The Season by Helen Garner

Our book group met last night to discuss Australian author Helen Garner’s memoir The Season. It came out earlier this year. Helen Garner lives in Melbourne and is a very popular author of diaries and crime. She is getting older (past 80) and her youngest grandson is 18 and plays Australian Rules football. She wants to know him better before she passes away and he leaves home for the big world. She decides to participate from the sidelines of his footy training and games.

This is the story of that footy season. I read it, enjoyed it though I’m not a massive football fan, never have been though I admit Aussie Rules is much easier to follow than American football or Grid Iron as the Aussies call it. I can never tell who has the ball in America and all the padding the players wear makes them hard to distinguish from either and they have SO MANY time outs! AUSSIE rules is so much faster. But American football players weigh a lot more. Hence the padding.

Anyway I thought what on earth could be so divisive in this book to get a good discussion going in our book group. OMG- was I wrong‼️

Half the group saw the relationship as the main theme in the book between grandson and grandmother. Football was just a prop. He could have been an equestrian or a swimmer and the story wouldn’t change a lot. I was in that camp.

The other half were so anti football I thought a couple of them would explode. The players were described as a bunch of young homophobic, misogynist thugs who practised racism from dusk to dawn.. And the injuries are bad as they are so dumb they wear no protective gear and suffer brain injuries and broken limbs.

Actually I think being an equestrian and white water rafting is more dangerous. I had my one and only ambo ride years ago coming off a runaway horse who threw me half way across a paddock while on a sharp gallop with a dead stop and right angle turn at the end.

Then another voice popped up from a small country town in Victoria. She said the whole community bonded over Friday or Saturday night football. Everyone came out, got pissed, held BBQ’s and had a great time. Friendships made were long lasting. And on and on this went for the hour we were there. I was highly entertained.

I do think more protective clothing should be worn and I know there are medical issues that are life long from brain injuries from people playing rugby and football. I also know racism, homophobia and misogyny rear their ugly heads but that pops up in many places.

I rode a motorbike for years and fell off horses jumping over 4 foot fences when the horse stopped. My sister was active in various sports as was my brother. My father flew helicopters and once the engine quit and as it plummeted to the earth he had skills to not panic and start the engine up again. However all his hair fell out two weeks later and grew in again with big white patches. Contained trauma and stress. Do we live with our passions even if dangerous? Or do we get wrapped in cotton wool. The discussion could go on for months.

But..I enjoyed the book. I don’t think the book was about football. I moved on once I finished it. Thought it was nice Helen enjoyed the footy season with her grandson and his mates. Discussion over. 🏈

I do believe sport is important especially for young kids who don’t have structure in their life or discipline or much support. They learn a lot and have a community to which they belong. They get penalised for racist slurs or homophobic comments. They get to know people from other cultures or areas of the country.

But I digress. Helen Garner did get to know her grandson better and observe him. She does talk about his body though as though he is a Greek god. One member of our group said if an 83 yr old grandfather talked about his grand daughter the way she described her grandson he would be in trouble. A good point??

Anyway it was fun and I sipped from my water bottle and watched the fur fly.

So now we begin the next book for our October discussion. It is Heart Lamp by Indian writer Deepa Bhasthi and translated by Banu Mushtag. It is a series of 12 short stories of Indian Muslim women. The book won the International Booker prize of 2025.

It should be much different to footy.

Any thoughts ?