Further Fables Queer and Familiar

by Margaret Merrilees

Victoria is delighted to help Gran unscrew the U-bend. She always guessed there was another world beyond the plughole.

Welcome to the hidden complexities of life in an ordinary Australian suburb. Who will fix the plumbing? How do you adapt to a trans person in the family? How do you end racism and make a safe haven for refugees, or keep up with the housework? And what on Earth do you do about the climate emergency?

Here at last, between these two covers, we present the complete instructions for being a lesbian granny.

Genres: LGBT

142 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2019

Reviews

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one snuck up on me, I did NOT think I was going to give it 5 stars and yet here we are! It's written in deceptively short snippets, vignettes of a life which turns out to be full of a muddle of generations, places and animals (ie real life). Issues that seem dismissed too quickly in the page-and-a-half easy to dip into chapters (with lovely pictures) get circled back to and slowly elaborated (well some of them do). Because everything is written from the perspective of the characters and they don't all agree with each other, some of the more controversial ideas become palatable as you don't have to agree, but you let the characters grapple.

It's kids of a kids chapter book for adults- but with real content that slowly builds. I was not even remotely fazed by the fact this is the second in a series, the characters come in with a familiar presumption but it's pretty easy to work out who is who. Some of the mockery toward kids didn't gel well with me in early chapters, but over time concepts like pacifism vs wanting to fit in, trans identities, feminism, climate action get brought out and discussed with some creative insensitivity that is forced to grow. At first I was rolling my eyes thinking "where;s the activism in this domestic mess?" but firstly the cover actually says "activitism" which I guess is a word-play and secondly they do turn out to be activists after all.

I particularly loved great-grandma telling teenage girl who thinks she is ugly that her ideas about beauty are "nonsense". This is not a panacea but it's helpful. I also just ADORED the Adelaideness of this Mt Thebarton and all, also how current it is with the wind-storm and some other things. These people live in the same town as me.

In the end I ADORED it and will read more from Merilees.