AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Lech Blaine was just seventeen when he was in a crash that killed his best friends and changed his life.
'On an evening in 2009, seven teenage boys piled into a car to go to a party. They never arrived. The driver - who was not drunk or high - made a routine error and then overcorrected. The vehicle flew off the road. One passenger died on impact. Others were flung from the car. Lech walked away uninjured. In the aftermath, two more died in hospital and one was left disabled, in an incident that convulsed their rural community.
'Crippled by guilt, Lech turned to social media, cultivating a persona as the ultimate 'grateful survivor'. Over time, he spiralled into risk-taking and depression. His public bravado fell away as he tried to accept how an accident - one wretched error of youth and inexperience - had changed the trajectory of so many lives.
'How do we grieve in an age of social media? How does tragedy shape a community? And how does a boy on the cusp of manhood develop a sense of self when his world has exploded?
'This stunning memoir pulls no punches. It marks Lech Blaine as a writer to watch.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Books Roundup: Car Crash, As Beautiful as Any Other, Flock, Gunk Baby
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , May 2021;
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography ; As Beautiful As Any Other : A Memoir of My Body 2021 single work autobiography ; Flock : First Nations Stories Then and Now 2021 anthology prose ; Gunk Baby 2020 single work novel -
Lech Blaine’s Double Life : The Banality of Trauma
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 431 2021; (p. 54)
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography 'Young writers may turn to the page for catharsis – for writing-as-therapy – but that’s not why we read them. The ageist view, that a writer mustn’t pen their memoirs until they are older and learned, neglects the breadth of excellent work by precocious writers who have a story to tell. Naïveté and inexperience can enchant, sometimes more so than brilliant craftsmanship or intellectual maturity.' (Introduction) -
Car Crash by Lech Blaine Review – A Bruisingly Insightful Memoir of Two Wreckages
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 9 April 2021;
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography'A tragic accident and a lifetime of trauma fuel this candid, thoughtful debut and examination of our tired ideas about manhood.'
-
Lech Blaine,Car Crash: A Memoir
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 27 March - 2 April 2021;
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography
-
Lech Blaine,Car Crash: A Memoir
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 27 March - 2 April 2021;
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography -
Car Crash by Lech Blaine Review – A Bruisingly Insightful Memoir of Two Wreckages
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 9 April 2021;
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography'A tragic accident and a lifetime of trauma fuel this candid, thoughtful debut and examination of our tired ideas about manhood.'
-
Lech Blaine’s Double Life : The Banality of Trauma
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 431 2021; (p. 54)
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography 'Young writers may turn to the page for catharsis – for writing-as-therapy – but that’s not why we read them. The ageist view, that a writer mustn’t pen their memoirs until they are older and learned, neglects the breadth of excellent work by precocious writers who have a story to tell. Naïveté and inexperience can enchant, sometimes more so than brilliant craftsmanship or intellectual maturity.' (Introduction) -
Books Roundup: Car Crash, As Beautiful as Any Other, Flock, Gunk Baby
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , May 2021;
— Review of Car Crash : A Memoir 2021 single work autobiography ; As Beautiful As Any Other : A Memoir of My Body 2021 single work autobiography ; Flock : First Nations Stories Then and Now 2021 anthology prose ; Gunk Baby 2020 single work novel