When I've been overtaken, I have stood and watched the water in my porridge simmer away into the air, and then the oats turn black and crackle with dryness, and my ears fill with the smoke alarm's shriek.

When Adele Dumont is diagnosed with trichotillomania - compulsive hair-pulling - it makes sense of much of her life to date. The seemingly harmless quirk of her late teens, which rapidly developed into almost uncontrollable urges and then into trance-like episodes, is a hallmark of the disease, as is the secrecy with which she guarded her condition from her family, friends, and the world at large.

The diagnosis also opens up a rich line of inquiry. Where might the origins of this condition be found? How can we distinguish between a nervous habit and a compulsion? And how do we balance the relief of being 'seen' by others with our experience of shame?

The Pulling is a fascinating exploration of the inner workings of a mind. In perfectly judged prose, both probing and affecting, Dumont illuminates how easily ritual can slide into obsession, and how close beneath the surface horror and darkness can lie.

About the Author
Adele Dumont is an Australian writer and critic. Her work has appeared in Griffith Review, Meanjin, Southerly, ABR, and Sydney Review of Books. Adele's first book, No Man is an Island, is an account of her experiences teaching English to asylum seekers in detention. Adele lives in Sydney, where she works as an English language teacher and examiner. When she needs a break from text and from screens, she enjoys baking, bushwalking, and eavesdropping.

Reviews

'Adele Dumont's The Pulling is a compulsively readable, frank, and disquieting memoir. Dumont wields Ernaux-like precision to analyse and contextualise the obsession that has made and unmade her life. The writing is candid, fearless, and profound, and it takes on questions most of us lack the backbone to face. Dumont asks what is more real, our lived or unlived lives? Are we ourselves even in our deepest compulsions? The Pulling calls to mind the unsettling clarity of Yiyun Li and Linn Ullmann. I could not put this book down.'

-- Ellena Savage, author of Blueberries

'The Pulling is an intimate and intricately crafted book, a meditation on privacy and the intensity and complexity of interiority, and the ways in which we might maintain this against and within - without losing - the world. It resists the easy narratives and language of illness, and all that these reduce, and is interested instead in the fascination of compulsion, what it offers and might mean. Dumont's writing is both vulnerable and fierce, critical, and beautifully detailed, and generous above all else.'

-- Fiona Wright, author of Small Acts of Disappearance

'As a lifelong trichotillomaniac, who has never seen my furtive self reflected back in literature, I devoured this astonishing book in one greedy sitting. But even if you have never been a hair-puller or plucker, or skin-picker, nail-biter, or pimple-popper, yet know the pleasure and concomitant shame of self-soothing, by whatever means, you will revel in the humanity, compassion, and insight of Dumont's stunning prose. The Pulling is a memoir that tears away at the quotidian ignominy and pain of "bad" habits, peeling back layers of individual, family, and cultural dis-grace and dis-ease. Rich, remarkable, uncomfortable, and compelling. I loved this book in equal measure to how much I have loathed myself for the corporal crutches the child me learned to steady herself upon in a shaky world, not of my making.'

-- Clare Wright, author of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka

'This writing is brave, leaving Dumont vulnerable as she reports on herself ... With engaging, compelling and candid prose, these essays unearth the author's struggle to make sense of the world around her and her place within it.'

-- Mandy Beaumont * The Big Issue *

'The Pulling ... is an important step in opening up the conversation and awareness around hair-pulling.'

-- Anika Hansen * Good Reading Magazine *

'The Pulling is vulnerable, smart and uncomfortable ... [Adele's] writing is so beautifully understated it doesn't get in the way of the narrative at all, instead, facilitating an almost movie like experience where the reader is watching and witnessing her story ... a wonderful example of beautiful personal essays and an almost 'how-to' guide for compelling non-fiction.'

-- Freya Bennett * Ramona Magazine *

'The canon of illness and disability is being written in real time and The Pulling is a timely and poetic addition.'

-- Fiona Murphy * The Saturday Paper *

'Trichotillomania forms the basis of a fascinating and shockingly honest work of autobiography, exploring secrecy, obsession and the ways invisible illness can shape our lives.'

-- Michael Williams * Qantas Magazine *

'An engrossing account of living with trichotillomania ... there is a compelling Lawrentian rawness to the way she depicts her condition and its possible origins.'

-- Steven Carroll * The Sydney Morning Herald *

'The essays in Dumont's finely wrought collection stand alone, as well as in unison as memoir ... Dumont sets herself the challenge of putting into words what can't be captured in an official diagnosis [and] some of the most exquisite sentences and passages, in a book full of them, detail what it is like for Dumont inside or in the immediate wake of a "ravenous episode" ... The beauty and power of The Pulling resides in how artfully Dumont balances two sometimes competing concerns - filling a gap and sharing a secret ... Beyond liberating herself as a writer, Dumont stakes a powerful claim for all people who have been diagnosed with a condition having the authority to tell their own stories and comprehend their own experience.'

-- Zora Simic * Inside Story *

'Despite the very specific nature of the subject, the memoir speaks to a broad readership: to anyone who has felt the isolation of difference, whether "being" different or simply feeling it.'

-- Jane Turner Goldsmith * The Conversation *

Praise for No Man Is an Island:

'No Man Is an Island is essential reading for anyone who assumes they understand what the asylum seeker issue is all about, regardless of their opinion.'

* Sydney Morning Herald *

Praise for No Man Is an Island:

'Dumont has a way of demonstrating the humanity of the refugees, but also of the Australians who have them in their charge, in a way that could reach the naysayers in ways the stereotypes of political discourse cannot.'

* Weekend Australian *

Praise for No Man Is an Island:

'Dumont is a remarkably honest and thoughtful observer ... Dumont's writing is evocative but never obtrusive ... she simply recounts, in honest, clear-eyed prose, what she saw and heard and did during her two years working in detention centres. It is all she needs to say.'

* The Saturday Paper *



Book Information
ISBN 9781914484834
Author Adele Dumont
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Scribe Publications
Publisher Scribe Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 21mm