Helen Garner is an accomplished screenwriter, novelist, short story writer, and journalist. In her late 70s searching for something to write about she settled upon a year of watching her 16-year-old grandson play Australian rules football, known colloquially as footie. She knows next to nothing about the game, but goes to every practice and records what she sees with the acuity of an eagle. The results in the hands of such a gifted writer feel like attending a year-long meditation.
At first Garner’s mind wanders as boys sprint, kick, and pass across an oval playing field much larger than an American football field. As weeks roll by she worries her grandson will get hurt, she notices how the boys are maturing physically and emotionally into young men, she pays attention to every day’s weather, the trees, women jogging around the park, how footie appears to be male displacement for battle and warfare, and in the end, how much she comes to love the game and her grandson’s team. So effective is her writing and powers of observation that I made time to watch enough footie on YouTube to almost start understanding the rules. She reads aloud for the audiobook, delightfully.