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textpublishing's review
The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of How to End a Story:
'Candid and flawless, as we’ve come to expect from Garner.’
Nicole Abadee, Good Weekend
‘A tremendous feat [with] a bloodcurdling credibility…How to End a Story is further evidence that Garner is a diarist of genius and the intimacies and intensities will long outlast the sorrows that engendered them. It is a book of wisdom in the face of every folly.’
Peter Craven, Age
‘The true gratifications of How to End a Story exist in a woman’s slow, tentative unfurling in the wake of a relationship’s collapse.’
Geordie Williamson, Saturday Paper
‘A devastating yet enlightening look in to the private thoughts and feelings of an incredible woman. It is a privilege to read.’
Readings
‘Compellingly propulsive…While this volume is rich in small human moments and intimate reflections on being a writer…the central drama gives How to End a Story the quality of a novel.’InDaily
‘Brilliant.’
Australian
‘As propulsive as the most addictive page-turner and as exquisitely rendered as [Garner’s] novels and short stories…Garner's diaries are expertly paced and arranged, as much outward-looking as inward, and as attuned to the quotidian as to the profound.’
Zora Simic, Inside Story
'Garner is often lauded for her unflinching gaze and unsparing prose. But in this latest volume of her diaries her command of concealment is a masterclass.’
Fiona Murphy, Kill Your Darlings
'A shockingly relatable account of a woman trying to chip out a space to live and work…No-one today would question Garner’s significance, her intellectual heft, her bankability or her right to the prodigious space she occupies in Australian letters…A monumental achievement.’
Annabel Crabb, Harper’s Bazaar
‘How to End a Story is a plunge into the abyss as the artist and the woman desperately tries to keep her marriage, her sanity and her artistic vision alive…Few Australian writers are as cherished as Helen Garner.’
Canberra Times
‘The most formidable book of excerpts from [Garner’s] diaries so far, a devastating portrait of the breakdown of a marriage and not least of the narrator: a staggering achievement.’
Peter Craven, ABR Books of the Year 2021
'An inspiring and thought-provoking collection that runs the gamut of human emotion.’
Happy Mag
‘Garner’s passion, clarity, forensic observation and humour are well in evidence.’
SA Weekend
‘The first two volumes of Garner’s diaries offer, as one of their chief pleasures, the feeling of time as it passes. They are full of small occasions, glancing insights, a slowly accumulating drift of actions and consequences. This one is different. This one is as compelling as a detective story. This one is edited with the sense of an ending….At times, reading this diary, you feel like a spy. At times you feel like a friend. At times you feel like a judge.’
Lisa Gorton, ABR
‘Garner articulates the complex, gritty and mind-bending rollercoaster of suspecting she is being betrayed, while railing to keep up the façade in her regular life. The universality of this struggle makes her latest work yet another page-turner.’
Law Society Journal
'Candid and flawless, as we’ve come to expect from Garner.’
Nicole Abadee, Good Weekend
‘A tremendous feat [with] a bloodcurdling credibility…How to End a Story is further evidence that Garner is a diarist of genius and the intimacies and intensities will long outlast the sorrows that engendered them. It is a book of wisdom in the face of every folly.’
Peter Craven, Age
‘The true gratifications of How to End a Story exist in a woman’s slow, tentative unfurling in the wake of a relationship’s collapse.’
Geordie Williamson, Saturday Paper
‘A devastating yet enlightening look in to the private thoughts and feelings of an incredible woman. It is a privilege to read.’
Readings
‘Compellingly propulsive…While this volume is rich in small human moments and intimate reflections on being a writer…the central drama gives How to End a Story the quality of a novel.’InDaily
‘Brilliant.’
Australian
‘As propulsive as the most addictive page-turner and as exquisitely rendered as [Garner’s] novels and short stories…Garner's diaries are expertly paced and arranged, as much outward-looking as inward, and as attuned to the quotidian as to the profound.’
Zora Simic, Inside Story
'Garner is often lauded for her unflinching gaze and unsparing prose. But in this latest volume of her diaries her command of concealment is a masterclass.’
Fiona Murphy, Kill Your Darlings
'A shockingly relatable account of a woman trying to chip out a space to live and work…No-one today would question Garner’s significance, her intellectual heft, her bankability or her right to the prodigious space she occupies in Australian letters…A monumental achievement.’
Annabel Crabb, Harper’s Bazaar
‘How to End a Story is a plunge into the abyss as the artist and the woman desperately tries to keep her marriage, her sanity and her artistic vision alive…Few Australian writers are as cherished as Helen Garner.’
Canberra Times
‘The most formidable book of excerpts from [Garner’s] diaries so far, a devastating portrait of the breakdown of a marriage and not least of the narrator: a staggering achievement.’
Peter Craven, ABR Books of the Year 2021
'An inspiring and thought-provoking collection that runs the gamut of human emotion.’
Happy Mag
‘Garner’s passion, clarity, forensic observation and humour are well in evidence.’
SA Weekend
‘The first two volumes of Garner’s diaries offer, as one of their chief pleasures, the feeling of time as it passes. They are full of small occasions, glancing insights, a slowly accumulating drift of actions and consequences. This one is different. This one is as compelling as a detective story. This one is edited with the sense of an ending….At times, reading this diary, you feel like a spy. At times you feel like a friend. At times you feel like a judge.’
Lisa Gorton, ABR
‘Garner articulates the complex, gritty and mind-bending rollercoaster of suspecting she is being betrayed, while railing to keep up the façade in her regular life. The universality of this struggle makes her latest work yet another page-turner.’
Law Society Journal
rojaed's review
5.0
Another well written extract of diary that tells of the gradual ending of her marriage while living in Sydney. As you’d expect, Murray Bail does not come out of it well.
jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review
5.0
Narrative nonfiction is admittedly my absolute jam, and my post-lockdown brain was absolutely in for the energy and buzz around this much anticipated third-volume of Helen Garner’s diaries. Say what you will about book hype, but it’s a lovely feeling to think that there are lots of readers out there turning the same pages you are.
If you’ve not read Garner before, or have some familiarity with the #Auslit scene, i’m not sure these reads will hit the same (or at all, tbh). Nor do I think they’re the place to start with her oeuvre (Joe Cinque’s Consolation was my first Garner and I’d recommend it).
I think this has been my favourite volume for its pace—I feel like the subject matter tethers the reader most directly here, while still relishing in the more everyday observations that Garner’s writing flourishes within. Beyond just the pages, this is the volume that made me *feel* incredibly for Garner as a human—the depth of emotion and vulnerability shared about her marriage to V, his infidelity and gaslighting, the absolute hold this all had on Garner as an artist… it was brutal and left me veering between speechlessness and vicarious heartbreak (if you’d taken my blood pressure reading from p164 onwards
If you’ve not read Garner before, or have some familiarity with the #Auslit scene, i’m not sure these reads will hit the same (or at all, tbh). Nor do I think they’re the place to start with her oeuvre (Joe Cinque’s Consolation was my first Garner and I’d recommend it).
I think this has been my favourite volume for its pace—I feel like the subject matter tethers the reader most directly here, while still relishing in the more everyday observations that Garner’s writing flourishes within. Beyond just the pages, this is the volume that made me *feel* incredibly for Garner as a human—the depth of emotion and vulnerability shared about her marriage to V, his infidelity and gaslighting, the absolute hold this all had on Garner as an artist… it was brutal and left me veering between speechlessness and vicarious heartbreak (if you’d taken my blood pressure reading from p164 onwards
emwebster's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse
narpetcards's review
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abortion