Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction and the Western Australian Premier's Book Award. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. Her books include Monkey Grip, The Spare Room, This House of Grief and Everywhere I Look.
‘[Garner’s] writing expresses a hard-won grace. It brings you
closer to the world, and shows you how to love it.’
*Monthly*
‘Garner is scrupulous, painstaking, and detailed, with sharp eyes
and ears. She is everywhere at once, watching and listening, a
recording angel at life’s secular apocalypses…her unillusioned eye
makes her clarity compulsive.’
*James Wood, New Yorker*
‘Garner, in everything she writes, is an indelible stylist, a
shaper of events, a distiller of meaning.’
*Morag Fraser, Australian Book Review*
‘On the page, Garner is uncommonly fierce, though this usually has
the effect on me of making her seem all the more likable. I relish
her fractious, contrarian streak – she wears it as a chef would a
bloody apron – even as I worry about what it would be like to have
to face it down.’
*Guardian*
‘It’s a special privilege to be let in on what was going on in her
mind, her life.’
*Mark Rubbo, Readings*
‘Yellow Notebook is as replete as it is spare. It is brimful of a
life that needs to be taken a sip at a time to enjoy all its
flavours…There is so much wisdom in this book that we can be
grateful that Garner has decided to share it around.’
*Michael McGirr, Age*
‘Yellow Notebook reveals the bewildered quest, the stubborn
orneriness and vanity of a soul forever journeying it knows not
where. It has the power of great fiction that the finest poetry
has.’
*Saturday Paper*
‘The sensory nature of her observations is glorious.’
*Guardian*
‘We are once again able to witness one of Australia’s greatest
writers at her most raw, unedited, and brilliant…Yellow Notebook is
both entirely ordinary, and completely transfixing.’
*Good Reading*
‘Garner is unparalleled in her honesty and
perceptiveness…Experience the things she read, the things she did,
they ways she felt, and so much more in this immersive
thoughtscape. A delight.’
*Booktopia*
'[Garner] experiences the consequences of her writing so acutely,
and that is what makes her so extraordinary—you can read the
suffering in every word.’
*Annabel Crabb*
‘A crafted work of autobiographical glimpses, acute observations
and insights into the writer’s psyche…her diaries are the rehearsal
space of a great author and even in private her sentences sing with
a strong, clear voice.’
*Australian*
‘The pleasure of the book is Garner's eye – the momentary event,
the instant's feel, the texture of time. This is not to say that
there is no story – far from it. Yellow Notebook is often rich in
anecdotes. It is a book of heart-wrenching break-ups, growing
friendships, tears, and celebrations. Garner's relationship with
her daughter becomes a pleasure to share...It is an exemplary
book.’
*Stuff.co.nz*
‘Starched or not – severe, unbending, falling about at the
absurdity of the world – Helen Garner emerges as a moralist
rippling with intent and mirth. The diary, clearly, is her true
métier. And now we have successive volumes to anticipate. The
titular promise and confidence are typical of this brilliant,
defiant book.’
*ABR*
‘Helen Garner’s Yellow Notebook proves she can’t write a bad
sentence, even in private.’
*Susan Wyndham, ABR*
‘Don’t mistake Helen Garner’s Yellow Notebook for ‘something
sensational to read in the train’, as an Oscar Wilde heroine
characterised her own diaries. Garner’s are spare, quiet,
reflective: a portrait of the artist and her world, observed with
scrupulous honesty.’
*Brenda Niall, ABR*
‘If Yellow Notebook is anything then, it is a testament to the
veracity of Garner’s instinct, evidence that ordinary life is not
only extraordinary but also worthy of great literary endeavour. And
not only that, but that under the right eye, recorded with the
necessary skill, life can be elevated to mighty, heartbreaking
art.’
*Alice Robinson*
‘Garner has always been concerned with truth-telling. She is
ever-vigilant, watching herself and others, the sharpest of
observers capturing with nuance and detail the most telling
interactions between friends, siblings, lovers and society, as
gathered in a court room, for example…It is a wonderful and often
hilarious read. The fortunes of love and art come and go almost
like dramatic episodes of personal weather…Then they pass, and she
delivers observations of the most clear-eyed and perfectly turned
writing.’
*Canberra Times*
’Anything she writes, shopping lists of whatever, is worth looking
at.’
*RN Bookshelf*
‘It's a gift to watch a gifted writer teach herself to write.’
*Clare Wright*
‘A rich insight into what it means to be an artist. Not just a
writer but any kind of artist where the pull of the work surpasses
everything else. Reading these snatches of life being lived is like
being given a painting you love gleaming with the still-wet
paint.’
*Australian*
‘Full of Helen Garner’s trademark acerbic wit and razor-sharp
observations, this is the sort of book you can either read in parts
or let it wash over you all at once.’
*Booktopia*
‘As intriguing as it is deeply humbling.'
*Adelaide Review*
‘For fans of Garner’s keen eye, ear for dialogue and shining
snapshot moments, this is a must.’
*Canberra Times*
‘What in turn fascinates, excites, saddens, entertains and informs
the reader is Garner herself…it is the breathtaking acuity of her
observation and the painful depth of her self-doubt.’
*SA Weekend*
'In some ways, the diaries are the apotheosis of her entire career,
and the most exciting thing she has ever published.'
*Literary Hub*
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