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Ah, Helen Garner. An incredible writer. But The First Stone was an incredibly annoying book. Even in the 1990s, the idea that it was excusable in any way for
by rgmerk 3y ago
Ah, Helen Garner.
An incredible writer. But The First Stone was an incredibly annoying book.
Even in the 1990s, the idea that it was excusable in any way for the head of an educational institution to make a pass at an 18-year-old undergrad living in the community he managed was nonsensical.
Garner spent the entire book dancing eloquently round this.
Disclaimer: I lived in the institution the other side of the road a few years later, and met people who were peripherally involved on both sides of the incident then.
- emmelaich 3y ago"excusable" is a shallow reading of the book. It's far more interesting than that, and I would say much more interesting than say Mamet's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleanna_(play) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleanna_(play) which dealt with a similar theme. Also written around the same time. Fictional but no doubt based on personal knowledge of similar incidents.