Review: The Women

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POSTED: 25 APRIL 2009

Janet Hutchinson (ed), Grandma Magic

(Allen & Unwin; 384pp paperback; $29.99)

Somewhere — in at least one of the 20 short stories in this collection edited by Janet Hutchinson — you will find a memory of your own Grandmother (Nanna, Granny, Gran, Baba, Yia Yia, Nonna, Nainai) experience.

It might be the surging emotional warmth of a moment of unconditional love, given or received. Or the wonderment when unexpectedly, a personal history is discovered that was previously unperceived and unimagined, and your childhood concepts shift.

It might be a passing reference to a long forgotten smell, a quirky habit, or a description of some weird outing that evokes a recollection from some deep memory drawer.

What ever the “touch-base” is, it adds something extra to the natural interest of these tales written by respected women such as Ruby Langford Ginibi, Anne Deveson, Annette Shun Wah and Eva Cox.

The accounts are of family time shared, of motherhood once-removed, and of childhood trust, given spontaneously and rarely abused — a place where we have all been, at some time.

The diversity of the subjects and the stories reflects the multiplicity of modern Australian heritage and experience, and Janet Hutchinson should be commended for her inspiration and selection.

Read them and be touched.

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