Domain Review Book Club: Michael Rowland reviews The Full Catastrophe

We’ve all had them. Days when absolutely nothing seems to go right, no matter how settled and organised your life may otherwise seem.

The Full Catastrophe is a rollicking chronicle of the “stuff-ups, cock-ups and calamities” experienced by well-known Australians.

The tales of woe are pulled together by social researcher Rebecca Huntley and ABC broadcaster Sarah Macdonald who, for some years, have put on a show of the same name. It was Macdonald’s own full catastrophe that got the ball rolling.

The death of her beloved dad sent her into a black hole of despair. If that wasn’t enough, her mum fell ill and needed hospitalisation, and then she herself came down with a bad flu … all while her husband was overseas and her kids were on school holidays.

As she concludes, “Sometimes you just have to roll in the deep, deep doo-doo of life”.

We hear from Today show presenter Deb Knight about a calamitous holiday to Japan involving a noisy apartment and a lost three-year-old.

Demographer Bernard Salt recounts the storm that enveloped him after his 2016 newspaper column in which he (tongue-in-cheek) referred to Millennials breakfasting on smashed avocado in cafes instead of saving for a house deposit.

“This thing went global, viral and feral almost immediately,” he laments.

Fashion designer Alannah Hill shudders at the recollection of a bad experience with a blocked toilet. Again, if you didn’t laugh you’d cry!

This Month

THE FULL CATASTROPHE \ By Rebecca Huntley and Sarah Macdonald $32.99, out May 1

Up Next

IDENTITY CRISIS BY \ by Ben Elton $32.99

Last Month

TIRED OF WINNING: A CHRONICLE OF AMERICAN DECLINE \ By Richard Cooke $27.99, out now