farmdoc's blog post number 471

I’ve just finished Helen Garner’s 2004 non-fiction book Joe Cinque’s Consolation. It begins with a young law student, Anu Singh, killing her boyfriend, Joe Cinque. After drugging him with Rohypnol, she finishes the job with injected heroin. Then comes Singh’s trial, her manslaughter conviction, and her imprisonment – which is foreshortened due to adjudged diminished responsibility. Garner extensively interviews, and befriends, Cinque’s Italian-Australian parents. And she briefly interviews both Singh’s father and the trial judge. But the book’s diminished by Singh’s refusal to talk with Garner. And in the absence of first-hand interaction with the perpetrator, Garner filled the void – intentionally or otherwise – with herself. She plays far too big a part in her narrative. Indeed arguably she’s the main character. So it’s unsurprising that on the book’s cover (pictured), the author’s name’s written in a font 50% bigger than the title font. Perhaps Helen Garner’s Consolation would’ve been a better title. Thank you, darling Emily, for loaning me the book. If I’d paid A$24.95 for it, I’d have felt ripped off – though without doubt Garner can write, and her storytelling’s well above average.