Secrets

by Drusilla Modjeska, Robert Dessaix, Amanda Lohrey

Families unravelling, the mystery of a singing cure, temple mazes. In 'Secrets', the ebb and flow of ideas, the weaving of image and story, bring Drusilla Modjeska, Amanda Lohrey and Robert Dessaix together in a space of contemplation where their voices resound in unexpected ways.
The stories are titled:
Ripe to Tell (Modjeska);
The Clear Voice Suddenly Singing (Lohrey); and
At Last the Secret (Dessaix)

Genres: Short Stories, Nonfiction

371 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Drusilla Modjeska was born in England and lived in Papua New Guinea before arriving in Australia in 1971. She studied at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales completing a PhD which was published as Exiles at Home: Australian Women Writers 1925-1945 (1981).

Modjeska's writing often explores the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. The best known of her work are Poppy (1990), a fictionalised biography of her mother, and Stravinsky's Lunch (2001), a feminist reappraisal of the lives and work of Australian painters Stella Bowen and Grace Cossington Smith. She has also edited several volumes of stories, poems and essays, including the work of Lesbia Harford and a 'Focus on Papua New Guinea' issue for the literary magazine Meanjin.

In 2006 she was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, "investigating the interplay of race, gender and the arts in post-colonial Papua New Guinea".

Reviews

[SHR · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was under the impression these pieces where all fiction when I started reading – the one by Modjeska is, the others are not.

The one by Lohrey is a very dry piece which explores why people sing. It comes from a personal place which I couldn’t relate to. The bits and pieces of theory from articles and interviews weren’t smoothly sewn together, it was disjointed and at times rather dull.

The 3 linked pieces by Dessaix were also dull (he explores the nature of arcane mystical secret knowledge), although I do like the way in which he expresses himself (so I kept reading anyway!).

The piece by Modjeska was fiction, and had the most juicy secrets, but the telling was dry and uninvolving. I found myself not caring about the characters or their secrets, which was a shame, as the story really is multi-faceted. It has a surface simplicity, but the secrets revealed raise a number of questions about the nature of identity, history, art and culture, and the way in which secrets influence the formation of some of these identities.

Not a book I'd recommend to any of the readers I know.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of 3 stories, a novella and 2 long essays. It opens with a poem by Auden, 'Secrets', which I really enjoyed. Then each story is titled with a phrase from the poem. The novella by Modjeska, Ripe to Tell, I really enjoyed. It was subtle and confusing, thought-provoking and well-written. Lohrey's essay, The Clear Voice Suddenly Singing, was about joining a singing group and wondering why people sing. It didn't link well to the concept of secrets, and I found it dull. Dessaix's essay, At Last the Secret, started with a lovely discussion of the connections between gossip (the subject of the poem) and philosophy. The book has small pages, less than A5, and was fat and tightly bound. This made it tiring to hold and a bit annoying to read. After not enjoying Lohrey's essay I decided I was not sufficiently interested in Dessaix's idle speculating on ancient religions, and returned the book to the library.

[Deb Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little tome captured my imagination more than I expected. (And while it was a bit difficult to hold I did like its physicality!) I enjoyed the multi sided recounting of the Modjeska story and its unexpected twists. The Lohrey piece about singing resonated with me and reckon has given me a push to get back into a choir this year. And while two of the Dessaix pieces were centred on ‘classics’ (about which I don’t know much and I often find a bit dense? Cos I’m not literate in them) I really liked his descriptions of Kwinkin country as I visited there many years ago and was very very moved by that country, those images and the uniqueness of the place. All 3 writers brought very different interpretations of the word, secrets, and ultimately that was great too!

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

the best bit is the WH Auden poem in the preface "The delicious story is ripe to tell to the intimate friend" Disappointed