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Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A fictionalized account of one woman's life-threatening eating disorder and her eventual hard-won recovery. Author Fiona Place has created Lucy, a narrator who is capable of taking the reader inside the dark and puzzling experience of anorexia nervosa. A university student, Lucy falls ill while on a coach trip in Europe. Ashen, thin and with a thready heartbeat, she cannot understand what is wrong with her. The tour leader decides she is homesick. And lying on her bed, she is left to fend for herself. Alone in her tiny hotel room Lucy wonders what she should do? Is she really sick or just homesick? Reluctantly, she decides to fly to an English speaking country. And to her embarrassment is taken off the plane in a wheelchair. Lucy is now a patient. And unknowingly enters into a dynamic and powerful struggle over the ownership of her life's narrative. Hospitalized she undergoes a range of treatments - some harsh, some ineffective, others insightful and intelligent. Cleverly observed, Lucy invites the reader to make sense of what it means to be ill. To understand why eating has become impossible. And as she fleshes out her journey towards recovery, demands her distress be understood. Demands it be put into her own words. When it was first published Cardboard was recognized as a compelling portrait and one of the first books to understand the importance of the role of narrative in the recovery process. Similarly today when much of the focus on eating disorders concerns decoding the genetics and biology of the condition, this prize-winning novel continues to provide an understanding of the individual's affective experience and the socio-cultural context in which it occurs.' (Source: bookseller's website)

Notes

  • Publication of this work was assisted by the Australia Council.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Le corps ecrit-inscrit : anorexie, automutilation et folie dans la litterature australienne Chantal Kwast-Gref , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , June vol. 6 no. 1 2007; (p. 17-20)
The Body and the Text : Extra and Infra Textual Scars Chantal Kwast-Gref , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth , vol. 25 no. 1 2002; (p. 15-25)
Author's abstract : In the autobiographical text, the madwoman articulates a space from which to speak. The writing of madness is neither about introspection nor about escapism but is much more concerned with translating inner states. Autobiography functions like a mirror in which we see a Gestalt, a global image of our selves.
Spectacular Sacrifice, or, Not to Be or Not to Eat : Anorexic Women in Fiona Place's Cardboard Chantal Kwast-Gref , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 15 no. 2 2001; (p. 102-106)
Interview with Fiona Place Alison Bartlett , 1998 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 208-214)
A Fairytale Body? : Writing a Way Out of Anorexia in Fiona Place's 'Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters' Alison Bartlett , 1998 single work criticism
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 75-90)
Sizing-Up Anorexia Lucy Sussex , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , September vol. 1 no. 1 1989; (p. 7-8)

— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters Fiona Place , 1989 single work novel
Far from Athens, a Tragedy Kate Veitch , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 4 November 1989; (p. 84)

— Review of Beyond the Pale Robin Sheiner , 1989 single work novel ; The Same Light Vasso Kalamaras , 1989 selected work short story poetry ; Parcel Parcel and Other Stories Jean Thornton , 1989 selected work short story ; Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters Fiona Place , 1989 single work novel ; The Mountain Graham Henderson , 1989 single work novel ; Song of Gondwana Craig Robertson , 1989 single work novel
First Novels in the First Person Full of Wisdom John Hanrahan , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 2-3 December 1989; (p. 12)

— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters Fiona Place , 1989 single work novel ; Maestro Peter Goldsworthy , 1989 single work novel
Chaos, Lust and Burning Carole Hampshire , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Editions , October no. 3 1989; (p. 3-4)

— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters Fiona Place , 1989 single work novel ; Working Hot : A Novel Mary Fallon , 1989 single work novel
Good Case Study in Thin Fictional Disguise Donna Roberts , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 October. 1989; (p. B4)

— Review of Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters Fiona Place , 1989 single work novel
The Body and the Text : Extra and Infra Textual Scars Chantal Kwast-Gref , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth , vol. 25 no. 1 2002; (p. 15-25)
Author's abstract : In the autobiographical text, the madwoman articulates a space from which to speak. The writing of madness is neither about introspection nor about escapism but is much more concerned with translating inner states. Autobiography functions like a mirror in which we see a Gestalt, a global image of our selves.
Le corps ecrit-inscrit : anorexie, automutilation et folie dans la litterature australienne Chantal Kwast-Gref , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , June vol. 6 no. 1 2007; (p. 17-20)
A Fairytale Body? : Writing a Way Out of Anorexia in Fiona Place's 'Cardboard : The Strength Thereof and Other Related Matters' Alison Bartlett , 1998 single work criticism
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 75-90)
Interview with Fiona Place Alison Bartlett , 1998 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Jamming the Machinery : Contemporary Australian Women's Writing 1998; (p. 208-214)
On First Looking Into Cardboard i "whose", Ann Nugent , 1990 single work poetry
— Appears in: Blast , Winter no. 12 1990; (p. 16)
Last amended 30 Jun 2016 11:18:54
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