I have been meaning to read works by Janet Frame for a long time now, so what better way to get a feel for her narative voice, style, and literary influences than her stunning second autobiography An Angel at my Table. This short novel bursts at the seams with vivid emotion and imagery, and carry a tone that is both melancholy and optimistic.

Content warning: An Angel at my Table describes Janet Frame’s experiences leading up to, during, and following her stay at Seacliff Lunatic Asylum. This novel also includes mention of an unsuccessful suicide attempt and an incorrect diagnosis of a mental health condition (schizophrenia). If any of these are sensitive topics for you please do not read this review or the autobiography.

An Angel at my Table, the second of Janet Frame’s autobiographies, traces her emergence into adulthood coming from a childhood in a poor but intellectually intense family, her life as a student, the years of incarceration in mental hospitals, and her eventual entry into the saving world of writers. Threaded throughout the narrative are passages of poetry which give colour, emotion, and lively imagery, contrasting with the dark and difficult non-fiction, showing the complexities and shades of Janet’s life.

The balance between creative non-fiction and poetry perfectly mirrors the dance between the dark and the light of the subject matter, creating this harrowingly beautiful path Janet Frame takes us down. She notes a lack of colour in her memories due to the “treatments” she went through at Seacliff. This adds an overarching sense of heartbreak over the autobiography as her life and her work is tainted by her experiences at Seacliff, even decades following the stay. As you read, she makes mention of her works she was submitting to various places during those years and the responses to her work, especially those that contained heavy or dark imagery associated with her hospitalisation, were not always recieved positively.

It is so interesting to see her talk about her literary influences and the works that had never crossed her path, as noted in conversations with Frank Sargeson. It is not common to see a writer talk about the works they felt inspired and shaped by, and in turn how those voices and styles can be heard and read in works published by the writer. It gives a deeper insght into Janet as a writer, strengthening an understanding of this incredible and inspirational woman. Her work is remarkable and her story is kind nothing I had heard of before.

An Angel at my Table is an autobiography many shoudl endeavour to read. It is short, yet it will take you on a journey you are unlikely to forget. The writing is phenomenal, the emotion raw and reflexive, and the glimspes of poetry add a lovely detail to what is a stunning tapestry of history, experience, and resilience. An Angel at my Table is one for the literary fiction readers, the non-fiction readers, the poets, the historians, and the readers who want to see the truth of one of New Zealand’s greatest writers.