All That False Instruction

by E Riley

This passionate, funny, and heartbreaking novel about a young woman’s turbulent coming of age was originally published under the pseudonym Elizabeth Riley.

Genres: Queer, Fiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Jeannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I completely agree with Rose's review. It must be hard for modern women to imagine this kind of growing up experience, but Higgs does capture the pre-Female Eunuch Australian world so well. In some respects it's a bleak book because they were bleak times, but I found it an important novel precisely because of how it conjures up that awfulness.

[余馨 · Rating 4 out of 5]

higgs channels a moment in the lesbian feminist collective memory just prior and post coming out. so... placed in time: late 60s early 70s australian uni life. she writes poisonous, claustrohomophobic social scenes wincingly well.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written coming-of-age story set in 1960's/1970's Australia. Interesting as a cultural snapshot, though it is, by no means, fast paced.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in I think immediatel before and into the early 1970s this book was startling and not at all what I expected. Set in an Australia when we were able to leave home post High School and life was in many ways so much free-er than it is today and not as free in others it felt in many ways like a memory trip but in Sydney and country NSW not Melbourne and Donald or the farm, surrounded by miles of empty paddocks. The freedom is freedom from home and parent, and the beginnings of self discovery as a young woman finally free to shape her own life in an exciting environment full of possibility. Women's lib not quite there yet in a country dominated still by the attitudes and opinions of the 40s but vastly enlivened by the early 60s, albeit an alcoholic 60s and not the heavier drugs that dominated the scene later. Big old houses still available for house sharing, rent so achievable it is never mentioned. sexual freedom for some, but not beyond traditional boundaries. The fearlessly independent but love seeking main character, Maureen, struggles not with her attraction for women instead of men, but with loneliness, confusion and fear by the attitudes of an Australia not quite ready, not helped by a childhood dominated by a cold and unloving mother who regularly beat her throughout her childhood. All characters and the city and country environments ring true of those times in my memory, alive on the pages, evocative and beautiful, esp of the coasts and ocean. It is a time past, a capsule so may read alien to some, but to me was startling in what it exposed considering the usual I read written in those years. UPDATE few weeks later...What is particularly interesting is that in this work the main character tries really hard to make it with men as she gets on well with them and likes them generally, including interacting with them on a sexual level but is constantly frustrated by their inability to take her needs seriously because 'girls don't have orgasms' as an excuse for not waiting - which suggests she is bi rathan lesbian. To be honest, I have found the wham bam method still only too common for myself and in private conversation with other women. It is a very big put off from a man you otherwise care deeply for and can be a deal breaker if have advance warning and if not, does increasing damage with time if communication fails.

[Sally · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh god it was so bad. Another I can't even shelve with the other gay stuff because it's just not worthy. Ugh.