From: Booky
Category: Books
Date: 01 November 2005
Strangeland by Tracey Emin is a quick read and due to her celebrity status not uninteresting. The focus remains on her childhood, how different is this description compared to her last autobiography I wondered (I have not read her first), as I was introduced to various key figures in the shaping of her life. Some how childhood and adult hood do not meet, due in part to the fact that she does not waste much time on details of adult life save description of drinking and her now thoughts on periods, abortion and having a child. Her art is what holds them together. Her twin brother is mysteriously forgotten about, while her mum remains one of the only figures that is referenced while an adult. Like wise Art is a mysterious character, a saviour so important that it can barely be spoken about, art swoops in from above unseen baring alcohol and oringina, jets with celebrities and birthday parties by pools. Somehow the frustrating lack of detail is much like that of flicking through a heat magazine, celebrities in bikinis with small captions that are unsatisfying but a compulsive read none the less, telling nothing but some mundane detail that would be worthless if it weren’t for the fact that it is a celebrity. I am left feeling greedy for more juicy gossip, discovering how she made the transition from Margate to London, and what really did happen to her brother, and why and when was she in Turkey and how old she was. But all of this comes out in hints, hidden by whiffs of dreams and thoughts shrouded in myth. There is the feeling that you might know a lot, but you can’t be sure, her privacy is preserved, and her Childhood, as with her in her art, is really the mask which we are shown again. Does this confirm my opinion that Tracey is good? Or is it just that I like any woman or person who has a different life?
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