The Household Guide to Dying

Adelaide, D

The Household Guide to Dying

Adelaide, D

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Publisher:: Picador
Citation:: 2008, 1st
Issue Date:: 2008-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Adelaide, D https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3220-8821	en_US
dc.date.issued	2008-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	2008, 1st	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9780330424806	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/12282
dc.description.abstract	This is a major creative work, a novel of approximately 100,000 words. It was first published in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand in May 2008, and has since been published in: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain (including a Catalonian language edition), Brazil, China, Israel, Canada and the USA; paperback editions, audio language editions and reprints have appeared in four of these countries and a film option has been sold. Critical acclaim for the novel in the form of reviews has appeared around the world; it has been endorsed by internationally best selling authors such as Cecilia Ahem and Wally Lamb; and in May 2009 the novel was longlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize for fiction. The Household Guide to Dyingis a contemporary story that examines the dilemma of premature death within a family, and uses a variety of narrative forms to deliver a tale that oscillates between humour and gravity. Letters, emails and extracts from other (fictional) works combine with a narrative of the immediate and distant past to give the reader a sense of the narrator's dislocation within a time of crisis. As a cultural artefact this novel is particularly important in three ways: it explores and challenges taboos regarding death and dying in contemporary culture; and it exploits the idea of the self-help industry in its satirising of the idea of a guide to dying, in which the ironic reference of the title becomes apparent. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it dramatises, and re-interrogates, issues of maternal nurturing and domestic work, including the related anxieties and dilemmas, that feminist theory has been concerned with since the new wave of feminism in the post-1960s.	en_US
dc.publisher	Picador	en_US
dc.title	The Household Guide to Dying	en_US
utslib.location	Sydney; Auckland	en_US
utslib.for	190402 Creative Writing (incl. Playwriting)	en_US
utslib.citation.edition	1st	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Creative Writing Program
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CPCE - Centre for Creative Practices and the Cultural Economy
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.edition	1st	en_US
pubs.place-of-publication	Sydney; Auckland	en_US
pubs.rights-statement	Research background The research is in the field of creative writing. William Faulkner placed a dying figure at the centre of a fragmented narrative of competing viewpoints; Helen Garner blurred the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, exploiting the real life experience of caring for a dying friend; Mark Wakely examined the shifting role of death and dying rituals in contemporary culture. The principal research question for my novel project is: How to fashion a language of death and dying that challenges and surmounts the euphemisms of the topic, and how best to achieve that and engage the reader? Research contribution Utilising a metafiction of the ‘how-to’ or self-help genre, and introducing layered narratives such as letters to readers and quotations from actual and invented texts including Faulkner (above), The Household Guide to Dying presents the story of a dying woman at the centre of her story, who decides to exploit her death by writing about it. The first person narrative voice is comical and subversive, enabling the delivery of confronting material that elicits a range of emotional engagement on the part of the reader. Research significance This novel was sold via auction in Australia, the US, the UK and ten other countries. It received numerous reviews in Australian and overseas, and was shortlisted for the Waverley Fiction Award 2010). An option for film rights has been sold. US Author Cecelia Ahearn called it an ‘uplifting novel … gorgeously written, while being absolutely page-turning and breathtakingly tender.’	en_US

Abstract:

This is a major creative work, a novel of approximately 100,000 words. It was first published in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand in May 2008, and has since been published in: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain (including a Catalonian language edition), Brazil, China, Israel, Canada and the USA; paperback editions, audio language editions and reprints have appeared in four of these countries and a film option has been sold. Critical acclaim for the novel in the form of reviews has appeared around the world; it has been endorsed by internationally best selling authors such as Cecilia Ahem and Wally Lamb; and in May 2009 the novel was longlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize for fiction. The Household Guide to Dyingis a contemporary story that examines the dilemma of premature death within a family, and uses a variety of narrative forms to deliver a tale that oscillates between humour and gravity. Letters, emails and extracts from other (fictional) works combine with a narrative of the immediate and distant past to give the reader a sense of the narrator's dislocation within a time of crisis. As a cultural artefact this novel is particularly important in three ways: it explores and challenges taboos regarding death and dying in contemporary culture; and it exploits the idea of the self-help industry in its satirising of the idea of a guide to dying, in which the ironic reference of the title becomes apparent. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it dramatises, and re-interrogates, issues of maternal nurturing and domestic work, including the related anxieties and dilemmas, that feminist theory has been concerned with since the new wave of feminism in the post-1960s.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/12282