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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'A fictionalized account of one woman's life-threatening eating disorder and her eventual hard-won recovery. Author Fiona Place has created Lucy, a narrator who is capable of taking the reader inside the dark and puzzling experience of anorexia nervosa. A university student, Lucy falls ill while on a coach trip in Europe. Ashen, thin and with a thready heartbeat, she cannot understand what is wrong with her. The tour leader decides she is homesick. And lying on her bed, she is left to fend for herself. Alone in her tiny hotel room Lucy wonders what she should do? Is she really sick or just homesick? Reluctantly, she decides to fly to an English speaking country. And to her embarrassment is taken off the plane in a wheelchair. Lucy is now a patient. And unknowingly enters into a dynamic and powerful struggle over the ownership of her life's narrative. Hospitalized she undergoes a range of treatments - some harsh, some ineffective, others insightful and intelligent. Cleverly observed, Lucy invites the reader to make sense of what it means to be ill. To understand why eating has become impossible. And as she fleshes out her journey towards recovery, demands her distress be understood. Demands it be put into her own words. When it was first published Cardboard was recognized as a compelling portrait and one of the first books to understand the importance of the role of narrative in the recovery process. Similarly today when much of the focus on eating disorders concerns decoding the genetics and biology of the condition, this prize-winning novel continues to provide an understanding of the individual's affective experience and the socio-cultural context in which it occurs.' (Source: bookseller's website)
Notes
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Publication of this work was assisted by the Australia Council.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also e-book.
Works about this Work
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Le corps ecrit-inscrit : anorexie, automutilation et folie dans la litterature australienne
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , June vol. 6 no. 1 2007; (p. 17-20) -
The Body and the Text : Extra and Infra Textual Scars
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth , vol. 25 no. 1 2002; (p. 15-25) Author's abstract : In the autobiographical text, the madwoman articulates a space from which to speak. The writing of madness is neither about introspection nor about escapism but is much more concerned with translating inner states. Autobiography functions like a mirror in which we see a Gestalt, a global image of our selves. -
Spectacular Sacrifice, or, Not to Be or Not to Eat : Anorexic Women in Fiona Place's Cardboard
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 15 no. 2 2001; (p. 102-106) -
Interview with Fiona Place
1998
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 208-214) -
A Fairytale Body? : Writing a Way Out of Anorexia in Fiona Place's 'Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters'
1998
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 75-90)
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Sizing-Up Anorexia
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , September vol. 1 no. 1 1989; (p. 7-8)
— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters 1989 single work novel -
Far from Athens, a Tragedy
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4 November 1989; (p. 84)
— Review of Beyond the Pale 1989 single work novel ; The Same Light 1989 selected work short story poetry ; Parcel Parcel and Other Stories 1989 selected work short story ; Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters 1989 single work novel ; The Mountain 1989 single work novel ; Song of Gondwana 1989 single work novel -
First Novels in the First Person Full of Wisdom
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 2-3 December 1989; (p. 12)
— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters 1989 single work novel ; Maestro 1989 single work novel -
Chaos, Lust and Burning
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Editions , October no. 3 1989; (p. 3-4)
— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters 1989 single work novel ; Working Hot : A Novel 1989 single work novel -
Good Case Study in Thin Fictional Disguise
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 October. 1989; (p. B4)
— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters 1989 single work novel -
The Body and the Text : Extra and Infra Textual Scars
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth , vol. 25 no. 1 2002; (p. 15-25) Author's abstract : In the autobiographical text, the madwoman articulates a space from which to speak. The writing of madness is neither about introspection nor about escapism but is much more concerned with translating inner states. Autobiography functions like a mirror in which we see a Gestalt, a global image of our selves. -
Le corps ecrit-inscrit : anorexie, automutilation et folie dans la litterature australienne
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , June vol. 6 no. 1 2007; (p. 17-20) -
A Fairytale Body? : Writing a Way Out of Anorexia in Fiona Place's 'Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters'
1998
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 75-90) -
Interview with Fiona Place
1998
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 208-214) -
On First Looking Into Cardboard
i
"whose",
1990
single work
poetry
— Appears in: Blast , Winter no. 12 1990; (p. 16)
Awards
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