This House Of Grief – Helen Garner

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Jai, Tyler, and Bailey Farquharson. The three young boys died after their father drove them into a dam on Father’s Day 2005, and swam away, leaving the brothers to drown. Helen Garner was in her 60s at the time, living in Victoria, and she found herself riveted by the crime – as were most Australians. I distinctly remember watching the news coverage with rapt attention myself, in my high-school dorm room. Garner attended every day of the trial (and subsequent retrial) of Farquharson, with the express intent of writing about how the tragic story concludes.

That’s how she ultimately wrote This House Of Grief, an account of the trials of Robert Farquharson. You’ll find it shelved in the true crime section of your local independent bookstore, but it’s important to know at the outset that this isn’t a story about the crime itself – it’s a day-by-day depiction of what happened as Farquharson was tried and sentenced.

Garner doesn’t pretend to be an expert, or an objective witness to what goes on in the courtroom. She makes room for gut feelings about Farquharson’s guilt, instincts about the way a father “should” behave, and uncertainty about what conclusions can be drawn from the evidence – all of the things that Proper Journalism forbids. Just as important as what the lawyers and judges say and do are Garner’s subjective impressions of what unfolds, her conversations with other attendees in the gallery, and her ruminations over what she sees and hears.

Since when has loving someone meant that you would never want to kill them?

This House Of Grief (Page 4)

It goes without saying that Garner’s prose is gorgeous, stunning, breathtaking. She is one of Australia’s most beloved writers for a reason. She describes a lake as an “elongated teardrop”, a distressed witness as a “brokenhearted boofhead”. She is penetrating, without ever overstating the point. She knows just how much detail to share, to put the reader there with her in the courtroom, without ever overwhelming us with detail or overanalysing its significance.

I normally finish a true crime book – especially one where the perpetrator is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison – feeling energised, with a sense of righteous anger. This House Of Grief left me with an entirely different feeling, one closer to melancholy. Naturally, this feeling is best summed up by Garner herself, in her Epilogue.

If there is any doubt that Robert Farquharson drove into the dam on purpose, it is a doubt no more substantial than a cigarette paper shivering in the wind, no more reasonable than the unanswered prayer that shot through my mind when I first saw the photo of the car being dragged from the black water.

This House Of Grief (Page 299)

Read This House Of Grief on audiobook via Libro.fm here.