THE GOD OF NO GOOD by Sita Walker

The God of No Good is the memoir of Brisbane writer and teacher Sita Walker.

The God of No Good is the memoir of Brisbane writer and teacher Sita Walker, detailing her journey from Bahá’í believer to a woman whose faith follows no strict religion except love. It is told through her own eyes, as well as that of her parents, aunties and grandmother, taking readers on journeys through iran, India, Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic and various parts of Australia.

The God of No Good is beautifully written. Sita Walker’s writing style is sophisticated yet readable, at times very funny. Her stories are relatable yet worthy of telling, and her upbringing unconventionally conventional. She writes about some difficult topics, such as death and divorce, with compassion and self-awareness. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book.

The only difficulty I had - and this is about me and not the book as such - is that I often struggle with books that jump around both in chronology and storyteller, and in the case of this book, both happen. I sometimes feel like I have to work hard to keep stories straight in my head with this style of storytelling. In this case, I sometimes had to go back to the section header to remind myself where I find myself. This is becoming a common storytelling strategy and, maybe it’s just me, but I sometimes struggle with it because I get confused.

One of the interesting things I thought about while reading The God of No Good is also where this book falls in terms of genre. It is clearly a memoir, yet much of the story is told about the lives of Walker’s parents, aunties and grandmother, long before she was born. Thus, the memories are not Sita’s but theirs, which I guess falls outside of what I consider memoir to be. Without these chapters, the book would have had little context and so they were important to include (and I loved them!) but I wonder if this is an example of a sub-genre - maybe family memoir rather than just memoir. I don’t know - just something I thought about as I lay awake at night!

I really enjoyed reading The God of No Good and I hope Walker continues to write, as her use of language and style is a pleasure to read.