Status Updates From When I Am Sixty-Four

this book is excellent. i'm going to have to read it more than once but it moves forward (i'm assuming towards the suicide) but with flashbacks and flashforwards in a way that's very natural and doesn't interrupt the flow. despite the heavy topic there are moments of lightness... it's just very well crafted

a lot of industry gossip in this book. is gabrielle carey the anonymous author of "the secret lecturer"? who is the author of the terrible present-tense novel that's being lauded that they both loathe and what will they say when they run into them so they don't mess up the friendship? (thea astley has the answer: tell a white lie and say you are "looking forward to reading it" - ha!)

there's so many red flags here. the book about sylvia plath that the author has confiscated. her friend is giving the author possessions "here! have this! i'm trying to divest"

the author says soon afterwards, "i wasn't alert to the signs" but unless you've been unwell and have thought the same way, most people can't spot signs that something is wrong with a person, it can all look deceptively normal

this book illuminates their quiet friendship but also the thinking errors that seem to come along with mood disorders. she owns a house! in sydney! but is worried about being too poor on the pension to travel, buy clothes and eat (!!!) i'd concede frequent overseas trips, yeah, that's probably out of reach but you can cover the basics just fine. she seems to be immune to the author's logic because of her illness...

she's reflecting on the impact of women in her life: "in the short time she taught me, less than a year, she flicked a domino that was the start of a long and curving pattern of falling dominoes that eventually led to my sitting here writing these words now"

this is so expressed so beautifully, people really don't ever know what they've started

this is the novella by gabrielle carey's friend about her. her voice is intelligent, calm, measured. i'm not sure if it's going to be like a whole life thing? or if it's going to be focused on her mental health. so far it seems like a depression book; she's going to her house, getting her out of bed, helping her through her low points... but without an inkling of how it might end