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Get Up Mum
It's 1992 in Burnie, Tasmania and 12-year-old Justin lives alone with his mum. When she is well, Mum is perfect. She knows he likes his carrots raw and his toast cooled, and she knows how to sooth his growing pains. But when she is sick she cries uncontrollably and never gets out of bed.
High school is on the horizon and Justin is bursting with adolescent energy. But his mum's mental illness hangs over him like a shadow and he feels the need to grow up fast.
Told with youthful exuberance, Get Up Mum is a wildly endearing, entertaining and incredibly powerful memoir about love, family, and coming-of-age.
High school is on the horizon and Justin is bursting with adolescent energy. But his mum's mental illness hangs over him like a shadow and he feels the need to grow up fast.
Told with youthful exuberance, Get Up Mum is a wildly endearing, entertaining and incredibly powerful memoir about love, family, and coming-of-age.
320 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2018
7 people are currently reading
240 people want to read
About the author
Justin Heazlewood
12 books16 followersJustin's new book is called Dream Burnie and is a time capsule / memoir / art book championing the achievements of artists from his home-town on the North-West Coast of Tasmania.
His previous works include Funemployed: Life as an Artist in Australia (2014) and Get Up Mum (2018). In 2020 he gave a witness statement for the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.
He is an ambassador for Satellite Foundation who support young people caring for a mentally ill parent. He also performs as The Bedroom Philosopher and has twice had songs in Triple J’s Hottest 100.
Get Up Mum was adapted into a theatre show. It premiered in Hobart in March, 2022.
It was also made into a radio series for RNs Life Matters in 2019. You can listen here: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/...
Benjamin Law, author of Gaysia & The Family Law says:
“Justin Heazlewood is nothing short of one of Australia’s most versatile and important storytellers. Music and comedy fans know him best as the ARIA award-nominated Bedroom Philosopher, a moniker under which Heazlewood has released several albums of incisive, brutally funny and often heartbreaking songs.
However, it’s Justin’s written work that really hits me in the guts. In his journalism and personal essays, Heazlewood demonstrates a remarkable capacity to not only make the reader laugh, but think critically about important issues often poorly discussed, such as mental illness, unemployment and the frailty of human relationships.
He has also written two critically-acclaimed books: the memoir The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries (2012), followed by Funemployed (2014), which focused on the ecstasies, horrors and realities of being a working artist. The book earned praise from Tony Martin, Dave Graney and international writer Neil Gaiman, and featured interviews with over 100 local and international artists including Gotye (Wally De Backer), Clare Bowditch, John Safran, Tony Martin, Amanda Palmer, Christos Tsiolkas, Tim Rogers and Adam Elliot.
It’s a testament to Heazlewood ambidexterity that Funemployed found new life on other platforms. Soon after the book’s release, it was commissioned into a radio series for ABC RN (Radio National) under the same name. Heazlewood also recorded the Funemployed LP, described as “a soundtrack to life as an artist in Australia – from rejection to fame to selling out and giving up”.
He has written for Frankie, JMag, The Big Issue and literary journals such as Voiceworks, Sleepers Magazine and Going Down Swinging. Heazlewood is also accomplished in the world of television. In 2013, he was commissioned to make two station ID’s for ABC2, then he won ABC’s Fresh Blood competition in 2014, allowing him to produce three episodes of Crazy Bastards – a parody of Mad Men set in mid-80s Australia.”
His previous works include Funemployed: Life as an Artist in Australia (2014) and Get Up Mum (2018). In 2020 he gave a witness statement for the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.
He is an ambassador for Satellite Foundation who support young people caring for a mentally ill parent. He also performs as The Bedroom Philosopher and has twice had songs in Triple J’s Hottest 100.
Get Up Mum was adapted into a theatre show. It premiered in Hobart in March, 2022.
It was also made into a radio series for RNs Life Matters in 2019. You can listen here: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/...
Benjamin Law, author of Gaysia & The Family Law says:
“Justin Heazlewood is nothing short of one of Australia’s most versatile and important storytellers. Music and comedy fans know him best as the ARIA award-nominated Bedroom Philosopher, a moniker under which Heazlewood has released several albums of incisive, brutally funny and often heartbreaking songs.
However, it’s Justin’s written work that really hits me in the guts. In his journalism and personal essays, Heazlewood demonstrates a remarkable capacity to not only make the reader laugh, but think critically about important issues often poorly discussed, such as mental illness, unemployment and the frailty of human relationships.
He has also written two critically-acclaimed books: the memoir The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries (2012), followed by Funemployed (2014), which focused on the ecstasies, horrors and realities of being a working artist. The book earned praise from Tony Martin, Dave Graney and international writer Neil Gaiman, and featured interviews with over 100 local and international artists including Gotye (Wally De Backer), Clare Bowditch, John Safran, Tony Martin, Amanda Palmer, Christos Tsiolkas, Tim Rogers and Adam Elliot.
It’s a testament to Heazlewood ambidexterity that Funemployed found new life on other platforms. Soon after the book’s release, it was commissioned into a radio series for ABC RN (Radio National) under the same name. Heazlewood also recorded the Funemployed LP, described as “a soundtrack to life as an artist in Australia – from rejection to fame to selling out and giving up”.
He has written for Frankie, JMag, The Big Issue and literary journals such as Voiceworks, Sleepers Magazine and Going Down Swinging. Heazlewood is also accomplished in the world of television. In 2013, he was commissioned to make two station ID’s for ABC2, then he won ABC’s Fresh Blood competition in 2014, allowing him to produce three episodes of Crazy Bastards – a parody of Mad Men set in mid-80s Australia.”
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 30, 2018
I've never reviewed a book before. I tend to avoid it because my friends are writers who produce incredible books and I don't want to seem biased. Justin is a friend and now I'm going to seem biased. This is the best book I've read in a long time. It's a perfect study in tension. The voice is such careful balance of pre-adolescent observation (in the book, Justin is 12) and devastating insights into the human condition. Reviewers keep describing it as heartwarming. It's not. It's a finely wrought study of people trying so hard to make it work, and a boy who is forced to. I can't recommend this memoir enough.
June 13, 2018
There are no words to adequately capture the beauty of this book. I loved how it was told in first person, from the perspective of 12 year old Justin, and how it brings to life the deep and complex love between a child and a mentally ill parent. Everyone should read it.
June 25, 2018
Easy to read and simple writing so was a quick read. However was a good insight into the lives of children of parents with mental illness and the responsibility often placed upon them.
July 14, 2023
A tender memoir told in a first person perspective of 12-13 year old Justin, living in Burnie, Tasmania, with his single-parent mother.
The humour, love and empathy towards his mother brought tears to my eyes.
The inclusion of diary entries, drawings, and personal items from the period are included.
A book that more people should know about.
The humour, love and empathy towards his mother brought tears to my eyes.
The inclusion of diary entries, drawings, and personal items from the period are included.
A book that more people should know about.
July 27, 2019
A book that manages to both be sweet and distressing at the same time. Written in the childlike voice of 12-13 year old Justin Heazlewood, Justin is both a very sheltered boy and one who faces the difficult reality of living with a parent suffering schizophrenia. Heazlewood managed to capture the childhood anxiety of living with a mentally ill parent while also expressing a childhood wonder of the world and his deep love of family. I was particularly touched by his loving relationship with his maternal grandparents, especially having lost my own in the past few years.
January 9, 2019
I'm not a book critic, but I do want to say how this book is important to me.
The author of this book actually very kindly sent me the copy I own after I reached out to him. I'd been a fan of his music since I was young and a subscriber of the newsletter for something like a decade. I also had no idea about Get Up Mum until I read about it in his newsletter. Like the author, I also grew up in a home where I had to be both a carer in a situation that was both scary and isolating and that I didn't always understand, and I have a lot of respect for people who can go and use a platform to talk about it, because you can sometimes feel very invisible in everyday life having an absolutely unrecognisable childhood to other people and you don't always have the ability to put that into words. So I emailed him and said so. I never actually spoke to anyone about how isolating this was, and for that reason, being able to read this book was a real act of kindness.
It's at the very core an honest story, and sometimes the honesty is warm and funny, and sometimes it's downright heartbreaking. I really enjoyed the way the book steps into this really young voice, and sometimes I can't help but imagine my family home instead of the one described. The empathy and humour and sadness of this kid is so familiar. That's really something that made a difference for me personally. I can't really pick out any particular bits. The book is kind of an experience and sort of like being 13, it's not very tidy. Things blend into each other. As someone who was somewhat recently 13, I would say that's an honest part of being 13.
My favourite parts included the snippets and bits and bobs like the artwork and insights into things like tapes and home videos that were mentioned.
I guess my ability to step into this situation is why I can't really criticise the "ending". There isn't one. We're not characters. Life goes on and we're all still here.
The author of this book actually very kindly sent me the copy I own after I reached out to him. I'd been a fan of his music since I was young and a subscriber of the newsletter for something like a decade. I also had no idea about Get Up Mum until I read about it in his newsletter. Like the author, I also grew up in a home where I had to be both a carer in a situation that was both scary and isolating and that I didn't always understand, and I have a lot of respect for people who can go and use a platform to talk about it, because you can sometimes feel very invisible in everyday life having an absolutely unrecognisable childhood to other people and you don't always have the ability to put that into words. So I emailed him and said so. I never actually spoke to anyone about how isolating this was, and for that reason, being able to read this book was a real act of kindness.
It's at the very core an honest story, and sometimes the honesty is warm and funny, and sometimes it's downright heartbreaking. I really enjoyed the way the book steps into this really young voice, and sometimes I can't help but imagine my family home instead of the one described. The empathy and humour and sadness of this kid is so familiar. That's really something that made a difference for me personally. I can't really pick out any particular bits. The book is kind of an experience and sort of like being 13, it's not very tidy. Things blend into each other. As someone who was somewhat recently 13, I would say that's an honest part of being 13.
My favourite parts included the snippets and bits and bobs like the artwork and insights into things like tapes and home videos that were mentioned.
I guess my ability to step into this situation is why I can't really criticise the "ending". There isn't one. We're not characters. Life goes on and we're all still here.
July 23, 2023
An exceptionally evocative account of ordinary life under extraordinary circumstances, told from the perspective of 12-year-old Justin, whose mother Maureen suffers from schizophrenia. The sensorial minutiae of everyday life beautifully laces the edges of what is at its' core an autobiographical account of the love between a mother and son. This story really highlights the way children dwell within the climate of their parent's shifting mental states, and therefore changes are tantamount to world events in the life of the child. Because of it's very nature, Schizophrenia disavows Justin's own pain, suffering and deprivation. However, it is not the only powerful force in Justin's life. The backdrop of ordinary life as a 12-year-old exists alongside and provides us with a clear view of a resilient, sensitive and talented boy. I really enjoyed this book, particularly the way the author has attempted to embody his 12-year-old self, rather than report the story from an adult point of view.
January 12, 2021
An interesting one, focused on a year in the life of a child who is effectively the carer for his mother who has schizophrenia. It's told from the perspective of 12 year old Justin, living on Burnie, Tasmania, and so there's lots of humour and fun, and 90s nostalgia amongst the darker moments. Justin loves his Mum and wants her to be well, and is supported by his grandparents and his school mates. It's about family and love above all else, with a hopeful feeling embedded within. The first half of the book was very engaging but then it began to feel repetitive, and there was no real resolution presented. I'd like to know what happened next. Saying that, there was an epilogue, but like a lot of those, it didn't really gel with the rest of the book. An at times entertaining read, and a glimpse into life with a mental illness, that wasn't all dark and dismal.
February 8, 2025
An amusing but often very sad account of an only child growing up with a single parent struggling with a frequently debilitating mental illness. Justin Heazlewood writes with openness and good humour, discussing his family life and school days with plentiful honesty and self-assessment, contrasting his good/bad experiences in navigating home difficulties and general teenage anxieties.
The book is an easy to read tale that celebrates the juvenile interests of a bright boy caught within unfortunate circumstances. I was repeatedly charmed by his school and family recollections before immediately becoming unsettled by an unpleasant change in his mother’s behaviour – Heazlewood’s ability to weather her storms is admirable, and his desire for a ‘normal’ home life amid ongoing distress is perfectly understandable, especially at such an early and influential point in his life.
The book is an easy to read tale that celebrates the juvenile interests of a bright boy caught within unfortunate circumstances. I was repeatedly charmed by his school and family recollections before immediately becoming unsettled by an unpleasant change in his mother’s behaviour – Heazlewood’s ability to weather her storms is admirable, and his desire for a ‘normal’ home life amid ongoing distress is perfectly understandable, especially at such an early and influential point in his life.
December 26, 2020
I enjoyed this memoir about a boy living with his schizophrenic Mum. It is full of humour, the hardships of living with a Mum with a mental health condition and going through childhood things.
It took me a while to read it, as I ponder my own life and how I lived with an unmedicated paranoid schizophrenic Dad for many years of my childhood.
I like the line, "It hurts to be mad at Mum …" because it does hurt to be mad at a parent we love who has schizophrenia.
It's great that you've written this book, as I lived for so many years whispering the word to friends, getting very odd looks, and having to deal with everything that went with my Dad's struggle; it's not as big a deal now, yet it's still hard to say sometimes.
It took me a while to read it, as I ponder my own life and how I lived with an unmedicated paranoid schizophrenic Dad for many years of my childhood.
I like the line, "It hurts to be mad at Mum …" because it does hurt to be mad at a parent we love who has schizophrenia.
It's great that you've written this book, as I lived for so many years whispering the word to friends, getting very odd looks, and having to deal with everything that went with my Dad's struggle; it's not as big a deal now, yet it's still hard to say sometimes.
August 12, 2018
I found this book a bit annoying. It went on too long and didn’t have any resolution or denouement. It just .... ended. So we don’t have a clue as to what happened with the author’s life or his mum or his grandparents. I also found the endless boy stuff a bit tedious. Why does it only concentrate on when he was 12 and 13? Why do we find out virtually nothing about his mum’s life and what happened to her in Norway ? Please get a good editor, and fill in the details. Too long, too tedious.
January 9, 2019
Aspects of this read are a trip down memory lane for anyone who grew up in Australia in the '90's, what with all the cultural references of that time. Another aspect of this book is Justin's struggle with living with a mother battling mental illness and how difficult it must have been at times to cope with such a burden at such a young age, what with all the stigma surrounding schizophrenia at the time. Particularly poignant is the time he spends with his Nan and Pop and his need to record everything that is happening at their place so that he never has to feel lonely...
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September 6, 2018Written as a 12 year old, things pass by - unfettered and unjudged by adult Justin. So sometimes something quite profound may pass by if you're not paying attention.
I think this may be the first pop-culture book to unearth an area that's not really talked about at all - even in mental health circles: kids having to parent single mentally ill parents.
I think this may be the first pop-culture book to unearth an area that's not really talked about at all - even in mental health circles: kids having to parent single mentally ill parents.
August 5, 2018
It is so hard living with someone with a mental illness because it makes them selfish ... JH has an immense weight on his young shoulders with only a limited amount of family support, and the love he and his mother have for each other is definitely there ... but talk about hard earned! First book I remember reading that writes from the perspective of someone 'along for the ride'.
March 2, 2025
Very hard to read at times due to the subject matter yet very well researched and extremely well written. The kind of book that does stay with you when you finished it.
"I don't want to be here, in this battle.
But there's nothing I can do.
I don't feel like crying.
I feel like disappearing." (Pg 238)
"I don't want to be here, in this battle.
But there's nothing I can do.
I don't feel like crying.
I feel like disappearing." (Pg 238)
July 14, 2018
An evocative heart warming memoir I found incredibly relatable. Justin aptly describes so many moments from just one year in his life with his Mum.
July 22, 2018
A deeply personal perspective shared in such a relatable voice. Funny, sweet and heart wrenchingly sad.
August 30, 2018
Beautiful and bittersweet with a somewhat unsatisfying ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2019
I got bored and started skim reading through some of the chapters. Also got frustrated it wasnt pointed out clearly or maybe it was, the disease his mum was suffering. Was it schizophrenia?
May 13, 2019
3.5 really. I enjoyed it, but the slow pace and minute detail dragged for me. That said, young Justin has such a beautiful, authentic voice, it's like you're there with him.
June 4, 2019
Interesting reading about the era I grew up in, but the book lacked interest, plot, ending.
November 20, 2019
A kind, poignant and often funny memoir and coming of age story. Justin grows up in Tasmania in a loving family that struggles to hold it all together.
January 20, 2020
Can’t recommend this highly enough. How the author manages to capture the voice of tween kid in the 90s is genius. You gotta check this one out, beautifully written.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews