All the boys she ever loved

Featured in

  • Published 20230801
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-86-3
  • Extent: 200pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

Michael Zanetti 

I remember the first one like I remember them all. This gangly little five-year-old making himself small in the backseat of the car, the middle seat a gap between him and Lacey as they talked on and off the whole drive about whatever it was five-year-olds talked about back then. He’d brought a small cloth bag with him, and he was showing her his action figures, these strong, poorly proportioned men with large heads and reluctant smiles. When we got to the house, I asked him to take off his shoes on the porch and he looked at me worried. 

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Jonathan O’Brien

Jonathan O’Brien is a writer, software developer and housing advocate. He was the recipient of a Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship...

More from this edition

Oh, the shame of it

Non-fictionModern leisure emerged in the West in the early 1700s when French and English cities developed new forms of society built around urban amenities – parks, cafés, fairs and shopping districts – servicing an expanding class of people with discretionary time and income. Public museums as storehouses of national culture appeared a little later in the nineteenth century where they contributed to the development of so-called ‘rational recreation’, a species of serious leisure intended to ‘civilise the masses’.

Dressed for success

In ConversationHip-hop was about taking this mainstream look – a nice, acceptable, appropriate look – and, like, changing it up. Sampling it like it’s a song and turning it into something new. So when preppy emerged in mainstream white corporate culture, it started mixing with denim in new ways and mixing with sneakers in new ways and becoming a form of streetwear.

Hump day

Fiction‘Well, I’m sure all your questions will be answered very soon. Genius Inc. is holding a press conference at 3 pm,’ Sam says. ‘The Prime Minister will be there too, since the government is partly funding them now, after their cancer discovery. It’s serious, Prue. Try to have an open mind, alright? Keep your phone close. I’ll call you straight after.’ ‘Sure,’ she yells after him, ‘if we survive it.’

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.