Title: Just Between Us: Australian writers tell the truth about female friendship
Author: Edited by ,, , , , ; Foreword by Helen Garner
Published: Macmillan Au June 2013
Status: Read from August 26 to 27, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy of TheReadingRoom/publisher}
My Thoughts:
It is most often the end of friendship that is explored in Just Between Us. In the editor’s introduction they share that the impetus for this book came from a discussion where they came to recognise the absence of stories about “a slow breakdown, or an unexpected break-up, of a relationship with a close female friend”, despite the universality of the experience.
Just Between Us then is a collection of both fiction and non fiction pieces about the “complexities of our…important female friendships; about their ongoing difficulties, their sudden complications, their endings” from twenty Australian women writers. Varying in tone from the confessional to the pragmatic, the lighthearted to the contemplative, some of these essays and short stories will resonate more strongly than others, but all offer a glimpse into the complicated intimacy of female friendship.
I have had friendships fade with time and distance as well as those that have ended abruptly for reasons I no longer remember, or never knew in the first place. Friendships that I have abandoned to protect myself, others for no good reason as all. To know that my experience is not unique, as illustrated in contributions like Jane Caro’s The Girl Who Got Smaller and Clementine Ford’s Girls Who Wear Gingham, is somehow reassuring. Of all twenty pieces, I found Nikki Gemmell’s non fiction contribution ‘What We Do’, particularly insightful, despite its simplicity.
Just Between Us is an honest and engaging anthology reflecting on the joys and sorrows of friendship. Share it with a friend.
Available to Purchase From
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Filed under: Australian Reading, Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013, ★★★1/2, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Provided by Publisher 
