RaveThe Guardian (UK)Central to the story is Rob Farquharson, loving father of Jai, Tyler and Bailey and their possible murderer. Yet somehow, despite Garner’s incisive eye and crisp prose, he remains elusive. The problem lies not in Farquharson’s portrait being too vague, but in that it is just too ordinary ... The difficulty resides in our inability to reconcile the Crown prosecutor’s depiction of him as angry, humiliated and vengeful, with Garner’s own observations of him, slouched and shackled in the docks ... As with Joe Cinque’s Consolation, Garner’s previous non-fiction book, the immeasurable grief of a parent from the loss of a child is brought into sharp relief ... Garner is in her element as evidence is dismissed and facts are turned on their head. She weaves descriptions of the legal proceedings with scenes from that fateful night, witness accounts and testimonies, to create a rich canvas of heartbreaking drama ... This House of Grief has all the trademark Helen Garner touches: harrowing scenes recorded without restraint or censorship; touching observations of characters’ weaknesses; wry moments of humour. And also customary with Garner’s work, her words, and the boys’ fate, will haunt us long after we’ve turned the last page.
