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‘UNTIL CAMPION'S FILM I
WAS THE MAD WRITER. NOW
internal affars
Kate Gould welcomes a novel that Janet Frame deemed too personal to ever be published in her lifetime, and analyses the deceased Kiwi writer's legacy
lurring of fiction and fact and the overlapping , of character and writer have long influenced ;
the interpretations of Janet Frame’s work. With her writing featuring characters who resembled her and experiences lifted from her life, readers have often assumed her fiction to be thinly veiled
autobiography. Alarmed by this assumption, Frame j attempted to ‘set the record straight’ with three
autobiographies — To The Is-land, An Angel At My Table and The Envoy From Mirror City. Made into
the biopic An Angel At My Table (about which she
quipped, ‘until Jane Campion’s film 1 was known as the mad writer. Now I’m the mad fat writer’), the volumes recount Frame’s impoverished childhood in New Zealand, marked by the deaths of two sisters and her brother’s epilepsy.
Distressed by family tragedy and by teaching , (panicked, she walked out of the classroom during a v
government inspection, never to return), she suffered an emotional breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The diagnosis was later revoked, but
she spent eight years in psychiatric hospitals where :
she was treated with insulin and administered over 200 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy. Scheduled for a lobotomy, Frame’s The Lagoon and Other Stories, published while she was interned, received the Hubert Church Memorial Award, prompting the surgeon to cancel the operation.
Referring to her experience, she later wrote: ‘I inhabited a territory of loneliness which resembles the place where the dying spend their time before death and from where those who do return living to the world bring inevitably a unique point of view that is a nightmare, a treasure, and a lifelong possession. It is equal in its rapture and chilling exposure to the neighbourhood of the ancient gods and goddesses.’
3O 1'"! LIST 19 Jun—3 Jul 2008
Leaving psychiatric hospital, Frame lived in a hut in
I'M THE MAD, FAT WRITER' ;
the garden of her mentor, writer Frank Sargeson, , where she wrote her first novel, Owls Do Cry. She 3 then moved to Europe, based primarily in London, :
where she continued to write. In 1964 she returned to New Zealand where, though travelling widely, she remained until her death in 2004, aged 79.
The recipient of numerous awards (including 3 honorary membership of the American Academy of f Arts and Letters and a Nobel Prize nomination) and 1 author of a tremendous body of work, Frame’s ? contribution to the literary landscape and her ' ' depiction of inner states and mental illness is ;
remarkable and enduring.
Responsible for purchasing Frame’s work, including
vaards Another Summer, a novel Frame considered too personal for publication in her lifetime, Virago editor Donna Coonan says: ‘I was bowled over by the lyrical beauty of her writing, and by how vivid and alive it is, and how courageous; there really isn’t a shred of self-pity. What is most remarkable, though, is her humour. Although her autobiographical work can be harrowing, she has such a lightness of touch
and a self-deprecating humour that makes her writing 3
very human, warm-hearted and life-affirming.’
Towards Another Summer is a sorrowful tease.
Sorrowful in its depiction of a woman freed only fleetineg from mental instability and the persistent haunting of memory. Teasing in its avoidance of answers to the questions it raises about Frame’s life. Far from elucidating the balance between autobiography and fiction in Frame’s writing, the novel simply heightens the mystique surrounding her.
Towards Another Summer is published by Virago
on Thu 3 Jul.
III Jenny cola-n The Ayrshire~bom bestSelling author brings us her new unit—shifter Operation Sunshine, dubbed by one paper as, ‘chick-lit with an ethical kick’. Borders Books. Glasgow, Tue 24 Jun.
* Joel: Donby This ‘wild card on the literary scene’ who has written acclaimed novels such as Billie Morgan, Borrowed Light and Stone Baby as well as a whole bunch of poetry gladly talks about and reads from her work. Partick Library, Glasgow, Fri 20 Jun.
3 Ron Butlln Organised by the Writers' Museum and Scottish PEN, the author of the legendary Sound of My Voice gives a talk about his work. See Last Word. page 104. Writers’ Museum, Edinburgh, Wed 25 Jun.
1! Chortle Newton With detective thriller Calumet City, this debut author opts not to sidestep all the cop noir cliches, but wields them to shape something altogether much more interesting. See review, page 37. Bantam.
# [wan Homoon The Glasgow-based author of last year's Swung swiftly returns with Distance, a dark but ultimately moving tale of two transatlantic lovers. See review. page 37. Jonathan Cape; Waterstone '3, Edinburgh, Thu 26 Jun; Borders Books, Glasgow, Thu 3 Jul.
13 Janet Promo A posthumous treat from the iconic New Zealand author. See preview. left. Virago.
* Leah Havoc Brooklyn comics writer Hayes brings us some weird and wonderful short stories in her collection entitled Funeral of the Heart in which we meet tunnel-digging pensioners. duck-slaughterers and hairy men dreaming of becoming great authors. See review, page 38. Pentagraphlcs.