The book of the TV series, or rather the book inspired by the TV series, McInnes has used the same source material to craft his own take. There are some of the same stories as the TV, sometimes gone into in greater depth, along with some of his own history and anecdotes growing up in the same time.
The period covers from the end of WWII to the present, and covers childhood, religion, love and home ownership, with stories illustrative of people’s differing experiences. Childhood shows the transformation from quite a free exploratory childhood to the more safety conscious one today. Perhaps surprisingly it does not really cover changes in education over the same time. Love shows the drift from marriage as the default position to a more varied experience. Religion show the fragmenting of the dominant religiosity of Australia to a more pick and mix (or none at all) today, and continuing decline in influence of the churches. Home ownership is the least changed, really – people still want to own their own home!
The strength of this book is that it seems to be free of a major agenda, and there are few value judgements. The individual stories emphasise that social trends are simply trends, and that there are still a rich variety of individuals. It does not attempt to extrapolate from one experience to a whole trend. So one loses their faith, another gains it. Someone is happily married, another explores varieties of sexuality. It is a social history in which it is possible to recognise our own experiences, and be surprised by others. It rejoices in humanity, it rejoices in the rich variety of being Australian.
