U.S. critics acclaim Janet Frame life story

Press, 21 January 1983, Page 7

U.S. critics acclaim Janet Frame life story

Washington NZPA staff correspondent Critics in the United States have hailed the first volume of Janet Frame's autobiography as “strong and haunting,” with the "San Francisco Chronicle” newspaper calling the New Zealand author a neglected genius. The book, 253 pages long, is titled, “To The Is-land,” and is published by George Braziller, of New York. It sells in the United States for JU510.95 (SNZIS). The "San Francisco Chronicle” review, by Doro-

thy Bryant, herself an author, and headed, “Memoirs of a Neglected Genius,” began by saying that “New Zealand’s Janet Frame ranks with the best of living writers.” Bryant said neglect of Janet Frame in the United States was due to geography. “Writers from Canada, Australia. New Zealand and other places far from the centre of publishing are often labelled ‘regional,’ whatever that means,” she said. Critics had also called Janet Frame

"pessimistic." The book covers the period from Janet Frame's birth in Dunedin in 1924 and her childhood in Oamaru, and ends as she finishes high school and departs for teachers’ college. The “is-land” arose from an early mispronunciation of “island”, but it became symbolic of an ideal state, neither "was-land” nor land of the future, Janet Frame’s family was poor, her brother was epileptic, her elder sister was

drowned at the age of 16. her father beat her, and her mother was a Ghristadelphian who quoted from scripture, wrote poetry, and sang, “Mine eyes have seen the glory.” Bryant compares the autobiography with “Owls Do Cry,” Janet Frame’s first novel, which uses the same material. "The. most interesting difference between the fictional and non-fictional accounts of Frame’s early life is, while the autobiography tells much about Frame’s literary development, her passion for books and writing, in the novel this interest — indeed, Frame herself — is virtually absent. “None of your tender-ar-tist-on-barren’-ground, this first novel focuses on the family and the land, a sign of talent with less than the usual amount of self-indul-gence,” the' reviewer said. The “New York Times” review, by Helen Bevington, said Janet Frame knew how to avoid the pitfalls of memory and keep her tale eventful. “She is, it seems, reminiscing for the right person; as if to herself and for herself, as if carefully following a map of childhood to discover where it went,” the reviewer said. "It is a wistful tale, honestly and believably told, of the puzzling encounters of childhood, the recognitions, the gain and the loss,” she said. The “Washington Post" critic, Elizabeth Ward, compared Janet Frame with the Australian novelist, Patrick White. As with White, she said, it was the “tortured and visionary side” which was the source of Janet Frame’s continuing experimentation with language.

"To devotees of her writing. ‘To The Is-land’ may prove most interesting in its revelation of the origins of these rather dark-preoccupa-tions and of her fascination with words," the critic said.

Oamaru, she said, was prosaic but it was the young Janet's “kingdom by the sea" and thus transformed by the powers of memory and imagination into a special place, the "seeding-bed of a truly original writer.” The reviewer for “Newsday,” Amy Wilentz, bracketed her review with another of an autobiography by the American sculptress, Anne Truitt, and concluded that the two had strikingly similar stories to tell about their childhood and their coming to awareness as artists.

Wilentz described both books' as beautiful studies and said that for both women the central emerging experience was discovery of falsehood, such as Janet Frame’s discovery that permanent waves did not last for ever.