This post is a little later than my scheduled Saturday, as I have been enjoying Matariki and really focusing on what I want to prioritise for the year. I have also been reading an array of novels, and have been so immersed in them that I forgot to write up this review yesterday morning after my Shut Up and Read session. My book of the moment is Siobhan Harvey’s What We Remember, What We Forget, and I have some different points to bring up with this memoir that I don’t often get to discuss, which is creative nonfiction.

Content warning: What We Remember, What We Forget contains themes of child abuse, poverty, homophobia, trauma, and anorexia. I will not be going into detail on them in this review, but they are part of the foundation of the text and serve as sombre elements of the narrative that I will discuss. While I highly recommend this autobiographical creative nonfiction memoir to those looking for something literary and philosophical, you know yourself and your limits. Reader’s discretion is advised.

‘…memory is a creative endeavour: memory, the director’s cut; memory, a book of collected poems; memory, an exhibition of curated portraits; memory, a Surrealist retrospective.‘ What We Remember, What We Forget by Siobhan Harvey is a personal narrative and poignant meditation on the power and peril of remembering – as well as of forgetting. Moving between childhood, early adulthood, imagination and the present, Harvey writes with honest intimacy about trauma, family and queerness; harm, silence and survival. Interweaving life story with reflections on philosophy and psychology, Harvey considers how memory both wounds and sustains, and how it may be safely carried so as to create the life one wants. Elegantly written, this is a powerful work about attention, language and the hard but fruitful labour of understanding. What We Remember, What We Forget asks: how should we retrieve our memories, and how can we trust what we find?

Siobhan Harvey is very near and dear to my heart as she has been integral in my university studies and creative writing endeavours. She is patient, kind, observant and highly skilled, not to mention a writer with stunning power and a keen eye for detail. I have always wanted to know more about her writing style, what has shaped her along her journey, and how she has found her narrative voice. What We Remember, What We Forget addresses those points expertly while also giving background on why writing and identity have been so important in her life. The links to seminal texts within philosophy and psychology that she interweaves into her work build up the passages into art, marrying the creative elements and poetic prose of her style with a history of academic and philosophical thought that makes the discussions sing off the page.

What We Remember, What We Forget contains a prologue, three main sections-Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval-and an epilogue, as well as a reference section. The three main sections are linked to Daniel L. Schacter’s Searching For Memory: The brain, the mind, and the past (1996), making the whole structure of this autobiographical memoir rooted in literature and academia. It is very fitting, as Siobhan Harvey has always been a reader, and I cannot imagine a better way of shaping What We Remember, What We Forget. There is also the wonderful fact that many academic references have been included, such as John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Edward Said’s Reflections on Exile, and literary works mentioned, such as A Room of One’s Own and Orlando by Virginia Woolf, and The Well of Loneliness by Radclyff Hall. If nothing else, Siobhan has supplied us with a well of knowledge to obtain from these works, but I know there is an equal expanse of knowledge and reflections to be collected from the chapters of What We Remember, What We Forget.

This is not an easy memoir to read, but is any good memoir without the hardships and challenges that made that person who they are? As I noted in the content warning, this may not be the right read for everyone, but it is a phenomenal read for those willing to take it up. It is a work of great heart, astounding delicacy, and hard-hitting truth. It is a work that questions, prods, ponders, and provides insight. There is so much to gain from this incredible artefact of experience, life, and intellect. I will keep singing Siobhan’s name from the rooftops, praising her work and her fortitude to everyone who dares mention her name in my presence. I would not be where I am without her, and her writing is something I will always aspire toward.