Places to which we return: mapping out a fragmented memoir

Memory Vertigo is a memoir about identity and family. The first half, ‘Bergen Op Zoom,’ is a novella-length memoir that spans the first ten years of my life. It begins with my earliest memories and explores the troubled life of my family and our restless movement back and forth between Europe and Australia, and particularly through the suburbs of Newcastle. ‘Bergen Op Zoom’ attempts to capture the voice and perspective of a child as he develops within a dysfunctional family. The stories that follow break open the world of ‘Bergen Op Zoom’ to tease out the traumas and conflicts beneath its surface. Memory Vertigo is about difficult relationships between brothers, and between parents and their children. Identity is examined through sense of place, through memory and storytelling, and through notions of the body and masculinity. ‘Places to Which We Return: mapping out a fragmented memoir’ discusses some of the key aspects of writing this memoir. It looks at the genre of childhood memoir, the structural considerations behind constructing a composite work, approaches to writing trauma, and the notion of confession in contemporary life writing.