A big sunny shack : Cosmo Cosmolino by Helen Garner

I'm conscious that Cosmo Cosmolino itself has influenced my writing of this essay. It isn't the shape I intended it to be. I wanted a shorter, more tightly argued piece of writing, Tim Winton's perfectly built cottage rather than the shack with all its windows open. But instead I have surrendered to the shape and shapelessness of this great, strange book. I want to finish by telling you that it is a book whose doors and windows will be forever open to the breeze. Wander in it at will.