utor & bookmaker

Julie Gittus

author and bookmaker

'A rather broad filter' by Christina Hill, Australian Book Review, Dec 2008 - Jan 2009 edition
(Review of Families: Modern Australian Short Stories)

.... Space prevents me from commenting on all the stories. One favourite was 'Velvet', by Julie Gittus. The first person narrator is a young woman who visits a farm on the city's outskirts at the invitation of an older man whom she has recently met, unaware that his motive is sexual. On arrival she discovers an odd menage a trois is already in play and that she is expected to become part of this arrangement. What makes the story work so well is the inner narrative. In the midst of her uncertainty and embarrassment about the situation she finds herself is her abject awareness that she is bleeding through her jeans. She can't find the toilet and when she does she realises that she has left her tampons behind in her handbag and has to improvise with a wad of toilet paper. This story succeeds in its wit and lightness of touch. .....