Writing a Journal, Reading a Memoir

The one absolute in my life has been reading.  The act of settling down in a comfortable chair, perhaps a cup of tea or something stronger and a book is my idea of nirvana. 

When I entered my early teens, I began reading romantic novels.  The Nun's Story penned by Kathryn Hulme in 1956 and later made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn influenced my view of Catholic piety and sacrifice well into my twenties.  The Wolf and the Dove written by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss in 1974 introduced me to passionate love in historical settings.  Desiree, a romance set in Napoleon's France and written by Annemarie Selinko in 1951 introduced the genre of story based upon true events and people.  Marlon Brando as Napoleon and Jean Simmons as Desiree Clary starred in the film version of 1954.  This last book influenced my internal expression of self for a lifetime. 

Significantly, Desiree as a young girl of 14 begins to write in a journal given to her by her late father, a silk merchant of Marseilles, France.  She continues to write as she marries, bears a child, supports her husband, Marshall Bernadotte through the many wars of the era all the while watching the rise and fall of her first love, Napoleon Bonaparte.  She ends her journal upon the morning of her coronation day as Queen of Sweden.  Though I have moved many times, Desiree has remained on the bookshelf as an old and trusted friend. 

Journal writing may have started as a copied affectation of a favorite book character, though soon enough it became my private pleasure, a secret mental space for ranting, raving and all things in between.  Through the years I have turned to them to reread the passages from this era or another of my life and have been glad to renew acquaintances with the girl, new mother, or lover I once was.  I hope to leave them for a deserving grandchild, for my children have no interest in them.  The versions of truth told may be too close for their comfort.  Another option may be to turn them into a memoir or work of autobiographical fiction. 

Which leads to two books recently read that are so beautifully, heart achingly done well.  Ru is an autobiographical fictional work by Kim Thuy, a young woman living in Montreal who herself immigrated from Saigon, Vietnam.  A single paragraph may grace a page to describe an incident or thought, while others are several pages long.  There is a chaotic sense of back and forth via memories and connections that is surprisingly engaging.  There is a poetry to the phrases that as you read they begin to sing a plaintive song of lost worlds and found new ones. 

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness tells the tale of "Nicole Fuller of Central Africa", the author Alexandra Fuller's mother.  Nicole was raised in post-war Kenya and later lived in Rhodesia through the East African conflicts of the late '60's and finally settling on a banana and fish farm in the Zambezi Valley.  Through generous doses of alcohol and moments of mental illness, Nicole and her family personally experience the bloody passing of imperial British rule into the uncertainty of African independence.  Alexandra's strength in this memoir is reflected in her straight forward presentation of this family - warts and all.  A price is paid for the choices made, beliefs held and relationships forged. 

A life lived in active engagement with the times in which one lives is worthy of memoir.  Whether you are 15 or 50 pick up your pen, sit at your keyboard or engage with your ipad and write about your life and times.  At the very least, read a book that inspires you to learn more about this crazy world we live in.  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Santayana)