Griffith REVIEW no. 33: Such is Life

Griffith REVIEW, produced by Griffith University (QLD) is a quarterly journal of contemporary writing and ideas. Founded in 2003, it is a relative newcomer in a field which includes the decades-old Overland and Meanjin but under the inspiring editorship of Dr Julianne Schultzan is an invariably excellent read.

Each themed edition is a thoughtful assembly of articles including poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction from a range of writers that has previously included such literary greats as Martin Amis. The latest issue, no. 33, entitled Such is Life, dedicates its pages to the exploration of reminiscence and personal testimony, examining memoir, personal essays and biography.

The 27 Australian and international contributors to this latest edition examine, reflect upon and analyse a great breadth of material sourced from their own lives. Encompassing sections dedicated to memoir, essays, reportage, poetry and even a picture gallery, there are so many personal moments laid out bare here that the writing cannot fail to inspire us, make us laugh, make us cry and ultimately make us think about what it is to spread your life out on pages for other people to see.

Many of the contributors muse on the complexities of privacy and writing personal testimony; others embody the spirit of the genre by revealing deeply personal narratives that go beyond the calling of the publication.

As Julianne Schultz writes in her editorial, “I do know that the desire to learn from the stories of others is something that is deeply embedded. Storytelling is the heart and soul of civilisation, the glue that binds people to each other and to place.” It is this essence of storytelling that makes many of the pieces here so compelling. Embodying strong themes of family, age, loss and love, the pieces share a humanity and a humility that feels deeply present within the writing.

From award winning author Lloyd Jones’ (Looking Back: A Self Portrait) account of finding his true self through the game of rugby as a young man, to the emotional family memoirs of Brian Geach (Denzil: Father to the Man), Andrew Sant (On Self-Knowledge: A Ring and its Keeper) and Marion Halligan (The Cigar Box: Opening the Treasure Trove of Memory), Griffith REVIEW has collated an extraordinary perspective of life and loss in the 21st Century.

There are moments of intense and candid honesty, as experienced throughout Rebecca Epstein’s My Last Ditch Attempt: Notes on Getting By, as she describes her ongoing battle against medication for her bi-polar disorder and her struggle to continue being an effective writer throughout; and in Virginia Lloyd’s memories of photographing her dying husband’s tumour in Never Stop Looking: Photographing the Dead and Dying. However, there are also moments of great humour, such is the case with Debra Adeliade’s witty account of changing her birth certificate in Not for Official Use: Finding a Name and fascinating tales of adventure with Circus Oz in David Carlin’s The True History of the Circus: Bluff, Lies and Feats of Skill.

The essay and poetry sections are interspersed with the memoirs, revealing moments of informative discussion and beauty as one continues to read. Frank Moorhouse’s Beyond Stigma: Musings on the Sadness of Privacy provides a particularly fascinating look into the meaning of privacy in this modern age where ‘lifesharing’ has become the norm for many. He ponders the multiple shifts in stigma and the complex coding of privacy law, weighing up the balance of protection versus a system that threatens to heighten and perpetuate discrimination, by depicting certain behaviours as something that should be hidden and by association, shameful.

Kate Holden, in her article, After the Words: Writing and Living a Memoir, writes that ‘the art of memoir is about forgetting as much as it is about remembering’. In this edition of Griffith REVIEW, there are many forgotten moments brought to life and remembered. Its pages capture a snapshot of lives, thoughts, actions and people, both past and present and I recommend it to anybody that is interested in people and the stories they have to tell. Excerpts from these articles can be sourced on the journal’s website, and full accounts of previous editions can be viewed at leisure.

Griffith REVIEW edition 33: Such Is Life
Publisher: Marilyn McMeniman
Editor: Julianne Schultz
Deputy Editor: Erica Sontheimer
Picture Editor and Production Manager: Paul Thwaites
Associate Editor: David Winter, Text Publishing
Publication and Cover Design: WH Chong and Susan Miller, Text Publishing
Proofreader: Alan Vaarwerk
Editorial Interns: Melissa Heng, Charlie O’Brien
Administration: Andrea Huynh
Typesetting: Midland Typesetters
Printing: Ligare Book Printers
Distribution: Penguin Australia
www.griffithreview.com