In the past four days I’ve roared through a thickish book that I found voyeuristically enthralling, helped by modern day doublespaced, large fonted text found in softbacks. I imagine this is to bump up the sale price, or appeal to older readers with poor eyesight. Probably the former.
Joe and Anu Singh, his murderer. Joe Cinque’s Consolation is the true story of the murder by deliberate overdose of a 27 year man from Newcastle by his girlfriend in 1997. It follows the court cases of her and several parties who knew or collaborated, and in particular it talks about what justice is for all parties. Helen Garner is a favourite of mine, and whilst famous for not taking the obvious easy feminist line in the controversial “The First Stone”, I sense she wanted less heat from this account and probably had a lot less to say. Often I find myself cringing at emotion-driven writing by women, but somehow hers rings more true to me. She is perceptive and not afraid to reveal the flaws in her decision making. Like a terrier, she tackles topics like the difference between “due care” and a “care of duty” or where the law stops and morality begins, and it never seems boring. It sounds like she really made some lasting friends of the parents of the dead Joe, and her admiration for their continued anger about the leniency of the sentence, and their grace and dignity shines through. She describes her own outrage that a lawyer can so clinically disect an honest witness and remove all traces of humanity from a scenario, so we begin to see them as pathetic and not worthy of consideration. I really liked this book, but towards the end Garner had to lean too heavily on too few people to keep momentum going, and I never did see what the consolation was. His parents were still as troubled and angry about it 5 years later. 4 stars. EDIT: I never read reviews before writing about books, so I just found the consolation. The book itself is Joe’s parent’s consolation. I never thought to take the title so literally. Ninny!