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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Isobel Callaghan is struggling to make a career as a writer in Sydney. She is isolated, poor and hungry, and fears she’s going mad. Leaving her room in a boarding house in search of food, she has a breakdown on the way to the corner shop.
'Waking in hospital, Isobel learns that she will be confined to a sanatorium in the Blue Mountains. There, among the motley assortment of patients, and with the aid of great works of literature, she will confront the horrors of her past. But can she find a way to face the future?
'Confronting and compassionate, profound and funny, the second Isobel Callaghan novel is every bit as brilliant as its much-loved predecessor. It confirmed Amy Witting as one of the finest Australian writers of her time.' (Text Classic summary)
Notes
-
Sequel to I for Isobel.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille, sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
The Disempowerment of Women in the Domestic Sphere : The Fiction of Amy Witting (1918 – 2001)
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Crossroads : An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics , vol. 6 no. 2 2013; (p. 94-103)'This article examines ways in which the fiction of the acclaimed Australian writer Amy Witting, dubbed Australia’s Chekov and whom Helen Garner acknowledged as her ‘literary mother,’ interrogates the disempowerment of women in the domestic sphere, asserting that the home is a contested space and conflicted place for women. Witting subverts the notion that a ‘woman’s place is in the home’ by demonstrating that many
women are actually displaced and dispossessed in the inhibiting domestic spaces that are their ‘homes.’ In her fiction, women are isolated and excluded because of gender inequity
in regard to women’s rights and duties in the domestic sphere. Women are also marginalised in regard to inadequate financial rewards for domestic productivity and are affected by circumstances underpinned by discourses of poverty, class conflict and domestic violence. Witting asserts that the disempowerment of women in the home often leads to women appropriating masculinist attitudes and behaviours of oppression towards other women less powerful than themselves. In this article, these concepts are explored with close reference to five of Witting’s novels and interviews conducted with the author.' (Author's abstract)
-
The Art of Penning the March Hare In : The Treatment of Insanity in Australian Total Institution Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Aumla , November no. 118 2012; (p. 87-103)'The treatment of psychological disorders of all kinds and, more largely, of the deterioration of the mind, gradually made its mark in Australian novels in the early 1970s and gave rise to a series of books concerned with mental health issues. The six narratives I have selected for this study-David Ireland's The Flesheaters (1972), Walter Adamson's The Institution (1976), Peter Kocan's two you-narration novellas The Treatment (1980) and The Cure (1983), Carmel Bird's The White Garden (1995), and Amy Witting's Isobela on the Way to the Corner Shop (1999)-all partake of this new trend. This belated literary awakening to insanity is all the stranger seeing that creativity and madness have often been paired, both being particularly apt at articulating the relationship between freedom and constraint, mental representation and reality, the individual and society.' (Author's introduction)
-
Vale to a Writer of Sap and Fire
2001
single work
obituary
(for Amy Witting
)
— Appears in: The Australian , 26 September 2001; (p. 42) -
Writing's Late Starter Improves with Age
2000
single work
column
biography
— Appears in: The Age , 26 August 2000; (p. 3) -
Acts of Noticing : A Consideration of Some Recent Australian Fiction
2000
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 45 no. 2000; (p. 23-36)
— Review of The Red Heart 1999 selected work essay autobiography ; Untold Tales 1999 selected work short story ; Dream Stuff 2000 selected work short story ; Blue : A Novel 1999 single work novel ; Freedom Highway 1999 single work novel ; The Chelsea Manifesto : A Novel 1999 single work novel ; Painted Words 1999 anthology short story poetry ; Liv : A Novel 2000 single work novel ; Hidden from View 1999 single work novel ; Benang : From the Heart 1999 single work novel ; Drylands : A Book for the World's Last Reader 1999 single work novel ; An Accommodating Spouse 1999 single work novel ; Neap Tide 1999 single work novel ; Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel ; Poe's Cat 1999 single work novel ; Playing Madame Mao 2000 single work novel ; The Hunter 1999 single work novel ; The Australian Fiance 2000 single work novel
-
An Eye for Detail
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 11 no. 1999; (p. 17-18)
— Review of White Heart 1999 single work novel ; Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel -
Isobel's Unabsorbing Tale of Self-Absorption
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 25 July 1999; (p. 18)
— Review of Prowler : A Novel 1999 single work novel ; Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel ; Killing Aurora 1999 single work novel ; The Burnt City 1999 single work novel -
Late-Blooming Legend
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 June 1999; (p. 13)
— Review of Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel -
Back from the Dead Country
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 29 June vol. 117 no. 6180 1999; (p. 116)
— Review of Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel -
Triumph in Face of Adversity
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 July 1999; (p. 8)
— Review of Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop 1999 single work novel -
A Life Experience
1999
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Age , 3 July 1999; (p. 8) -
Words to Cojure With : Fiction
Janet Chimonyo
,
Owen Richardson
,
2000
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 5 August 2000; (p. 7) -
Writing's Late Starter Improves with Age
2000
single work
column
biography
— Appears in: The Age , 26 August 2000; (p. 3) -
Vale to a Writer of Sap and Fire
2001
single work
obituary
(for Amy Witting
)
— Appears in: The Australian , 26 September 2001; (p. 42) -
The Art of Penning the March Hare In : The Treatment of Insanity in Australian Total Institution Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Aumla , November no. 118 2012; (p. 87-103)'The treatment of psychological disorders of all kinds and, more largely, of the deterioration of the mind, gradually made its mark in Australian novels in the early 1970s and gave rise to a series of books concerned with mental health issues. The six narratives I have selected for this study-David Ireland's The Flesheaters (1972), Walter Adamson's The Institution (1976), Peter Kocan's two you-narration novellas The Treatment (1980) and The Cure (1983), Carmel Bird's The White Garden (1995), and Amy Witting's Isobela on the Way to the Corner Shop (1999)-all partake of this new trend. This belated literary awakening to insanity is all the stranger seeing that creativity and madness have often been paired, both being particularly apt at articulating the relationship between freedom and constraint, mental representation and reality, the individual and society.' (Author's introduction)
Awards
- 2000 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Fiction Prize
- 2000 winner The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year
- 2000 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- Sydney, New South Wales,