From his evening radio program and staunch following among the elderly in residential care, to his newspaper column and contributions as actor and director, Peter Goers is among our best-known South Australians.
A flight out of New Orleans on 9 July 1982 crashed after take-off killing all 145 crew and passengers, as well as eight on the ground. Among the dead were Peter’s parents, Brian and Margaret Goers. This tribute is his ‘long overdue, long goodbye’. It takes the reader with him from the first awful intimations to his ghastly flight to America which has little to do with identifying the bodies, rather corporate damage control.
He is still able to recognise that it is a grief shared, each grandmother mourning in her own way the death of her child, his young sister traumatised beyond reason. Compounding the loss is his sense of guilt – memories usually softened by time, become hardened into self-excoriating guilt.
This is a study of human psychology in extremis, reaction to deaths with years of reckless disregard for his own life, learning at last to live with himself. Most importantly, it’s a tribute to family and friendships that did not fail him. Particularly memorable are the episodes spent rambling through New Orleans. The French Quarter seems ‘like an enormous stage set’ and at night he finds a kind of sanctuary in its actual theatres. Sharp-eyed and sardonic, Peter lightens the tone for moments of pure humour to shine. It’s a beautiful book, from its splendid cover to its lively prose, lightly garnished with evidence of its author’s wide reading.
Reviewed by Judith Crabb
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Goers has been a mainstay of the South Australian arts and media scene for decades. He is the host of The Evening Show on ABC Radio Adelaide and has been a Sunday Mail columnist since 1991.
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