Thoroughly decent blogs

Blogging every day of June has got me pondering what I like most about blogs.

While I am deeply grateful to everyone in my PLN and beyond who takes the trouble to write about things that matter to them, both professionally and personally, I have come to the conclusion that what I really like are blog posts that describe the apparently mundane details of life. These minutiae illuminate the unknown worlds inhabited by other people, and may even lead to insights into the strange country inhabited by oneself.

This pondering led me to thinking about books that let everyday occurrences do the talking.

Glen Tomasetti, a folk singer and political activist, wrote two novels: Thoroughly decent people and Man of letters. I am lucky enough to own both these books. Thoroughly decent people was published in 1976 and is set in suburban Melbourne in the 1930s. It describes the daily life of a seemingly ordinary and decent family in painstaking (even excruciating) detail. Man of letters, written some years later, tells the tale of a man whose safe and predictable world falls apart when the women in his life begin to behave in strange and unexpected ways.

Both books are notable for their endearing illustrations. I particularly love the photograph of a backyard pond in Man of letters, with the caption "'I hate women,' he said to the pool." Obviously, the pool does not say anything at all.

Bibliographic details of these books and some further information about Glen Tomasetti (including portraits) may be found in Trove.