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y separately published work icon Too Close to Home single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 Too Close to Home
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Freya writes uncomfortable domestic dramas. Her friends work in theatre and film, show in galleries, talk politics and are trying new ways of having children with friends. These are the people who are slowly gentrifying the next ring of inner-city suburbs while praising their diversity.

'As the stultifying heat of summer descends, Shane, an Aboriginal man, moves up the road. He was once close to Matt, Freya's partner, and he not only brings with him a different approach to life, he also has news of a boy who might be Matt's son. Despite wanting to embrace all that Shane represents and the possibility of another child in their life, Freya and Matt stumble, failing each other and their beliefs.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2011 .
      image of person or book cover 5550736151070101595.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 293p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 2 May 2011
      ISBN: 9781864711783 (ebk.), 9781864711776 (pbk.)

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording, e-book.

Works about this Work

Made in Suburbia : Intra-suburban Narratives in Contemporary Australian Women’s Fiction Belinda Burns , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 163-179)

'Within twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia has long been trivialised, satirised, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation, a location from which to flee. However, little critical attention has been directed on contemporary realist tales of the female protagonist located within the confines of suburbia—an increasingly contested yet arguably still feminine/feminised zone. This chapter examines contemporary representations and narrative trajectories of the suburban female protagonist in twenty-first-century fiction. Drawing on “postfeminist” literary theory and emerging reappraisals of the “everyday” and “home”, the chapter presents evidence of intra-suburban narratives of feminine transformation, which contradict second-wave feminist flight trajectories, thereby reclaiming and elevating fictional suburbia as a critical space in which Australian women writers may locate their stories.'

Source: Abstract.

Less Than Feminine Zones : Postfeminist Cession in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks Belinda Burns , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Women's Writing , March vol. 10 no. 1 2016; (p. 56-66)
'Throughout twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia is generally depicted as a feminine domain, set in opposition to the masculine city or bush landscapes. The suburban, domestic setting is trivialized, satirized, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation – a location from which to flee. Traditionally, the male protagonist embarks upon these flight narratives, leaving the female characters to endure dull lives of “domesticated conformity” in the suburbs. Not until second-wave feminism of the 1970s and 1980s is the female protagonist liberated from her suburban “cage” by women writers, many of whom identify as feminist. More recently, “postfeminist” scholars such as Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, Mary Vavrus, and Susan J. Douglas observe the rise of a “retreatist” narrative in popular media such as “chick-lit,” television drama, and film. This overtly restorative narrative typically features a female protagonist rejecting the public (assumed masculine) sphere and returning to a more domestic (assumed feminine) domain as the ultimate solution to a problematized state of “incompleteness.” This essay explores contemporary representations and narratives of the female protagonist in domestic, suburban settings in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks, both published in 2011. Of particular interest is evidence supporting rejection, interrogation, or subversion of the retreatist narrative as a viable postfeminist solution, or, alternatively, more creative reimaginings of the suburban setting, which permit “new” narratives of feminine transformation.' (Publication abstract)
Ladies' Man Shortlisted Marc McEvoy , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 11 March 2012; (p. 7)
Ideals Mugged by Domestic Reality Johanna Leggatt , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 5 June 2011; (p. 7)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel
Fiction : Reviews Jane Barry , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 4 - 5 June 2011; (p. 24)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel
Slap-Happy Melinda Harvey , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 331 2011; (p. 29)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel
Traversing the Barren Landscape of Betrayal Peter Pierce , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 7 May 2011; (p. 23)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel
Cover Notes Lucy Sussex , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 8 May 2011; (p. 21)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel ; Killed at the Whim of a Hat Colin Cotterill , 2011 single work novel
Rich but Unexplored Terrain Felicity Plunkett , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 May 2011; (p. 22)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel
Shouting in the Kitchen Stephanie Bishop , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7- 8 May 2011; (p. 20-21)

— Review of Too Close to Home Georgia Blain , 2011 single work novel
Ladies' Man Shortlisted Marc McEvoy , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 11 March 2012; (p. 7)
Less Than Feminine Zones : Postfeminist Cession in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks Belinda Burns , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Women's Writing , March vol. 10 no. 1 2016; (p. 56-66)
'Throughout twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia is generally depicted as a feminine domain, set in opposition to the masculine city or bush landscapes. The suburban, domestic setting is trivialized, satirized, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation – a location from which to flee. Traditionally, the male protagonist embarks upon these flight narratives, leaving the female characters to endure dull lives of “domesticated conformity” in the suburbs. Not until second-wave feminism of the 1970s and 1980s is the female protagonist liberated from her suburban “cage” by women writers, many of whom identify as feminist. More recently, “postfeminist” scholars such as Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, Mary Vavrus, and Susan J. Douglas observe the rise of a “retreatist” narrative in popular media such as “chick-lit,” television drama, and film. This overtly restorative narrative typically features a female protagonist rejecting the public (assumed masculine) sphere and returning to a more domestic (assumed feminine) domain as the ultimate solution to a problematized state of “incompleteness.” This essay explores contemporary representations and narratives of the female protagonist in domestic, suburban settings in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks, both published in 2011. Of particular interest is evidence supporting rejection, interrogation, or subversion of the retreatist narrative as a viable postfeminist solution, or, alternatively, more creative reimaginings of the suburban setting, which permit “new” narratives of feminine transformation.' (Publication abstract)
Made in Suburbia : Intra-suburban Narratives in Contemporary Australian Women’s Fiction Belinda Burns , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 163-179)

'Within twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia has long been trivialised, satirised, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation, a location from which to flee. However, little critical attention has been directed on contemporary realist tales of the female protagonist located within the confines of suburbia—an increasingly contested yet arguably still feminine/feminised zone. This chapter examines contemporary representations and narrative trajectories of the suburban female protagonist in twenty-first-century fiction. Drawing on “postfeminist” literary theory and emerging reappraisals of the “everyday” and “home”, the chapter presents evidence of intra-suburban narratives of feminine transformation, which contradict second-wave feminist flight trajectories, thereby reclaiming and elevating fictional suburbia as a critical space in which Australian women writers may locate their stories.'

Source: Abstract.

Last amended 11 Jun 2020 12:58:00
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  • 2010s
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