Freaky v Fab Families

On Wednesday 14 May the FnB club (sans Julie) congregated for the last time at 43 Sheffield Avenue Malvern to say goodbye to a house, and hello to Mog and Cherrie's book selections - The Season (Helen Garner) and Somebody Down There Likes Me (Robert Lukins).    While waiting for Margy P, who was doing her very best to impersonate Helen Garner by taking her teenage grandson to football training, our idle conversation turned to hanging out the washing which turned to cleaning and who does what, when and where - and we all agreed that Peter came out as the King of the Clean after Kathy's revelation that he does most if not all, does it strategically and extremely diligently, every time.  

The inscrutable author and his book

Cherrie swung our attention away from the housework humdrum and straight into the bizarre when introducing her selected book by Robert Lukins.  Reflecting on the difficulty she had in finding information about the author - including basic stuff such as age and background - Cherrie did discover that he had frequented some place in Shropshire, now lives in Melbourne/Naarm, and flew across America in a home made plane with a friend looking for ghost towns.  This may say something about the outsider status of the author.  

Lukins' little yellow plane

It was during the ghost town travels and from a random conversation that he discovered Belle Haven - home of rich and callous American families. There is a mighty big clue about what the reader is in for in the title of the book because it was hard to find a redeeming feature among the characters of the Gulch family, Fax, Honey, Lincoln and Kick.   Through the individual voices of the 4 family members, each laced with introspection and dripping with distain, we were plunged into a narcissistic world of backstabbing, sexual predation, revenge, manipulation, blackmail, capitalism morphing into criminality, serious drug abuse and the mystery of Mouse - and that was just the first few days... (readers please add any more vices you can think of).  Structured around a week in 1996, we all agreed it was a hard read with some finding it more worthwhile than others.  And there wasn't anything gratifying at the end which may have been a clue to Lukins choice of his enigmatic title.  It wasn't difficult to read the book as a scathing commentary on the civil and moral decline of white, rich Americans.  Tough going and not worth it for some readers, but an interesting journey into a very different world for others.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and shook ourselves down before making our way to the footy ovals of Footscray.  There we found Helen Garner, her grandson, Amby, and his family - who were a long way both geographically and metaphysically from the Gulch's of Belle Haven.  Mog reminded us that Helen Garner's last book was her second choice, after her original selection 'An Ethical Guide to Murder' was ditched as lightweight bumph.  And so we enjoyed following Helen and Amby through Helen's monthly reports on training, games and events, including the return of Boof from the NT for the big Grand Final, and Helen's graduation to be the 'half time oranges lady'.  As the writer, and although part of the family, Garner was on the outside looking in, giving us insight into well functioning family life, relationships, community, being present, team spirit, growing up in today's world, physicality and masculinity, along with humour - {page 48; Sign outside the Hawthorn Church 'What would you do if Christ came to Hawthorn?  Answer: move Peter Hudson to centre half forward"}.  

Hudson in his heyday

It made each of us reflect on our interaction with grandchildren - including McLassie who cheerily confirmed her heavy lifting continues with rowing, football and other activities; and Cherrie travelling to Melbourne soon to hear her granddaughters cello recital in coming days (go Beatrice!).  The general view was that the book was a classy read - notwithstanding Garner's take on the role of grandparents which was slightly chilling (read on if you dare)..."you're making a serious mistake if you start to think you're near the centre.  You're on the periphery.  You're a servant.  A hanger on.  And soon you'll be dead."  (p51)

Lightening the moment, chocolate mousse cake came out and went down with or without tea, but without a crumb left - followed by chat about the phantom defaecator apparently still lurking around Norwood after a sex change.  

Movies recommended were

• Mad about the Boy
• The Brother's Band

and television to watch

• The Piano - ABC Sunday nights (big ticks for Andrea Lam and Amanda Keller: differing views about Harry Connick Jnr)

Books for next time were called

• On the calculation of volume - Solvej Balle (Kathy)
• Wild dark shore - Charlotte McConaghy (Megan)

So that's it till next time - Wednesday 16 July at either Kathy or Megan's place.