Pieces of Molly: An Ordinary Life (Fiction / Poetry) - Softcover

Edwards, Judith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782202188 ISBN 13: 9781782202189

Publisher: Karnac Books, 2014

Synopsis

Pieces of Molly is a memoir with a difference.

Told in the first and third person, it offers a perspective on the self not often found in autobiographies. Molly can be seen as "everychild" -- the author and the reader too -- showing the everyday pains and difficulties encountered in all our lives. Judith Edwards' unusual approach to her memoir offers a multi-faceted piecing together of a life, in which she acknowledges the unreliability of memory, and examines how we often recreate ourselves to fit in with others' hopes and desires as well as our own.

Molly's journey starts as everyone's does, in the womb. In most memoirs the first ten years are swiftly passed over, but here Judith shows us development from conception onwards as Molly begins to grow up in a tiny village on the east coast of England, which we see through her eyes; the eyes of a child born at the end of the Second World War. Pieces of Molly is a map of one small girl's mind, as the barely subdued ordinary terrors of childhood lurk around her world, a girl surrounded by the vibrant life of a working farm at a time when rapid developments are forcing that world to change. Molly is a curious little detective, keen to find out more about life and love. For her, the shadows behind the doors only make sense in hindsight, and buried family secrets come to light as she struggles with the problem of how and who to be in the world.

About this title

About the Author

Judith Edwards has worked for many years with children, adolescents and their families. She has heard many stories, told from many differing points of view. Her book Pieces of Molly tells her own story, told from the child's viewpoint as well as by the adult she became; in this sense Molly is "everychild", as she struggles to find out who she is, who she wants to be, and to solve the puzzles about life and love that we all have to grapple with.

Review

'Pieces of Molly has a generosity of imagery and a range of allusion'- Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize winning novelist'A subtle picture of an uneasy childhood, a troublesome mother, and a rural England that has long since vanished'- Al Alvarez, writer, poet, and critic'This book conveys the rush of time in a post-mid-life period where we feel so much closer to the meaning of our parents' lives - it is poignant, unsentimental, and authentic'- Valerie Sinason, poet and psychoanalyst'The author has an extraordinary capacity to combine the inward, phantasising mind of the infant and growing child with the larger world around her'- Meira Likierman, psychotherapist and writer, author of Melanie Klein: Her Work in Context'Heart-rending and impish by turns, the book is full of spirit and courage - Judith Edwards has an extraordinary capacity to evoke complex emotional states'- Anthea Gomez, psychoanalyst and musician'The book can be seen from many points of view - child's or parent's, murderer's or victim's. Molly is more than herself; she is an archetype of childhood. Do we count that as "ordinary" or not? Edwards's classical British education and her later classical child analytic training at the Tavistock Clinic invest one lonely little girl with the heavy and numinous weight of myth. Freud and Klein of course were harvesting the bounty of those myths when they wrote about Oedipal rivalry, sibling rivalry, "inside babies", and the larger dangers of love, hate, desire, and loss. The tale Edwards tells is a simple one, but it is as complex as each of our own lives and the complicated wish to be close to, and separate from, mother.' - Susan Finkelstein, Freudian analyst, New York'A rich and joyous read. A rare beast. A rare, possibly unique, first person child's eye perspective. Should be required reading for anyone wanting to understand children's minds. Read it and read it again. Give it to your friends and colleagues.'- Jo Russell, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, April 2016

About this edition

• Publisher: Karnac Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1782202188
• ISBN 13: 9781782202189
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304