Emma Brockes

Emma Brocke's mother, Paula, had hinted at a troubled past but never quite got round to filling in the details. When Paula died Brocke felt the need to discover what her mother had not managed to tell her. She travels to South Africa, where Paula grew up until leaving for England in her early 20s. She delves into archives, and meets relatives whom she has mostly only heard of.

The process of her investigation is engaging, and the story she gradually uncovers is pretty fascinating, though very disturbing. The book is also interesting for its perspective on both Apartheid era and post-Apartheid South Africa, from the perspective of Brocke's white South African family.

I was quite pleased that there wasn't too much of Brocke herself in the book. In fact much of her own life is elided, so that visits to South Africa that are months apart almost run together.

She paints her South African family in vivid colours - you can really feel their struggle to transcend their traumatic family history, and their small everyday victories in having survived, though none of them are unscathed. But overall, this is a touching and evocative paean to Brocke's mother, who is painted most vividly of all.… (mere)

I found myself seriously concerned at the end. I know, right? Seriously concerned after a book about the least serious things on the planet. And it wasn't about the fact that she despised Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was the sarcastic, self-despising, respect-less, profane* tone of voice that permeated the book.

While everyone has the right to any opinion, this book refused to allow that right to any of it's readers. Therefore Yentl was great because she said it was and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was awful because she said it was. As much as taste was bragged about and flaunted there wasn't any strong reasons, in my opinion, to back up the taste.

This tone and way of thinking was a ghastly view of what society has become... sharply contrasted with what society was. And, if this is what society is becoming, give me the 30's, 40's, and 50's where most people at least would have been Doris Day shocked at such goings on.

It rambles, without an end goal. And I've seen so many memoirs who do have a goal that it was just frustrating at the end. And yes, I do realize that I sound like a member of the previous generation. So be it. If such disregard for human worth and for personal opinions is in, this generation can have it.


*profane meaning the inability to take or look at anything as sacred(to anyone else) and the two or so f-words that made it into every chapter.… (mere)

I got this book as part of the mumsnet giveaway and I was glad for otherwise, I don't think I would have picked it up.
The subject matter is about childhood abuse and hence the apprehension about what I was going to read. It is very well written though and Brockes' style is quite compelling, so much that I could easily get through it in a day (despite an inquisitive toddler and a demanding 3 year old daughter!).

However, the story itself is a disturbing one and I found myself squirming at what to expect.

Brockes has handled it very well, by talking about her mother's quirks and behaviour and then slowly edging into her past and her family. I found myself smiling at her mum's disapproval of "Britishness" and enjoyed the description of many of her behavioural traits as Brockes acquaints her her mother to the reader.

It is after her mum's death when Brockes decides to delve into her mother's past that I found myself bracing for the worst. It was no secret what she was going to reveal, for there are hints all over the place about abuse. Maybe it was my frame of mind or the fact that I have two young children of my own and hence the hypersenstivity to child abuse, I don't know.

But apart from that, the subject matter is very well handled especially the impact of abuse on the children, how the trial was their ordeal by fire and its subsequent effect on them as adults.

At one point though, as the story wore on, I couldn't help wondering if I was reading a travelogue or a memoir when Brockes describes the a victim of mugging incident in South Africa.

Anyways, the last few pages, the court statements really got to me and that was the point when I felt that I had enough.

But perhaps that is the strength of the book. To be able to evoke extreme emotions so much that it stayed with me even after I closed the book.… (mere)