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The Season

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The Season

By: Helen Garner
Narrated by: Helen Garner
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Summary
 I pull up at the kerb. I love this park they train in. I must have walked the figure-of-eight around its ovals hundreds of times, at dawn, winter and summer, to throw the ball for Dozer, our red heeler, but he’s buried now, in the backyard, under the crepe myrtle near the chook pen.

The boy jumps out with his footy and trots away, bouncing it. Boy? Look at him. He’s five foot eleven. The last of my three grandkids. This year he’s in the Under 16s.

It’s footy season in Melbourne, and Helen Garner is following her grandson’s suburban team. She turns up not only at every game (give or take), but at every training session, shivering on the sidelines in the dark, fascinated by the spectacle.

She’s a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter (with a rather shaky grasp of the rules) and a great admirer of the players and the epic theatre of the game. But this is something more than that. It is a chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him in his last moments as a child and in his headlong rush into manhood. To witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and to cheer for the team as it fights its way towards the finals.

Garner’s sharp eye, wit and warm humour bring the team and the season to life, as she documents this pivotal moment, both as part of the story and as silent witness. It’s a reflection on masculinity, on the nobility, grace and grit of team spirit and the game’s power to enthral.

‘There are very few writers that I admire more than Helen Garner.’ DAVID NICHOLLS

‘A voice of great honesty and energy.’ ANNE ENRIGHT

‘One of Australia’s foremost authors, admired by writers as different as Raymond Carver and Elizabeth Jolley.’ INDEPENDENT

‘Not long ago I read Helen Garner for the first time and was so stunned that I wanted to run around the block; how strange, how wonderful, that a book can still make me feel that way.’ RUMAAN ALAM©2024 Helen Garner (P)2024 W. F. Howes ltd. Football (American) Social Sciences Game Heartfelt Inspiring Feel-Good
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I loved it. This is a wonderful little slice of boys and family and character and community, seen through a slice of sport. I do live in the area and I suppose that helped, but the simple purity of Helen’s writing to capture it all, was beautiful.

Ode to community, and boys turning into men

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I laughed, I cried, my heart was filled to bursting. For me Helen Garner is like no other writer. Her writing always feels so true.

Better than perfect

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I adored this book so much I went and bought the paperback. Two in fact, one for me to read again and one as a gift beautiful footy mad friend who, like me, is mourning by the end of footy season.

But those words do not do justice to this beautifully written tome. And I say Tome advisedly. It is not heavy in anything but sweet feelings. This book is also not simply about footy, although this would have been enough to love it. It succinctly talks of love, of family, aging, boys, boys growing into men, men, how boys & men feel, what footy gives all of these people and how it brings us together as a community.

Listen to it, read it. This book is for everyone.

Helen Garner I'm sure is much revered but she needs more compliments and talks of being a national treasure.

I loved the writing, the recording and can't wait to read it and listen to it again.

A story full of humanity, heart & footy

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I enjoyed the way Helen Garner told the story of her life with her grandchildren. As an older man I could see much of my own youth in the story. The book made me think of the relationships men have with other men

Great story of football and family

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I don’t know anything about football, but come on it’s Helen Garner!! Loved her dissection of the relationship between grandmother and grandson - watching him grow into a man, alongside other young boy/men, through the thumping pounding masculine muscular Homer- like game of football.
Loved her insights, the way she expressed them, and the self deprecation - all with the ever present threat of death that is looming around the corner for all people. Have a great read.

Boys to men

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