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'Through the tide of hormones ebbing and flowing my body, and the little runnels of blood and the sour tang of my breasts, I lay awake, listening, and thinking of breath and of water. I had broken my relationship with sleep.
'In this stunning collection, Jessica Friedmann navigates her journey through postpartum depression after the birth of her son, Owen. Drawing on critical theory, popular culture, and personal experience, her wide-ranging essays touch on class, race, gender, and sexuality, as well as motherhood, creativity, and mental illness.
'Occasionally confronting, but always powerfully moving and beautifully observed, Things That Helped charts Jessica’s return into the world: a slow and complex process of reassembling what depression fractured and sometimes broke.' (Publication Summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
To Resilience – and Beyond!
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , June 2018;
— Review of Things That Helped : Essays 2017 selected work essay -
What I’m Reading
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017; -
Into the Depths of Despair, and Back Again
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22 April 2017; (p. 21) 'Jessica Friedmann’s broken figure hovers over a choppy sea on the striking cover of Things That Helped. And right from the opening essay, the reader is plunged into the depths of Friedmann’s despair. This deeply affective debut book chronicles the birth of her first son and the postnatal depression that nearly sent her under.' (Introduction)
-
To Resilience – and Beyond!
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , June 2018;
— Review of Things That Helped : Essays 2017 selected work essay -
Into the Depths of Despair, and Back Again
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22 April 2017; (p. 21) 'Jessica Friedmann’s broken figure hovers over a choppy sea on the striking cover of Things That Helped. And right from the opening essay, the reader is plunged into the depths of Friedmann’s despair. This deeply affective debut book chronicles the birth of her first son and the postnatal depression that nearly sent her under.' (Introduction) -
What I’m Reading
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Awards
- 2018 longlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award
- 2018 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards — Best Designed Autobiography / Biography / Memoir