This is Good Weekend’s last issue for 2021, which means it’s the one we devote to reflections on the year just gone by novelists who’ve published a successful book over the past 12 months. I hope you enjoy their moving, whimsical pieces as much as we did in the office.
– Katrina Strickland, Good Weekend editor
“The end of September this year marked two full years since I’d given up drinking…My biggest achievement of 2021.”Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
‘It’s hard to beat the satisfaction of kicking a habit – whatever that may be’
On sober reflection, Adam Thompson decides he’s leaving alcohol behind.
“I am grateful for the incredible care I received, but I’m bad-mannered about my cancer.”Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
‘By the time my GP calls, I am wild with panic’
Some people see cancer as a gift. Liane Moriarty? Not so much.
‘Dad showed me it’s okay to be sensitive, to be different, even when it doesn’t make sense.’Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
‘Grief invites a kind of magical thinking’
Normal life stopped when Mark Brandi’s dad died. An urban fox offered a path through the sadness.
“On the streets, particularly during lockdown, there is a compact among night-walkers. We watch the world and respect each other’s privacy.”Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
‘I am one of the hordes turned sleepless by the pandemic’
Reframing the nightmare of insomnia brings a new awakening for Jacqueline Maley.
“I let myself realise how important a good doctor is to someone who lives with a chronic illness. They become your anchor.”Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
A strange intimacy can develop with a mass of lino, bricks and mortar, writes Maxine Beneba Clarke.
“I have been living here, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
‘I was anti-east. Yet here I now stand, Brendo from Bronte’
Waves of delight hit home for Brendan Cowell, a former inner-city diehard.
“People who learn to share finite things – their accommodation, their common space, their time, their food, their love – are happier people.”Credit:Illustration by Simon Letch
‘You can have a rich interior existence despite outward circumstances’
Living on a university campus with three children offers Alice Pung its own lessons.
Good Weekend’s Summer Reading 2021: Short reflections by big writers
Source: Philippines Alive
