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Title: Skating to Antarctica: A Journey to the End of the World by Jenny Diski ISBN: 0-06-095796-4 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 01 July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: St. Olaf Review
Comment: Skating to Antarctica Review Essay
Jenny Diski presents to her readers the story of her painful childhood, venturing from her sexually abusive parents to her journey through poor foster care, until she finally escaped with the help of Doris Lessing. Her story appears inspirational and hopeful to those of an unfortunate background, making the reader believe one can achieve happiness and success in their own life, aside from what their past held.
From the very opening sentence Diski makes it known that: "I am not entirely content with the degree of whiteness in my life" (p.1). Her goal of reaching pure, white Antarctica seems natural here, it seems to simply be another step in her healing process. However, as the memoir continues, it seems as if Jenny changes her mind, describing her experiences on land "neither white nor solitary" (p. 165). Her depiction of the manner in which her father and mother treated her begin to play a more prominent role and it is exposed to the reader that Jenny Diski may not be the calm, composed, healed adult she pretends to be.
Skating to Antarctica emerges from a strong base in which Diski allows us to view her past and the horrific events and people she had to surpass in order to become the thriving author that she is today. Defensive from the very beginning, Diski attempts to convince her reader's that she has forgiven her father for leaving and her mother for the embarrassment and ridicule she caused her as a child. Lack of Jenny's "true"
Psychological healing is obviously apparent the entire way through her memoir, beginning with her idea that "disappointment is a safety net, to be relished in a secret knowing by the disappointed" (p. 8). This statement alone uncovers the idea that she lives her life in this sort of "net," just waiting to be hurt by everyone and anyone.
Trust is a huge issue in Jenny's life, an act she has a very difficult time both believing in and having faith in. She refers to the matter of truth as: "...dangerous, the truth was poison" (p. 98). Her non-ability to trust the people in her life proves that she still holds bitterness and resentment for her parents. Had her parents not harmed her in the way that they did, she's saying, she would be able to trust with no hindrances.
Immaturity also plays a part in this well written memoir. Diski, on the defensive, claims that she has moved on from her childhood, wanting no contact with her mother, yet she has not forgiven her. "The one truly generous act of my mother's that I could really put my finger on: her leaving me alone" (p. 28). Her dismissive attitude towards anything positive her mother did for her as a child is completely suffocated by Jenny's anger. She spends so much time challenging her reader to believe she has moved on, yet her defensiveness created the obvious idea that she has not.
While there are weak points in Skating to Antarctica, Jenny Diski writes in such a way that one can not help but be drawn to her story. Her depictions of Antarctica, while she discovers it may not be the place she can achieve pure whiteness, she makes it known that she did enjoy herself:
"It was, however, the most exhilarating ride I've ever
had, fast and furious, the motor buzzing angrily against
a wind that howled past my ears and made my eyes
water salt tears to match the salt spray drenching
my eyes" (p. 167).
While sometimes she acts though action and adventure is something she loathes, ("a phone call initiating activity is never so welcome as the one canceling it" (p. 66) here, one can see that she does enjoy getting out and experiencing new things. It is times when she tells of the things that are good in her life that her defense is down and the reader can sense a true feeling of who Jenny Diski is. Had her entire memoir consisted of passages where she was invigorated, rather than defensive or depressed, she may have been able to present herself as a more contented person.
Progress seems to have been made through the book, while Jenny learns new things about her childhood through Mrs. Gold and Mrs. Levine, however, once she learns her mother dead, Chloe asks if she is glad to know. Jenny's response: "Mmm. Yes, I think it is" (p. 250) makes one second guess whatever progress one had hoped she had made. Jenny Diski was not concrete in her thoughts even about her mother's death, making her audience question if she can be convinced the things in her past that aren't dead still don't need to be a part of her life any longer.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not your stereotypical memoir
Comment: In the only 250 pages of Skating to Antarctica, Jenny Diski manages to captivate her audience with stunning anecdotes and descriptions that send the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions until the last page where it ends; plain and simple, just like it began. Behind the guise of memoir she repeatedly lectures to the reader on the value of truth and its many bastardized forms. When all is said and done, this narrative leaves you wanting more, yet glad to close the back cover.
Diski's autobiography sets and maintains its direction right from the start. Her dedication to her daughter naturally flows into the first sentence, "For Chloe without whom...I am not entirely content with the degree of whiteness in my life." From here Jenny springs into her love of everything white, which originated from her time spent institutionalized for mental disorders. In the end she travels to the greatest white canvas on Earth, Antarctica. Diski meshes stories from her past with those of the present in a frame story format that at times is confusing, but portrays and fully explains her actions throughout her troubled years.
Jenny Diski was the child of sexually abusive dysfunctional parents. Her father was a con-artist, her mother a self-serving, mentally ill woman. Jenny's future hung in limbo. Her parents split up multiple times and both attempted suicide at one point or another. Diski's eventual mental hospitalization stemmed from problems at home. This book attracts readers because often the reader can relate to Jenny's desire for a "normal" childhood. Skating to Antarctica brings a person inside the head of one who was subjected to constant sorrow and lack of stability as a child. Jenny's account informs whoever leafs through her memoir of the importance of providing a good home life for one's offspring. Her less than perfect childhood and distaste for her parents is ever-present when numerous times Diski repeats the phrase, "my father died in 1966 and I haven't seen or heard from my mother since that date" (20). I found myself on the rollercoaster feeling sorry for Jenny at these points, but soon climbed to a state of anger when she remains a static character throughout her memoir.
When I think of autobiographies/memoirs, I envision someone's completed life retold to many awaiting viewers. Jenny's "incomplete" account shocked me. I flipped pages in hope that her problems would vanish and she would become a "normal" human being, but was disappointed that when by page 250, Jenny still had emotional and psychological issues. My hopes for a so-called happy ending vanquished, leaving me frustrated and glad to set the book aside. However a disappointment this may be, in hindsight this technique left a lasting impact. This unresolved ending caused me to realize that some things do not and cannot vacate one's psyche, ever!
Within her sorrowful narrative Jenny masterfully weaves imagery at its finest. She can describe white to an extent that it becomes a color or an emotion as she does here in a relapse of depression: "White walls, staring into peopleless landscapes, heading for the snow and ice. Not to stay, but to be in it for a while. Death, of course, as Melville knows, is what it is. A toying with the void that finally toys with us. In the face of the waiting I can't escape, I head straight for its image and rest there for a while" (191). Reading this passage chills me with how well it portrays someone with a mental illness, wanting to visit Death for tea time. Jenny also throws a curveball with some vulgar language in her "accurate" description of seals, which she names the "flaccid [male genitalia] seal." That sure came out of left field. Jenny maintains a delicate, easy-reading prose but then throws in phrases that make the reader do a double-take and reread to see if she actually said that. Words like "[bird poop]" and the "[fudge]-it factor" just jump off the page, but without delay we're back to the flowing narrative leaving me puzzled over what just happened.
Truth and doubt appear be focal points in Jenny Diski's writing. However, I found her views on truth to be almost hypocritical. When each of her parents shares the truths about their spouse, Diski brings up the point that truth is relative to a situation; this I found striking, yet understandable. She also brings up the idea of relative truth in stereotypes. Someone no learned of a particular culture would easily believe a fact from someone they trusted not knowing that it is false. Hypocrisy comes into play when Diski instills doubt in the mind of the reader regarding the validity of her narrative, which I think is bad. She says that there are "infinite ways of evading truth, including non-fiction" (229), and quotes "Malone Dies": "I wonder if I am not talking yet again about myself. Shall I be incapable, to the end, of lying on any other subject?" The reader is led to ponder what is fact or fiction within Diski's autobiography. Maybe she did meet with her mother between 1966 and her death, but chose to leave that out to strengthen her argument of an intolerable childhood. Only Jenny knows.
Despite some unanswered questions about Jenny's insanity, failed marriage, and future, she successfully writes both to relieve her internal pain, and, in my opinion, to inform the reader on the importance of being attentive parents and the value of seeking help when needed. Jenny's experience should never be repeated. Her novel flows taking the reader in and out of intense subject matter in a way that makes it palatable while expressing true emotion. Though jerks exist between mental jumps, Jenny pulls the reader back into her dismal life and continues on. Skating to Antarctica is a thought-provoking memoir that intertwines humor, anger, and sadness with ideas of truth, death, and depression that ultimately leaves the reader in shock and reflection, a reaction typical of this subject matter. My prayer for Jenny to rise above her troubles and become "normal" went unanswered, leaving me grateful to put this book back on my shelf.
Rating: 4
Summary: Two Extraordinary Voyages In One!
Comment: "Antarctica. And along with it a desire as commanding as any sexual compulsion that Antarctica was what I wanted, and therefore I had to have it." So writes Jenny Diski in her strange, humorous and often painful memoir cum travelogue to the bottom of the world. "The Arctic would have been easier, but I had no desire to head north. I wanted white and ice for as far as the eye could see and I wanted it in the one place in the world that was uninhabited."
Ms. Diski weaves two voyages into one here - the longed for trip she made a few years ago to the white land of snow and ice and a parallel journey into her own heart, soul and past. Her descriptions of her fellow travelers, boredom, group activities and various ports of call are often quite witty and caustic. Her take on the natural world, elephant seals, variety of birds, penguins, and the barren landscape in different shades of white are vivid and, at times, haunting.
Also explored in "Skating to Antarctica" is Ms. Diski's past - her suicidal and abusive parents, stays in psychiatric institutions, an almost lifelong estrangement from her mother and her own search of her "memory-hardened heart." The reader is saved from depression at these revelations through the author's extraordinary use of humor at her desire to bury her childhood memories under, literally, tons of snow.
Diski's writing style is spare, clipped and very effective. Given some of the painful content it might sound ridiculous to write that I "enjoyed" the book - but I did. Her descriptive narrative of the trip to the world's southern-most continent are fascinating - not just another travel book, and her personal revelations are striking in their honesty.
JANA
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