Bookish: In My Skin - A Memoir
In My Skin: A Memoir by Kate Holden
What drew me to this novel was that not only is it based in my current home city, around Melbourne in the former vice dens that riddled St. Kilda, but I could identify with Holden’s background. I am at the same age in my life that Holden was when she turned to drugs, seemingly out of misplaced curiosity. Holden reminds us just how slippery the slope can be when one thing leads to another. Her writing has a fresh eloquence to it, emerging cleanly from a well-trodden mire without a trace of stale cliche. It is sumptuously poetic in its descriptions of seedy joints, desperate scores and sex with strangers. She leaves the memoir to unfurl its own intriguing conundrum; how on earth did a middle-class classics scholar turn to shooting up heroin and selling her body?
What sets Holden’s memoir apart from most tart with a heart stories is her ability to leave all judgements fluid, refusing to patronise her readers. She never panders to apologetic regrets nor condemns her actions. This is a girl, no woman, who realises the hard way that life is life is life. Tragically and wonderfully, it is as cheap or precious as you make it.
If you like this, try ‘A Million Little Pieces’ by James Frey - ok, I know this got panned for Frey’s dishonesty and embellishments, but read with a pinch of salt or even as pure fiction, it makes for a thought-provoking page turner on drug rehabilitation.
