Sunday, January 3, 2021

Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey

 


This memoir ticked quite a few boxes for me in terms of my reading goals.  Memorial Drive was a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award for memoir & Autobiography which is why I chose to read it. I became quite obsessed with reading memoirs last year, so this was a continuation of that.  

For 2021, I am keen to increase my empathy for those whose life experience is very different from mine.  I also wanted to read a Pulitzer Prize winner.  Whilst this book didn't win a Pulitzer Prize, Natasha Trethewey did win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007.  

It's a slim volume at 212 pages but it is by no means an easy read or a book you want to read too quickly.  It needs to be digested slowly.

This is an exploration of delayed grief. A picking away at a wound, buried for many years. The author observes:

 "The whole time I have been working to tell this story, I have done so incrementally, parsing it so that I could bear it: neat, compartmentalized segments that have allowed me to carry on these three decades without falling apart."

Structure

The book is broken into two parts.

The first part is about the author's childhood.  The second part is the author's attempt at experiential research; an attempt to reconstruct her mother's life in the final days before her second, estranged husband kills her.

Trethewey breaks up the writing from time to time with bracketed reflections.  Wikipedia tells us that square brackets or crotchets are used to insert explanatory material.  There are five of these bracketed reflections.  They are reflections on the creative process and the subconsious experience of grief.  The first reflection is an account of the author's dream three weeks after her mother dies.  The second reflection is about the dreams that began once the author announced the intention to write about the experience of her mother's death.  The final three reflections are about the writing process.

Time and Place

Trethewey was born in 1966 in Gulfport Mississippi.  On her birth certificate her mother is described as coloured and her father Canadian.  In fact her parents had to marry in Cincinatti, Ohio as it was illegal for them to marry in the south.  Her mother gave birth in the coloured ward of the hospital.  In 1966.  I am dumbstruck that segregation was still operating this late in the day.  

Trethewey's birthday was the 100th Anniversary of the Confederate Memorial Day.  That fact and having two well-educated parents who imparted a great love of writing and literature gives Trethewey a unique perspective and ability to articulate the complexity of her heritage and the challenge of straddling both worlds.  

I've included a map below for those not familiar with the locations described in the book. You can zoom in and out for context.

 


Themes and Issues

There are so many themes and issues in this little memoir, its difficult to know where to begin.  There is the issue of racial segregation, black and white, north and south, divorce, separation, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, mother-daughter relationships, blended families, domestic violence, trauma.  

Recommend?

As a family historian and lover of literature I found this both a visceral and deeply intellectual approach to a memoir.  

The author states:
"To survive trauma, one must be able to tell a story about it."

Her account of being "sideswiped" by grief in reading real records resonated strongly with me.  

As did the crazy happenstance or synchronicity, often in timing, of people connecting you with materials vital to your research.

As the daughter of a writer and a scholar, Trethewey is familiar with the device of metaphor to help us tell stories.  She trawls through her past examining the stories, including dreams, she has told herself, looking for reinterpretation and new meaning.   

She has suffered survivor's guilt and the challenge of acknowledging and/or coming to grips with how much our parents, and particularly our mothers, sacrifice in order to ensure not only our survival but our growth.  

Her testament to her mother's life, and the cruel robbing thereof, is powerful reading indeed and gives much food for thought.

Saturday, January 2, 2021

#mmdchallenge

 



Every year I set myself so many reading challenges, it is just ridiculous.  I've signed up for a few already.  #AWW2021 for example and a couple of others on Goodreads - an A to Z of places and an A to Z of titles.  

Now, I've decided to sign up for #mmdchallenge which is the Modern Mrs Darcy Challenge.  I liked the sound of this one because there was a little more thought put into it.  I had to think about what my intentions were and what my reading life needed. So here we go. My goal is to read 50 books this year.

Intentions

I want the following from my reading life:
  • learning
  • new experiences
  • empathy

Reading Life Needs

  • consistency in reading
  • taking notes
  • writing reviews

Mini Projects to give my reading life a boost

  • participation in a reading retreat - nup I've never done one. Nup, I've got no idea what they involve.  If you do, let me know.
  • Give away books - we have too many and there are ones that quite frankly I don't want to keep
  • Try bibliotherapy or being involved in a literacy charity

Potential categories

  • a book in translation
  • a book set somewhere I've never been but would like to visit
  • a classic I didn't read in school
  • a Pulitzer Prize winner
  • a book by an author new to me
  • A Newbery Award winner
  • three books by the same author
  • a memoir or book of creative nonfiction
  • a book by an author of a different race, ethnicity or religion than my own

My reading list

Now, this is really a combination of all the challenges I have signed up for already but also making sure that I have captured some of the potential categories above. AA stands for an Australian author. 11-29 are the books listed A-Z by title. The next lot are by place.  The remainder will probably be pulled from my TBR pile. Wish me luck!

  1. The Champagne War by Fiona McIntosh #AWW2021. This also doubles as C in A-Z of titles and E for Epernay in A-Z of places
  2. Elemental by Amanda Curtin #AWW2021.  This also doubles as E in A-Z of titles and F for Fremantle for A-Z of places
  3. Kokomo by Victoria Hannan #AWW2021.  This also doubles as K in A-Z of titles.
  4. Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville #AWW2021. This also doubles as J in A-Z of titles.
  5. The Power of Bones by Keelen Mailman  #AWW2021. This also doubles as P in A-Z of titles
  6. The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein  #AWW2021. This also doubles as T in A-Z of titles
  7. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks #AWW2021.  This also doubles as Y in A-Z of titles.
  8. M:  Loner by Georgina Young #AWW2021.  This also doubles as M for Melbounre in places A-Z
  9. T: Toronto Cherry Beachby Laura McPhee-Browne #AWW2021 and doubles as T for Toronto in A-Z of places.
  10. #AWW
  11. All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy and doubles for I for India in A-Z of places
  12. Born or Bred? Martin Bryant: the making of a mass murderer by Robert Wainwright AA
  13. The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally AA
  14. Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris and doubles for U in SaUdi Arabia in A-Z of places
  15. Ghost River by Tony Birch AA and doubles for Y as in Yarra River in A-Z of places
  16. Home Stretch by Graham Norton and doubles for N for New York in A-Z of places
  17. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See and doubles for J for Jeju in A-Z of places
  18. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam and L for Long Island in A-Z of places
  19. Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
  20. N Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb
  21. One Bright Moon by Andrew Kwong
  22. Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
  23. Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie and doubles for Q as in Quebec for A-Z of places
  24. Snare by Lilja Sigurðardóttir and doubles for R for Reykijavik in A-Z of places
  25. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
  26. The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona
  27. Weather by Jenny Offill
  28. Max by Alex Miller AA
  29. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
  30. D: Durham The Offing by Benjamin Myers
  31. H: Hove Craven House by Patrick Hamilton
  32. K: Kenya Enidby Robert Wainwright AA
  33. O: Oxford Any Human Heart by William Boyd
  34. P: Portugal Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
  35. S: Scotland The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
  36. V: Vietnam The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do AA
  37. W: West Bank Apeirogon by Colum McCann
  38. X: Mexico The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia
  39. Z: Zanzibar The Sultan's Daughter by Jane Downing
  40. a book in translation
  41. Isabel López-Quesada at Home - a book set somewhere I've never been but would like to visit
  42. a classic I didn't read in school
  43. a Pulitzer Prize winner
  44. Honeybee by Craig Silvey
  45. A Newbery Award winner
  46. The Last Resort Alison Lurie
  47. Truth and Consequences Alison Lurie
  48. Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie
  49. Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover - a memoir or book of creative nonfiction
  50. The Mountains Sing by
Have you set yourself a reading challenge for the year? What are your intentions? What does your reading life need?