I borrowed this book as my very first digital loan from a library (but that is another story). I chose it only because I had heard Corinne interviewed and knew it was a personal account of coming to grips with a hoarding problem.
I was very engaged with this book. Some recent books I have read and reviewed are by American (Tinkers) or English authors, and this book is about someone who grew up in Corryong (120km east of Albury). There is something delightful about stories imbued with the light, customs and language that are part of your own life.
Corinne is not trying for an autobiography in the full sense. This is an account of her own growing realisation of a potentially disabling hoarding problem, her attempts to understand its source, and her journey out of the malaise. The result is certainly that she tells stories about her family, about growing up and university years, and certainly about her lover, her friends and special people she meets. The focus however remains on the issue that affected her, to the extent that she finishes the book with a list of twenty two "lessons in getting on" as hints and guides for others with similar problems. I actually thought this was the only part of the book I would do differently, perhaps having this available as a section on a web page. It made the book seem a tad less like a personal story and more like a self help book, though I can understand her motivation.
The book is certainly frank: she does not hesitate to present and analyse her own failings and foibles, and does not seek to blame anyone else for the situation she found herself in. There is a bit of bad language (though that can hardly be a surprise to anyone who has seen her on TV as a comedian). Still, unlike a book I read recently that seemed to scatter vulgarities for the sake of sales, this is an account of a real life, warts and all.
I was mindful of my own failings to get round to dealing with stacks of papers at work and home, and the complexity of the meanings we attribute to the "things" in our life. I would encourage others to read this simply as a delightful personal tale from an articulate young Australian.
Andrew Lack
