns at reading it aloud until it is finished, what a marvelous idea! They have recently completed The Illiad!

Helen can read other books while she is writing, though she usually gets caught up in her writing and doesn't get time. Both Jessica and Michael do not read in their genre while writing as they find it can influence their writing in a negative way.

Jessica Rudd's books that changed her were Pride and Prejudice, she read every year during high school, and Primary Colours, which saddened her as she had always been very idealistic about politics. Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourite books, but not life changing for me. Helen Garner mentioned she loves it, and finds it very funny. I do too Helen. Primary Colours was a cracking romp. As I read it it was obvious it was about Clinton, and a few months after this my thoughts were confirmed.

Rudd also loves Caitlin Moran, as do I, and called her the feminist of our generation, that I am not so sure of. As a feminist writer she is good, but flawed. Roxane Gay writes about this in her book, Bad Feminist, which I read a week after the festival. I love it when topics turn up and confirm your thoughts immediately after having them.

Michael Robotham also listed A Moveable Feast, both Helen and Michael had read it whilst in Paris when they were younger, he set out to go to every location mentioned in the book. I too read it in Paris, and visited some areas, but not specific haunts, I am saving that for my return trip.

Helen also spoke of Charles Reznikoff, an American Jewish poet, as the writer that most changed her life. She spoke so beautifully yet at times stumbled over the correct words to describe her feelings, which for a writer as spare and eloquent as Helen shows the impact he has had on her. He writes poetry based on court testimonies, specifically The Holocaust, but other topics as well. You can see, given her own writings, why she would be attracted to such unusual words.

Helen also spoke of police crime photography that also influenced her work, she described what was essentially ordinary photos of macabre scenes in such a magical and beautiful way. I always knew her brain was a thing of beauty, and her heart and soul full of respect and kindness, as this shines through in her extraordinary writing. But to hear her speak about such things was something else all together!

Michael Robotham had the most moving stories. One from his childhood years, the cat and mouse game he played with a battered copy of The Lord of The Rings and his school Librarian was as funny as it was poignant. He is such a natural storyteller, he had the audience in the palm of his hands, myself included. But it was his story about Ray Bradbury that had me in tears. He loved Ray as a kid (or maybe teen?) and read all he could get his hands on, but not everything written was published in Australia. He wrote a fan letter to Ray, and Ray wrote back and included a copy of all the books not available in Australia. How amazing is that? He wrote again to Ray later on in life to explain he was a writer now and again Ray responded, and Michael was to meet him on a recent American tour but Ray passed away just prior to the meeting. Robotham was clearly upset at this, but thrilled for the experience.

Michael also spoke of a less than impressive day at John Irving's house and Helen, a similar story, in meeting her hero, Janet Malcolm. The later showing, that everyone gets tongue-tied in the presence of their heroes.

It truly was a fabulous night, one we were sorry to see end.

But it made me think of The Book That Changed Me. The Diary of Anne Frank was my immediate choice, I read it in my early 20s and it had a profound effect on me. Then I came up with A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway, having bought a copy of it in Paris and read it whilst there. Also Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, which I read in my early 30s after the breakdown of my then relationship, her (far worse) pain helped me through my own. I realised that I had a book for each decade of my life, Hemingway being my early 40s. I am still thinking about what - if any - changed my childhood and teens. And this will be the subject of a post in time, so stay tuned.