True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction

Helen Garner writes the best sentences in Australia. This collection of her non-fiction carries all the evidence one needs to back that judgement. It is a book that should be in the hands of anyone who wants to write . . . Even if you are a Garner fan, there will be something here to surprise you . . . Garner's prose is like a dry-stone wall in which every rock has been hefted in the hand, looked at hard and then placed with care into its proper slot . . . Her words have precise, apt meanings, especially the adjectives. Her verbs, workhorses of this prose, are stung, agile and fresh. The sentences roll and glide in pleasing rhythms. This is not fast food; it demands to be savoured. Bulletin