The Puberty Blues, that is, written by two Sydney girls thirty-seven years ago as 'the great Australian classic'. The book - later made into a movie -scandalised most adult Australians when it was published in 1979, and its 2002 reprint, which I picked up from a Vinnies shop this morning, is still a bumpy ride today.
This later edition has not just one foreword but two: by Kylie Minogue who wrote, "I don't recall reading Puberty Blues so much as devouring it. I was fascinated. The honesty of the story made it hysterical and terrifying at the same time", and Germaine Greer who goes on for much longer - as she's wont to - but can be summed up in her final remark that "Puberty Blues is a profoundly moral story".
The two Sydney girls, Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, didn't so much write a book as a booklet because it's a mere 115 pages, of which the last two summarise what happened to those true-life characters in later life:
Jeff Basin | Heroin habit | |
Bruce Board |
Labourer in Caringbah; unmarried father | |
Frieda Cummins | Unknown | |
Dave Deakin |
Dead; heroin overdose in Queensland | |
Danny Dixon |
Plumber in steady job in Sylvania Heights | |
Kim Dixon | Numerous breakdowns | |
Garry Hennessey |
Heroin habit; serving seven-year gaol sentence for armed robbery on a chemist | |
Glen Jackson |
Heroin habit; involved in same robbery but got off; dobbed in Garry and Johnno; father to Vicki Russell's baby | |
Johnno |
Heroin habit; serving nine-year gaol sentence for same robbery | |
Tracey Little |
Heroin addict; admitted to Drug Rehabilitation Centre | |
Kerrie Mead | Fell pregnant; baby adopted | |
Cheryl Nolan |
Heroin addict; admitted to Drug Rehabilitation Centre | |
Darren Peters |
Heroin addict; whereabouts unknown | |
Vicki Russell | Unmarried mother | |
Seagull | Heroin addict and on the run | |
Steve Strachan |
Gave up surfing and started drinking; hangs at local pub | |
Wayne Wright |
Dead; fell from window while breaking into flat to score drugs | |
Susan Knight and Deborah Vickers | Ran away from school and at eighteen wrote this book |
If this is an account of growing up in the 1970s, then I never grew up!