This House of Grief by Helen Garner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The only thing they wanted to know was, 'Well? Did he do it?' The least interesting question anyone could possibly ask."

I selected the above passage for the epigraph to make it clear that any readers potentially interested in knowing 'for sure' whether the accused was indeed guilty will not find a definitive answer in this book. Why? Because

"Only one person knows what happened in the car that night, and he's not talking."

Also, there is a significant distinction between "(s)he has been found guilty" and "(s)he is guilty." Since the former phrase has the jury error factored in, it only provides a (supposedly) high probability of actual guilt, which in many real-life cases can never be established "for sure."

Helen Garner's This House of Grief. The Story of A Murder Trial (2014) is a non-fiction book. The famous Australian writer (I loved her The Children's Bach ) spent many months as a careful observer of two murder trials of Robert Farquharson and talked to many people involved in the case. She provides a riveting account of the case, lucid, painstakingly unbiased, and very well written.

A brief summary of the setup: a year before the murder (or accident) Mr. Farquharson's wife terminated the marriage, told him to move out of the house, and found a new man in her life. On Father's Day 2005, Mr. F, exercising his visitation rights, was driving with his three young sons in the car. The car veered off the road, drove into a farm dam, and plunged into water. All three boys drowned but Mr. F saved himself. Forensic evidence seemed to indicate that the driver purposefully drove off the road and Mr. F was charged with triple murder. He claimed that a coughing fit caused a complete blackout.

One of the author's main targets is the "reality-TV-like" aspect of the case. With the high visibility of the trial and extensive media coverage ("media circus") most people had their view:

"The general feeling was that a man like Farquharson could not tolerate the loss of control he experienced when his wife ended the marriage. Again and again people came up with this explanation. [...] Either that, or he was evil."

People inferred the guilt or innocence based on the court behavior of the defendant. Naturally, and most frighteningly, this included the jurors. In a particularly damning passage Ms. Garner quotes a spectator:

"He looked really healthy in the photo I saw. He didn't look like a man whose three children were dead."

"But what is a man supposed to look like when all his children are dead?" asks Ms. Garner. So many people derive entertainment from the high-profile court cases. I find it repulsive, as I think the author does.

To me, the narrative axis of the account is framed by the evolution of Ms. Gambino's (the defendant's ex-wife and the mother of the victims) point of view. First, during her testimony, she defends her ex-husband and states that she believes an accident happened. Few years later, she changes her mind and turns against him.

Very highly recommended book! This House is much more than a captivating and thrilling read: it is a deeply thought-provoking study of human motivation and behavior.

So was it murder? Maybe. Likely. Probably. Will we ever know for sure? No. It is in fact possible that Mr. F himself does not know.

Four-and-a-quarter stars.

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