AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'When Gabrielle Carey's mother, who is usually pedantically punctual and organised, begins to forget basic things like where she put her purse, Gabrielle knows that something is wrong. Scans reveal a brain tumour, and doctors advise its urgent removal. But there is another urgency at hand. Biding the dreadful passing of time in doctors' waiting rooms, Gabrielle begins to realise how much her mother has left untold, how many questions she still wants to ask her, and how little time there is left for answers.
'Amid organising appointments, looking after her own children, and battling her mother's stubbornly principled idea that she should be left to die, Gabrielle begins to voice the unasked - to attempt to discover the mother whom she has lived with all her life but never truly known.
'In this sharp and honest memoir, we see what it is that families, in all their complex dynamics, can give to each other, and just what they stand to gain when they lay down their arms and let each other in.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
-
Dedication: For my mother
-
Epigraph: 'Now he had a far more profound and genuine intuition of the great human illusion about time, which is that its reality is like that of a road - on which one can constantly see where one was and where one probably will be - instead of the truth: that time is a room, a now so close to us that we regularly fail to see it.'
- John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Untitled
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Jessie Street National Women's Library Newsletter , May vol. 23 no. 2 2012; (p. 8-9)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography -
Writing Daughter : Writing Mother
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mother-Texts : Narratives and Counter-Narratives 2010; (p. 110-125) 'Deborah Jordan relates some of her experiences in writing a a book, and subsequently self-publishing it, about her mother's life as a writer. Writing Mothers/Writing Daughters is a theme explored in different contexts, and in different genres. One thinks of Dursilla Modjeska's Poppy or of the biography of Edna Ryan by her equally acclaimed daughter. Jordan addresses the making of There's a Woman in the House, A 1950s Journey, which is a self publishing venture to celebrate the life and work of her own mother, through her own voice, with a collection of her own writings as a freelance journalist in the 1950s. It addresses, some of the issues that arose in the process of re-discovery and publication and some of the ideologies and options of genre. (Publisher's abstract, xviii)
-
Some Other Destiny?
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 21 no. 1 2009;
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography -
Truth Is More Dangerous Than Fiction?
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 September 2009; (p. 15) -
Untitled
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 13 June 2009; (p. 26)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography
-
Daughters Face the Mother of All Tests
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4-5 April 2009; (p. 28-29)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography ; Shimmer 2009 single work autobiography -
Waiting Room 'Therapy' Celebrates Mother
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 18 - 19 April 2009; (p. 21)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography -
Mothers and Children
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 25 April 2009; (p. 25)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography -
Waiting, Watching, Writing on Different Edges of Grief
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 25 April 2009; (p. 15)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography ; Through a Glass Darkly : A Journey of Love and Grief With My Father 2009 single work autobiography -
Sometimes It Isn't Better in the Mourning
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , May vol. 4 no. 4 2009; (p. 18-19, 27)
— Review of Waiting Room : A Memoir 2009 single work autobiography ; Through a Glass Darkly : A Journey of Love and Grief With My Father 2009 single work autobiography ; Headlong : A Novel 2009 single work novel -
Intimacy, Grief and a Gift of Love
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 24 May 2009; (p. 10-11) -
Truth Is More Dangerous Than Fiction?
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 September 2009; (p. 15) -
Writing Daughter : Writing Mother
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Mother-Texts : Narratives and Counter-Narratives 2010; (p. 110-125) 'Deborah Jordan relates some of her experiences in writing a a book, and subsequently self-publishing it, about her mother's life as a writer. Writing Mothers/Writing Daughters is a theme explored in different contexts, and in different genres. One thinks of Dursilla Modjeska's Poppy or of the biography of Edna Ryan by her equally acclaimed daughter. Jordan addresses the making of There's a Woman in the House, A 1950s Journey, which is a self publishing venture to celebrate the life and work of her own mother, through her own voice, with a collection of her own writings as a freelance journalist in the 1950s. It addresses, some of the issues that arose in the process of re-discovery and publication and some of the ideologies and options of genre. (Publisher's abstract, xviii)
Last amended 26 Jul 2012 13:25:34
Export this record
