Author Gabrielle Carey
‘Family stories are full of secrets. And the story we get to hear depends upon the teller. The big question is who gets to be the storyteller. Who gets to own the official version? Who is the trusted narrator?’
These are the questions that take Carey from her mother’s home in Sydney to the red-dirt landscape of Western Australia and across the world to the small town of Harwich, England. Moving Among Strangers is a twin biography of Carey’s family and the author she idolises, Randolph Stow. Their entwined histories tell a gripping story of both isolation and familial bonds.
As her mother Joan lies dying from stomach cancer, Carey writes a letter to Joan’s childhood friend, novelist and poet, Randolph Stow. Both Stow and Joan grew up in Guilford, Western Australia and are both described throughout the book as reserved old souls who yearned for a time long gone. Through their correspondence readers see Stow is smart, eloquent and kind, yet he is also extremely private and introverted. Through the series of letters Stow gives Carey small fragments of her mother’s past, which sets a double narrative for her memoir.
Days before Joan passes away, she hasn’t eaten in days and is extremely weak. However, in a moment of pure reflection and tenderness she reads aloud For One Dying, a poem Stow wrote for his aunt. The moment is incredibly sad, yet surprisingly powerful.
While mourning her mother’s death, Carey suffered another loss when her link to the past, her idol, Stow died the following year. Her pursuit of more information about Stow leads her back to WA for his memorial, yet what she really discovers are the lives of the parents she lost and a family that had been nothing more than a group names in stories.
It is on her trip back to WA that Carey uncovers painful tragedies that occurred years before her parents even met, yet dominated the conscious of her parents and eventually shaped her life. It is here in Stow’s hometown that readers discover his biography, the places and characters that were the inspiration behind two of his greatest works- The Merry-Go Round in the Sea and Tourmaline. The surrounding, which Carey illustrates with extreme detail lets her and the reader explore the isolation and questions of identity that Stow faced throughout his life.
Stow continuously struggled with the issues of his Australian identity. Carey describes Stow’s insecurity of living on land to which he didn’t belong, with people who just didn’t understand him. Stow, realizing that Australia was a place mesmerised by materialism and sports leaves to England where he believes literature and culture are more valued. Yet in Harwich we learn Stow’s life in England was not just an escape. The narrative dives deep in to the spiritual issues of the Australian psyche and what it really means to be an Aussie.
It is however, the investigation of Carey’s own family that will really enthral readers. Moments of unbelievable pain and loss are handled with the utmost care and even lined with a touch of humour. The relationship between Carey and her older sister Catherine raises real questions about the bond between a girl and the older sister she loves as well as distrusts.
Does she really know more about our parents than I do? Is there something she is hiding about our family past and for whose benefit?
Carey’s journey is sparked by the death of her mother, yet the loss of her father years before is the most powerful part of the story. His strong links to the land, the loss of his real soul mate and a conscious battle that dominated his life adds great mystery and sorrow to the narrative.
Carey is incredibly generous in detail, with moments of honesty sure to surprise some readers. Moving Among Strangers tells the story of two writers worlds apart, yet tightly linked through history and the land they come from. Both narratives would work well on their own, but bought together makes for a fascinating read.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Moving Among Strangers – Randolph Stow and My Family
Author: Gabrielle Carey
Category: Non-fiction/Memoir/Literary History
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Released: 23 October 2013
