Second Half First: A Memoir (Drusilla Modjeska, Knopf)

This enthralling memoir from the author of Poppy (1990) and The Mountain (2012) is a remarkable literary work. Embarked upon ‘without a trigger more significant than a sleepless night in 2013’, Second Half First is Modjeska’s eloquent reckoning not only of her own history, but of her intellectual life, reaffirming her as a lucid, formidable thinker. It is as much a work of cultural philosophy as it is the story of a life of letters and living abroad (born in London, Modjeska moved to Australia in 1971, aged 26; and has spent a considerable portion of her life in Papua New Guinea). Modjeska’s reflections on the subjects she turns her mind to are never less than stimulating, and the book covers the entrenchment of gender roles, capitalism, postcolonialism, art, psychotherapy, friendship (she shared her home with Helen Garner for several years), coupling, family and literature—to name just a few. Wise, vital and relayed in Modjeska’s restrained, sophisticated prose, it’s a major contribution to a literary lineage traceable to Virginia Woolf, one of Modjeska’s own heroes, herself a constant presence throughout this remarkable book.

Gerard Elson is a writer and bookseller who works at Readings St Kilda

Category: Reviews