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crufts 's review for:
Unreliable Memoirs
by Clive James
reflective
medium-paced
For some context to this review, I had no idea who Clive James was before reading this book, and picked it up on a recommendation.
The book opens strongly with some amusing observations on the nature of biographies. It then launches into Clive's earliest years - and I mean earliest, around the 3-5 year old range. With witty and humorous turns of phrase, Clive paints a picture of his upbringing in Australia and the indelible marks war had left on his family.
The book opens strongly with some amusing observations on the nature of biographies. It then launches into Clive's earliest years - and I mean earliest, around the 3-5 year old range. With witty and humorous turns of phrase, Clive paints a picture of his upbringing in Australia and the indelible marks war had left on his family.
Mentally, [my grandfather] had never left England.
[Aunt Dot] launched herself in the air, [her trajectory involving] at one point, a total eclipse of the sun.
Careless and oblivious, the young Clive receives gifts which he promptly loses, and lucks his way into situations which he has no appreciation of. These early years go on for 65 pages, by which time this theme is getting repetitive and Kid Clive is getting tiresome.
The narrative then moves to Clive's early teenage years, whereupon we get far, far too much information about his teenage crushes. The narrative lingers here much longer than necessary, then eventually reaches university (p125) with no change to the previously mentioned theme:
The narrative then moves to Clive's early teenage years, whereupon we get far, far too much information about his teenage crushes. The narrative lingers here much longer than necessary, then eventually reaches university (p125) with no change to the previously mentioned theme:
In retrospect it seems incredible even to me that I had come so far and remained so ignorant.
The most interesting part of the book, Clive's involvement in USYD's Honi Soit newspaper, was sadly quite short. Before long Clive is shipped off to military conscription, and soon after his return the book ends.
Unfortunately, I didn't find Unreliable Memoirs all that interesting. Clive's amusing turns of phrase kept me engaged, but the fact remains that the childhood and teenage years he describes are... pretty ordinary, I guess. He was a pretty ordinary kid growing up in Australia. He was an ordinary teenager. He ends up at USYD due to no talent or hard work of his own, but because of the free uni passes that were given to the children of soldiers who had died in WWII. And it gets harder to like him when he describes mistreating his girlfriend. It just seems odd that Clive wrote an autobiography about such an ordinary youth, rather than skipping to the later years which made him famous.
Unfortunately, I didn't find Unreliable Memoirs all that interesting. Clive's amusing turns of phrase kept me engaged, but the fact remains that the childhood and teenage years he describes are... pretty ordinary, I guess. He was a pretty ordinary kid growing up in Australia. He was an ordinary teenager. He ends up at USYD due to no talent or hard work of his own, but because of the free uni passes that were given to the children of soldiers who had died in WWII. And it gets harder to like him when he describes mistreating his girlfriend. It just seems odd that Clive wrote an autobiography about such an ordinary youth, rather than skipping to the later years which made him famous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexism, War
Minor content warning for scatological jokes.