TRUE NORTH
Catherine Deveny, Black Inc, $29.99
Deveny’s memoir reminds us how hard it is to break free from habits at work and at home. When advertising and sales plummet, The Age offers journalist Deveny a 40 per cent pay cut. Will she be grateful to still have her column? No. She quits.
Her home life is tolerable, but after 17 years with the father of her two children, she ditches him and is glad to be single. She’s 40. She doesn’t opt for the universal palliative for existential angst – Forever Busy. An arrangement with her ex gives her half the week off to write and do research.
The downside/blessing of spending time alone is that you investigate your choices. Sharing Deveny’s trajectory opens up the past. Frank and fearless.
