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Ten Thousand Aftershocks
A powerful, poetic and moving memoir of family, violence and estrangement, from a stunning new literary voice.
After Michelle Tom's house was damaged by a deadly magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011, she and her young family suffered through another 10,000 aftershocks before finally relocating to the stability of Melbourne, Australia. But soon after arriving, Michelle received the news that her estranged sister was dying. Determined to reconnect before her sister died, Michelle flew home to visit, and memories of childhood flooded back.
Told through the five stages of an earthquake via remembered fragments, Michelle Tom explores the similarities between seismic upheaval and her own family's her sister's terminal illness, her brother's struggle with schizophrenia and ultimate suicide, the sudden death of her father, her own panic disorder and, through it all, one overarching battle – her lifelong struggle to form a healthy connection with her mother.
A powerful, poetic and moving memoir of family, violence and estrangement, Ten Thousand Aftershocks weaves together a series of ever-widening and far-reaching emotional and seismic aftershocks, in a beautifully written and compelling account of a dark family drama. For readers of The Erratics and One Hundred Years of Dirt.
'Emotionally visceral ... both destabilising and alluring ... Tom's use of language is so deft.' The Sunday Age
'A compelling narrative' The Saturday Paper
'An intricately structured memoir weaving the Christchurch earthquakes with the lifelong effects of family trauma and mental illness, Ten Thousand Aftershocks is brave, eloquent and suspenseful.' Louisa Deasey, A Letter from Paris
After Michelle Tom's house was damaged by a deadly magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011, she and her young family suffered through another 10,000 aftershocks before finally relocating to the stability of Melbourne, Australia. But soon after arriving, Michelle received the news that her estranged sister was dying. Determined to reconnect before her sister died, Michelle flew home to visit, and memories of childhood flooded back.
Told through the five stages of an earthquake via remembered fragments, Michelle Tom explores the similarities between seismic upheaval and her own family's her sister's terminal illness, her brother's struggle with schizophrenia and ultimate suicide, the sudden death of her father, her own panic disorder and, through it all, one overarching battle – her lifelong struggle to form a healthy connection with her mother.
A powerful, poetic and moving memoir of family, violence and estrangement, Ten Thousand Aftershocks weaves together a series of ever-widening and far-reaching emotional and seismic aftershocks, in a beautifully written and compelling account of a dark family drama. For readers of The Erratics and One Hundred Years of Dirt.
'Emotionally visceral ... both destabilising and alluring ... Tom's use of language is so deft.' The Sunday Age
'A compelling narrative' The Saturday Paper
'An intricately structured memoir weaving the Christchurch earthquakes with the lifelong effects of family trauma and mental illness, Ten Thousand Aftershocks is brave, eloquent and suspenseful.' Louisa Deasey, A Letter from Paris
- GenresNonfictionMemoir
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Published September 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
September 8, 2021
Many years ago, I went to a museum that had an earthquake simulation exhibit, where you stood on a platform and hit a switch and the platform moved around like it would in an earthquake. It was pretty scary, and I’ve never forgotten it. So the idea of a memoir that takes in both family upheaval and the experience of living through the earthquakes in Christchurch was intriguing. An obvious correlation, you might think.
But Michelle Tom’s memoir goes much deeper than this. I first knew of Michelle’s estrangement from her mother through a Facebook connection, and then I read a portion of the book that was awarded a prize and published. I thought I knew what the book would be about, but it is so much more than just a “telling of a story”.
Firstly, there is the fragmented nature of the memories, as it moves between childhood and adult years over and over – dating each segment is helpful, but also the descriptions and her ability to clearly “situate the reader” means it’s never confusing. It’s also not a misery memoir. Among the sections about violence and abuse are stories of fun times, growing strength and resilience, and finally the ability to stand back and “see” and understand, and then move on. Something that many people never achieve.
Having fully engaged with Michelle’s descriptions of growing up, of the damage and the denied need and then the damaging consequences for her and her siblings, getting to the big earthquake and their experiences of its devastation comes as a shock. How she and her husband and family endured the after effects is a story in itself. I cannot imagine having to continue living in a house beset by aftershocks where liquefaction happened constantly around them (with accompanying sewage from broken pipes) and finally surged inside.
Michelle may not realise herself how much her strength and sheer guts shines through this memoir. It’s probably the element that made me marvel most at the stories she relates. It also led me to think deeply about my own family, our stories and experiences, as well as those of close friends. It’s also a great book to read in this time of Covid and lockdowns, simply to show how we can survive and keep living and hoping, and that a new life is possible.
But Michelle Tom’s memoir goes much deeper than this. I first knew of Michelle’s estrangement from her mother through a Facebook connection, and then I read a portion of the book that was awarded a prize and published. I thought I knew what the book would be about, but it is so much more than just a “telling of a story”.
Firstly, there is the fragmented nature of the memories, as it moves between childhood and adult years over and over – dating each segment is helpful, but also the descriptions and her ability to clearly “situate the reader” means it’s never confusing. It’s also not a misery memoir. Among the sections about violence and abuse are stories of fun times, growing strength and resilience, and finally the ability to stand back and “see” and understand, and then move on. Something that many people never achieve.
Having fully engaged with Michelle’s descriptions of growing up, of the damage and the denied need and then the damaging consequences for her and her siblings, getting to the big earthquake and their experiences of its devastation comes as a shock. How she and her husband and family endured the after effects is a story in itself. I cannot imagine having to continue living in a house beset by aftershocks where liquefaction happened constantly around them (with accompanying sewage from broken pipes) and finally surged inside.
Michelle may not realise herself how much her strength and sheer guts shines through this memoir. It’s probably the element that made me marvel most at the stories she relates. It also led me to think deeply about my own family, our stories and experiences, as well as those of close friends. It’s also a great book to read in this time of Covid and lockdowns, simply to show how we can survive and keep living and hoping, and that a new life is possible.
July 3, 2021
An intricately structured memoir weaving the Christchurch earthquakes with the lifelong effects of family trauma and mental illness, Ten Thousand Aftershocks is brave, eloquent and suspenseful.
January 24, 2022
Ten Thousand Aftershocks (4th Estate Harper Collins 2021) is a powerful and moving memoir. Debut author Michelle Tom writes of her fractured family, the force and devastation of earthquakes, and the fallout and aftermath of both, with skilled prose, evocative descriptions of place and sensations, and a harrowing family narrative that she felt should no longer be silenced. The book is dedicated to her brother and her sister, who both died too young, amidst the shame and secrets of an abusive home. Tom, who no doubt has survivor guilt not only about being the only remaining sibling, but also about escaping the Christchurch earthquake, bares open her feelings in an emotional recount that is sometimes uncomfortable to read, but all the more compelling because of its content. This is a story of seismic proportions; strap yourselves in.
The most obvious feature of this book at first glance is the unusual structure. Tom has divided the writing into five sections which mimic the five stages of an earthquake and its aftershocks. But in addition, every short, sharp scene is a small vignette – a perfectly formed, complete mini-story in itself. It might be a memory, an observation, a piece of research or a conversation. Each is set in a random time – 2018, 2013, 1969, 1992, 1967, 1980 – all mixed up together so that we never know which part of her life we will read next. Each has a snappy title: The Scream, Diagnosis, Sisters, The Poet, Warning Shot, The Second to Last Time, Hero, Escape, Rage, A Promise, Birth Order, Do You Like it Here? Every short passage – sometimes less than a page, sometimes a few pages long – anchors us in a specific time and place in the story and in her memory, and completely immerses us in that particular moment.
But the strength of this book lies in its story and the intimate voice in which it is told. Michelle Tom’s house was ‘fatally’ damaged by the 6.3 magnitude earthquake which struck Christchurch in New Zealand in 2011. The aftershocks numbered approximately 10 000. That number mirrors the chaos and trauma of her early life. Soon after relocating her family to Melbourne after the quake, Tom receives news that her estranged sister is dying. She flies back ‘home’ to the memories of her father and brother, already departed, and her sister and mother, with whom she shares a strange, enmeshed and unhealthy relationship full of childhood secrets. This book has a lot of triggering content – her sister has a terminal illness, her brother suffered schizophrenia and ultimately committed suicide, Tom herself is beset by a desperate panic disorder, and the three siblings share the abusive upbringing of a violent and often rage-filled father, and a mother who is so difficult, so eccentric, so willing to sacrifice her children to save herself, that Tom eventually decides the only way forward to peace in her life is parental estrangement. This is not something contemplated lightly, and it is through the thousands of small cuts that we see the tragedy unfold. (The Erratics told a similar narrative memoir of a cold and difficult mother.)
With insight and perception, Tom dissects her childhood, her choices, her adult decisions, her vulnerabilities, her shame, her guilt, her concession to failings of her own, and her desperate attempts to understand and forgive members of her family who quite patently did the wrong thing. Even in the face of obvious betrayal and malice, Tom manages to cling firmly to her own family of choice – her husband and children – vowing to be a different sort of parent and partner, despite her history. This memoir is her effort to articulate and understand what she and her siblings went through, and how and why her parents made the choices they did. In the end, she sounds not bitter, but wise. She has learned enormous lessons from her chaotic life and the tragedies she has witnessed or endured. She has written them down in an attempt to comprehend the patterns, the history, the legacy of trauma.
The book follows themes of trauma, recovery, betrayal, forgiveness, loneliness, mental illness, abuse, family violence and community.
Although this is a dark book with content that is often distressing, the voice is poetic and lyrical, the narrative easy to read and compelling. The fractured collage structure allows us to move swiftly from one memory to another; to go from light to dark and back to light again, so it never feels heavy or too unbearable a burden.
This is a brave book. A memoir of understanding. A call to others who might find themselves in similar situations. As Tom says: ‘The key to the present was [is] in the past.’
Around the time of the book’s release, Melbourne suffered a significant earthquake (an unusual event for that city). While it is frivolous to believe this was the publishers organising a spectacular marketing campaign, it could also be a karmic sign, a great shift in the earth where Tom and her family now live, perhaps to commemorate the emergence and significance of this story, to mark it as literally shocking. Whatever the case, it was a fitting beginning to this book’s journey, which I think will touch many people.
The most obvious feature of this book at first glance is the unusual structure. Tom has divided the writing into five sections which mimic the five stages of an earthquake and its aftershocks. But in addition, every short, sharp scene is a small vignette – a perfectly formed, complete mini-story in itself. It might be a memory, an observation, a piece of research or a conversation. Each is set in a random time – 2018, 2013, 1969, 1992, 1967, 1980 – all mixed up together so that we never know which part of her life we will read next. Each has a snappy title: The Scream, Diagnosis, Sisters, The Poet, Warning Shot, The Second to Last Time, Hero, Escape, Rage, A Promise, Birth Order, Do You Like it Here? Every short passage – sometimes less than a page, sometimes a few pages long – anchors us in a specific time and place in the story and in her memory, and completely immerses us in that particular moment.
But the strength of this book lies in its story and the intimate voice in which it is told. Michelle Tom’s house was ‘fatally’ damaged by the 6.3 magnitude earthquake which struck Christchurch in New Zealand in 2011. The aftershocks numbered approximately 10 000. That number mirrors the chaos and trauma of her early life. Soon after relocating her family to Melbourne after the quake, Tom receives news that her estranged sister is dying. She flies back ‘home’ to the memories of her father and brother, already departed, and her sister and mother, with whom she shares a strange, enmeshed and unhealthy relationship full of childhood secrets. This book has a lot of triggering content – her sister has a terminal illness, her brother suffered schizophrenia and ultimately committed suicide, Tom herself is beset by a desperate panic disorder, and the three siblings share the abusive upbringing of a violent and often rage-filled father, and a mother who is so difficult, so eccentric, so willing to sacrifice her children to save herself, that Tom eventually decides the only way forward to peace in her life is parental estrangement. This is not something contemplated lightly, and it is through the thousands of small cuts that we see the tragedy unfold. (The Erratics told a similar narrative memoir of a cold and difficult mother.)
With insight and perception, Tom dissects her childhood, her choices, her adult decisions, her vulnerabilities, her shame, her guilt, her concession to failings of her own, and her desperate attempts to understand and forgive members of her family who quite patently did the wrong thing. Even in the face of obvious betrayal and malice, Tom manages to cling firmly to her own family of choice – her husband and children – vowing to be a different sort of parent and partner, despite her history. This memoir is her effort to articulate and understand what she and her siblings went through, and how and why her parents made the choices they did. In the end, she sounds not bitter, but wise. She has learned enormous lessons from her chaotic life and the tragedies she has witnessed or endured. She has written them down in an attempt to comprehend the patterns, the history, the legacy of trauma.
The book follows themes of trauma, recovery, betrayal, forgiveness, loneliness, mental illness, abuse, family violence and community.
Although this is a dark book with content that is often distressing, the voice is poetic and lyrical, the narrative easy to read and compelling. The fractured collage structure allows us to move swiftly from one memory to another; to go from light to dark and back to light again, so it never feels heavy or too unbearable a burden.
This is a brave book. A memoir of understanding. A call to others who might find themselves in similar situations. As Tom says: ‘The key to the present was [is] in the past.’
Around the time of the book’s release, Melbourne suffered a significant earthquake (an unusual event for that city). While it is frivolous to believe this was the publishers organising a spectacular marketing campaign, it could also be a karmic sign, a great shift in the earth where Tom and her family now live, perhaps to commemorate the emergence and significance of this story, to mark it as literally shocking. Whatever the case, it was a fitting beginning to this book’s journey, which I think will touch many people.
September 5, 2021
Brilliantly written. I love how the memories jump about as they do in our minds and are woven in with the stages of an earthquake.
I called Christchurch home for a few years but had left before the earthquake hit. The description of the quake and its aftermath was fascinating and made me realise how lucky I was not to have experienced it myself.
This book is powerful. At times I had tears in my eyes for the brutal treatment shown by people to the ones dearest to them. Also by the care and assistance given by strangers to each other while recovering from the earthquakes.
Thank you for being brave enough to write your story. There are so many layers in it. A reminder to parents of the responsibility they have to their children, to cherish them as the gifts they are, no matter how they come to be.
I called Christchurch home for a few years but had left before the earthquake hit. The description of the quake and its aftermath was fascinating and made me realise how lucky I was not to have experienced it myself.
This book is powerful. At times I had tears in my eyes for the brutal treatment shown by people to the ones dearest to them. Also by the care and assistance given by strangers to each other while recovering from the earthquakes.
Thank you for being brave enough to write your story. There are so many layers in it. A reminder to parents of the responsibility they have to their children, to cherish them as the gifts they are, no matter how they come to be.
December 31, 2021
This was one of my top reads for 2021. Michelle Tom has written a brave, honest & moving account of grief, loss, destruction and devastation in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake which also brought to a head earlier traumas. I loved the novel's fragmentary structure which reflected the earth shocks which tore a city apart, and represents the brokenness of the author's family. Despite the heartbreaking subject, the novel is a wonderful read. In opening her life to her readers, Michelle Tom has helped every one of us understand our own families a little more, as well as providing a beacon of hope for the resiliency of the human spirit when everything seems to betray all you know and think life (and solid ground) should be.
September 19, 2021
What a powerful book! It is powerful in how Michelle comes to reconcile - especially with herself and her decisions - after such an extraordinary journey. It's also powerufl in the sheer strength and resilience it takes to open up and pen everything down. Michelle has such a skillful way of telling stories in a personal and profound way. In the book, I see a lot of myself, and us all.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
October 12, 2021
For me, having read so many of them, memoir is all about craft. I find this especially true when the memoir grapples with trauma and violence. What makes your story uniquely yours is how you choose to tell it. Some recent examples of superbly crafted memoir in this vein are Car Crash, Crying in H Mart, The Mother Wound, Heavy, My Year of Living Vulnerably and Good Indian Daughter. And I am adding Ten Thousand Aftershocks to that list. Tom overlays her fragmentary memories onto the five stages of an earthquake. The entire book shifts on tectonic plates of memory, toxic relationships, domestic abuse and mental illness. Destabilising forces that toss Tom and her family from crisis to crisis. The structural intricacy and beautiful prose meant I never felt completely overcome by the subject matter or like a voyeur creeping through someone’s family story and trauma. The book ran a little long and I could sense the difficulty of how to end a book like this, when there is no neat end point.
September 7, 2021
Reading ten thousand aftershocks made me appreciate what we have and that life can change any minute
It made me cry and it made me happy the resilience that Michelle showed throughout this experience made her who she is today
Reading the moments that her house was shaking and falling down made me hug my babies just like she did.
Exceptional read and beautiful writing
Made you feel like you were really there
Recommend 5 stars
It made me cry and it made me happy the resilience that Michelle showed throughout this experience made her who she is today
Reading the moments that her house was shaking and falling down made me hug my babies just like she did.
Exceptional read and beautiful writing
Made you feel like you were really there
Recommend 5 stars
November 1, 2021
A great read. Such a great weaving of family tragedy into the reality of living with earthquakes and their profound impacts. Growing up at the same time, even though in Australia I could relate to so much. Looking forward to the next book.
December 31, 2021
I found this powerful, evocative, poetic, resonant. Told in non-chronological narrative fragments in an arc that replicates the stages of an earthquake. I read more memoir that your average reader, and for me, this was the standout memoir of 2021. Michelle Tom's quiet dignity shines through as she analyses her family relationships, their echos of trauma, and how she slowly overcame her past to thrive in the present.
August 23, 2021
https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=3096
A standout read for 2021
Ten Thousand Aftershocks
Michelle Tom
A standout read for 2021
Ten Thousand Aftershocks
Michelle Tom
September 27, 2021
This book is terrific snd I thoroughly recommend it. There is so much there and so much depth. The story of Michelle Tom's family of birth is distressing, so much cruelty yes it is told with compassion and balance.
I dod mot know very much, I realise, about the Christchurch earthquake but have an insider's view now, very scary and disturbing. Fascinating too. A story of surviving on many levels, written so well.
I dod mot know very much, I realise, about the Christchurch earthquake but have an insider's view now, very scary and disturbing. Fascinating too. A story of surviving on many levels, written so well.
February 20, 2022
I've always been wary of autobiographies. Why do people do it? Why do they lay themselves bare for public scrutiny, paint the minutiae of their lives in black and white for all to see? In my experience they've always fallen into one of three types; self-serving, promotional twaddle; cash-ins on celebrity; or voyeuristic train-wreck life stories. Thankfully Tom's work is none of these.
On a practical level it is an easy to read, well structured tale. Parallels between the Christchurch earthquake, migration, and Tom's family are drawn well, without being overplayed. There is a clarity and economy in the prose that makes what can be (at times) difficult and challenging material easy to digest.
It's an evocative tale that provoked thought and self-reflection. It was this that drew me in, and her honesty that kept me engaged. Thankfully, there is a lack of sermonizing or moralistic diatribe; Tom delivers her narrative, then leaves the reader to take what they will from her words.
I was surprised at how Tom's work captured me; it's not a genre I seek out, or subject matter that I willingly open myself up to. That she succeeded is testament to how good Tom's work is.
Don't go looking for a superhero or happily ever after in this book. Life is simply life, after all, and your family the cards you are dealt at the start. What I found was one person's path to acceptance, perhaps understanding, and (as Tom says herself) peace.
Highly recommended.
On a practical level it is an easy to read, well structured tale. Parallels between the Christchurch earthquake, migration, and Tom's family are drawn well, without being overplayed. There is a clarity and economy in the prose that makes what can be (at times) difficult and challenging material easy to digest.
It's an evocative tale that provoked thought and self-reflection. It was this that drew me in, and her honesty that kept me engaged. Thankfully, there is a lack of sermonizing or moralistic diatribe; Tom delivers her narrative, then leaves the reader to take what they will from her words.
I was surprised at how Tom's work captured me; it's not a genre I seek out, or subject matter that I willingly open myself up to. That she succeeded is testament to how good Tom's work is.
Don't go looking for a superhero or happily ever after in this book. Life is simply life, after all, and your family the cards you are dealt at the start. What I found was one person's path to acceptance, perhaps understanding, and (as Tom says herself) peace.
Highly recommended.
September 11, 2021
Trauma, or its aftermath, moves like fault lines through the lives of those who have experienced it. The ground under your feet lifts and buckles, turns to liquid, into holes big enough to swallow houses and cars. Although Michelle Tom stresses in her memoir Ten Thousand Aftershocks that no one was aware of the fatal fault lines lying in wait beneath Christchurch, where she and her family endured the effects of the devastating 2011 earthquake, as well as what was estimated to be at least ten thousand aftershocks, in many ways, Tom and her extended family have always been aware that they existed on unsteady ground, liable to give way at any time.
Ten Thousand Aftershocks utilises the geological features of earthquakes as structurally embedded also within notions of the five stages of grief, and the book is thus divided into these five dual conceptual narratives. At the same time, the prose emulates the nature of traumatic memory and its non-linear fragmented timelines.
The memoir begins with the death of Tom’s younger sister Meredith, who has died of cancer but has throughout her life been consumed by the ravaging effects of a childhood in which she was explicitly designated as unlovable by their mother. Though Tom herself grows up aware of herself as the ‘golden child’ of the family, her childhood is also threaded through with the innate knowledge of unsteady ground. Their father is at times abusive but is also loving and the understanding of both is held onto as a lifeline. Tom’s father is known as the sort of man who is good in a crisis, who will jump into peril to save lives without a thought, but at the same time, he demands a king-like status in his own home, and those who don’t toe the line pay the price. Tom’s youngest sibling, a gentle boy, grows up only to develop delusions and psychosis, and dies young and inexplicably.
All throughout each compounded trauma, Tom’s mother demands to be the centre of attention. Tom at one point refers to the impact of her mother’s implied personality disorder (a therapist once asks Tom to read a specified paragraph in the DSM-V and see if she recognises anyone there) as a ‘mother fault’ and it is this fault line that has ripped up the landscape of the lives of the three siblings more than any other.
For any victim of trauma, each new experience accumulates and adheres to previous traumas and after the terror of the Christchurch quake, the continuing instability proves intolerable to Tom and her family. They end up relocating to Australia, far from any significant fault lines, though Tom can’t forget that no one knew about the fault line under Christchurch until it erupted and upturned so many lives. She sees the results of the recent Black Saturday fires around Melbourne and realises there is no escaping possible catastrophe, but after a time she begins to realise that there is a possibility of living with this fear.
Though it has been noted by others that there is perhaps an overstated need within memoirs dealing with trauma to resolve themselves neatly with a healing trajectory, Ten Thousand Aftershocks doesn’t claim resolution except in so far as the possibility of stepping away from the carnage in its wake. Instead, Tom accepts that she can choose to end the intergenerational trauma she and her family have come from, by drawing real boundaries and making peace on her own terms. Within this narrative, Tom achieves a finely nuanced balance, telling interwoven stories that are each as compelling as they are chilling and which, in their notions of upturned worlds, resonate in many ways with the issues people are living with now
Ten Thousand Aftershocks utilises the geological features of earthquakes as structurally embedded also within notions of the five stages of grief, and the book is thus divided into these five dual conceptual narratives. At the same time, the prose emulates the nature of traumatic memory and its non-linear fragmented timelines.
The memoir begins with the death of Tom’s younger sister Meredith, who has died of cancer but has throughout her life been consumed by the ravaging effects of a childhood in which she was explicitly designated as unlovable by their mother. Though Tom herself grows up aware of herself as the ‘golden child’ of the family, her childhood is also threaded through with the innate knowledge of unsteady ground. Their father is at times abusive but is also loving and the understanding of both is held onto as a lifeline. Tom’s father is known as the sort of man who is good in a crisis, who will jump into peril to save lives without a thought, but at the same time, he demands a king-like status in his own home, and those who don’t toe the line pay the price. Tom’s youngest sibling, a gentle boy, grows up only to develop delusions and psychosis, and dies young and inexplicably.
All throughout each compounded trauma, Tom’s mother demands to be the centre of attention. Tom at one point refers to the impact of her mother’s implied personality disorder (a therapist once asks Tom to read a specified paragraph in the DSM-V and see if she recognises anyone there) as a ‘mother fault’ and it is this fault line that has ripped up the landscape of the lives of the three siblings more than any other.
For any victim of trauma, each new experience accumulates and adheres to previous traumas and after the terror of the Christchurch quake, the continuing instability proves intolerable to Tom and her family. They end up relocating to Australia, far from any significant fault lines, though Tom can’t forget that no one knew about the fault line under Christchurch until it erupted and upturned so many lives. She sees the results of the recent Black Saturday fires around Melbourne and realises there is no escaping possible catastrophe, but after a time she begins to realise that there is a possibility of living with this fear.
Though it has been noted by others that there is perhaps an overstated need within memoirs dealing with trauma to resolve themselves neatly with a healing trajectory, Ten Thousand Aftershocks doesn’t claim resolution except in so far as the possibility of stepping away from the carnage in its wake. Instead, Tom accepts that she can choose to end the intergenerational trauma she and her family have come from, by drawing real boundaries and making peace on her own terms. Within this narrative, Tom achieves a finely nuanced balance, telling interwoven stories that are each as compelling as they are chilling and which, in their notions of upturned worlds, resonate in many ways with the issues people are living with now
September 10, 2021
Trigger warning: Domestic Violence
Michelle Tom’s debut memoir, Ten Thousand Aftershocks, is about her turbulent childhood growing up in New Zealand and of the life she created for herself as an adult, in Australia. After the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, Michelle and her young family were overwhelmed by recurring aftershocks, and so made the decision to move to the safer ground of Melbourne, Australia.
The earthquake motif running throughout the novel provides a striking metaphor for the volatile nature of Michelle’s family of origin. Just as a young Michelle never knew if the earth was going to split open beneath her feet, so too, she never knew when her sleep would be broken by the sounds of violence from her parents in the next room, or when the next blow was going to fall on her siblings or herself.
The story is told in a braided narrative that darts through time and place, reflecting the chaos of Michelle’s early life. This structure is true to her consciousness, with the past and present inexorably intertwined. The family members Michelle has lost are never far from her thoughts, and she writes about their short lives and untimely deaths with sensitivity and grace. She recreates the time leading up to their deaths, moment by moment, and in doing so honours their lives and ensures they will not be forgotten.
But despite the tragedy, Michelle tells her story with humour and an underlying feeling of hope. Her descriptions of her charismatic parents, eccentric grandmother, feisty sister, and tender younger brother are vivid and often very funny. Her love for them and the complexity of their relationships comes through despite the difficulty they had in living as a family.
Michelle’s road to finding peace has not been an easy one, nor was her decision to cut ties with her mother. Recognising her mother’s own struggles, Michelle detaches from her with love, and relinquishes any societal notions of the way their relationship should be. She allows the estrangement to grow over time, to the point where contact dwindles to nonexistence. By the end of the book, both mother and daughter are free of any lingering obligation they may have felt toward each other and go on to live their lives in fulfillment and peace.
Ten Thousand Aftershocks is ultimately a story of hope, and of building a new life from the ruins of an old one. Even while reading about her darkest times, I always knew that Michelle’s humour, resilience, and adventurous spirit would see her through. And I was right.
Michelle Tom’s debut memoir, Ten Thousand Aftershocks, is about her turbulent childhood growing up in New Zealand and of the life she created for herself as an adult, in Australia. After the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, Michelle and her young family were overwhelmed by recurring aftershocks, and so made the decision to move to the safer ground of Melbourne, Australia.
The earthquake motif running throughout the novel provides a striking metaphor for the volatile nature of Michelle’s family of origin. Just as a young Michelle never knew if the earth was going to split open beneath her feet, so too, she never knew when her sleep would be broken by the sounds of violence from her parents in the next room, or when the next blow was going to fall on her siblings or herself.
The story is told in a braided narrative that darts through time and place, reflecting the chaos of Michelle’s early life. This structure is true to her consciousness, with the past and present inexorably intertwined. The family members Michelle has lost are never far from her thoughts, and she writes about their short lives and untimely deaths with sensitivity and grace. She recreates the time leading up to their deaths, moment by moment, and in doing so honours their lives and ensures they will not be forgotten.
But despite the tragedy, Michelle tells her story with humour and an underlying feeling of hope. Her descriptions of her charismatic parents, eccentric grandmother, feisty sister, and tender younger brother are vivid and often very funny. Her love for them and the complexity of their relationships comes through despite the difficulty they had in living as a family.
Michelle’s road to finding peace has not been an easy one, nor was her decision to cut ties with her mother. Recognising her mother’s own struggles, Michelle detaches from her with love, and relinquishes any societal notions of the way their relationship should be. She allows the estrangement to grow over time, to the point where contact dwindles to nonexistence. By the end of the book, both mother and daughter are free of any lingering obligation they may have felt toward each other and go on to live their lives in fulfillment and peace.
Ten Thousand Aftershocks is ultimately a story of hope, and of building a new life from the ruins of an old one. Even while reading about her darkest times, I always knew that Michelle’s humour, resilience, and adventurous spirit would see her through. And I was right.
May 7, 2022
Ten Thousand Aftershocks is a unique and very personal memoir, in which Tom uses the stages of an earthquake as structure and metaphor for exploring her complicated family history, and her own experience of the major Christchurch earthquakes of 2011.
Certainly the writing in this is stunning. I'd comp with Trent Dalton and Tabatha Bird, but without the whimsy of magical realism to offset the heavy subject matter. I have no doubt this was extremely cathartic for the author to write and I can see why she needed to. I'm not entirely sure I felt the same value being on the reading side of it.
It's hard to review a memoir honestly. I'm aware of the raw level of bravery it would take to lay yourself so bare, so publicly. And yet I found myself pondering the wisdom of being laid quite so bare - quite so open to the judgement of people like me, reading from the comfort of my lounge room. Because I admit, I did. Judge, that is. At times. It's human nature to do so, whether we admit it or not.
She says at the end that she wrote this to speak her siblings' stories. But Paul barely exists in this book, and I know little of real substance about Meredith except as it relates to the author.
The story is told in remembered snippets, like short vignettes, non chronologically. Somehow this really does work literarily, interweaving her childhood, the earthquake, and the deaths of her family members into a somehow cohesive and intimate account of a real life.
I can't deny the book is well written, and if heavy and personal memoirs are your thing, you'll find that here. While I could objectively appreciate the literary quality, I can't subjectively describe my reading experience as enjoyment.
Certainly the writing in this is stunning. I'd comp with Trent Dalton and Tabatha Bird, but without the whimsy of magical realism to offset the heavy subject matter. I have no doubt this was extremely cathartic for the author to write and I can see why she needed to. I'm not entirely sure I felt the same value being on the reading side of it.
It's hard to review a memoir honestly. I'm aware of the raw level of bravery it would take to lay yourself so bare, so publicly. And yet I found myself pondering the wisdom of being laid quite so bare - quite so open to the judgement of people like me, reading from the comfort of my lounge room. Because I admit, I did. Judge, that is. At times. It's human nature to do so, whether we admit it or not.
She says at the end that she wrote this to speak her siblings' stories. But Paul barely exists in this book, and I know little of real substance about Meredith except as it relates to the author.
The story is told in remembered snippets, like short vignettes, non chronologically. Somehow this really does work literarily, interweaving her childhood, the earthquake, and the deaths of her family members into a somehow cohesive and intimate account of a real life.
I can't deny the book is well written, and if heavy and personal memoirs are your thing, you'll find that here. While I could objectively appreciate the literary quality, I can't subjectively describe my reading experience as enjoyment.
May 17, 2022
3.5 ☆
Finished reading ... Ten Thousand Aftershocks / Michelle Tom ... 15 May 2022
ISBN: 9781460760017 ... 358 pp.
This is a memoir, too episodic to be called an autobiography. It is also a written oral history (if that makes sense). In other words, we have snapshots of the author's life in a violent, dysfunctional birth family from childhood to the present day and along with that the story of the author and her own family as they lived through the Christchurch earthquake and its aftermath.
Personally, I'd have preferred to hear more of the effects of the earthquake (and aftershocks) and less about the family. The latter detracted from the former. This is a grim read. It is a story of resilience and survival but not of happy endings.
As a story about living through and surviving a significant earthquake, this is a highly recommended read. I certainly had no idea of the ongoing horrors of it. Even the events of the main earthquake and biggest aftershock are so much worse than I imagined. Knowing that it must have been awful gave me nowhere near as much insight as is needed to comprehend how it changes lives for the survivors. I say this knowing a survivor through work. A bright, out-going young doctor, newly qualified as a consultant, had gone to Christchurch to deliver a paper at a medical conference. He came back grey, ashen, horribly subdued.
The dysfunctional family side of the book …. there are plenty of such stories around and coming from a (differently) dysfunctional family myself, I've had enough of those.
This is an instructive book when it comes to living through an earthquake but it's not a book to read if you're feeling the slightest bit down
Borrowed from my local library.
July 29, 2022
There is a line in Midnight in Paris when the fictional Ernest Hemingway refuses to read a manuscript offered to him by Owen Wilson’s character. Hemingway says, “If it's bad, then I hate it because I hate bad writing. If it's good, then I'll be envious and I'll hate it all the more.”
So when I agreed to read Michelle Tom’s debut memoir, Ten Thousand Aftershocks, I knew I was going to hate it. What I didn’t know was just how much I would hate it. It is that bloody good.
It says something about the childhood that Tom endured (there is no other word) that the pages that deal with the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 that left 185 people dead and destroyed Tom’s home are, for me, the least dramatic of the book.
Tom cleverly weaves the story of her family through the analogy of the five stages of an earthquake. So effective is this device that after reading “…geological features of the landscape could be explained as the cumulative sum of small, sometimes sudden, incremental changes…the key to the present is in the past – that the results of past seismic events inevitably bring us the present-day landscape”, I exclaimed loudly, “That’s my family!”
While Tom could have wallowed in the grief and trauma of domestic violence, abuse, addiction, suicide, terminal illness and familial estrangement that she has experienced, she chooses not to. From that well she has instead drawn buckets of beauty and produced a powerful memoir written with the narrative tension of a thriller.
So when I agreed to read Michelle Tom’s debut memoir, Ten Thousand Aftershocks, I knew I was going to hate it. What I didn’t know was just how much I would hate it. It is that bloody good.
It says something about the childhood that Tom endured (there is no other word) that the pages that deal with the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 that left 185 people dead and destroyed Tom’s home are, for me, the least dramatic of the book.
Tom cleverly weaves the story of her family through the analogy of the five stages of an earthquake. So effective is this device that after reading “…geological features of the landscape could be explained as the cumulative sum of small, sometimes sudden, incremental changes…the key to the present is in the past – that the results of past seismic events inevitably bring us the present-day landscape”, I exclaimed loudly, “That’s my family!”
While Tom could have wallowed in the grief and trauma of domestic violence, abuse, addiction, suicide, terminal illness and familial estrangement that she has experienced, she chooses not to. From that well she has instead drawn buckets of beauty and produced a powerful memoir written with the narrative tension of a thriller.
September 22, 2021
I finished reading the book in a few days because I found it hard to put down. It's a beautifully written memoir of Michelle's life to date. I don't want to give too much away but I could have cried though parts of the book especially when she recounts the physical and verbal abuse from her parents. Also the parts where she describes the earthquakes gave me goosebumps. Michelle's writing is so descriptive and I loved how she compared different stages of her life with the various stages of an earthquake. It's probably one of the best books I've read this year and I can see it would be a popular book for book clubs to discuss because of the many themes. The only thing I found a bit difficult to follow was the stories aren't in chronological order so it seems that they jump around from year to year however it didn't detract from the power and sadness of her stories.
When I heard about the earthquake in Melbourne this morning, I immediately thought of my beautiful friends living in Melbourne and I also thought about Michelle. I was shocked to hear the news and hope Michelle and her family are ok.
When I heard about the earthquake in Melbourne this morning, I immediately thought of my beautiful friends living in Melbourne and I also thought about Michelle. I was shocked to hear the news and hope Michelle and her family are ok.
December 21, 2021
I knew from the title of this book that it was about the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Tom uses the five stages of an earthquake as the organizing structure for her memoir, but only the fourth stage deals directly with 22 February 2011. The earthquake is a rupturing, all engulfing moment in the narrative, but it only part of Tom’s own memoir of her family, written as a promise to her forty-three year old younger sister whose burial occurs in the opening pages.
Each separate vignette is carefully written in very polished, introspective prose but it is the reader who puts them together into a narrative. For me, it is the connections and transitions across the whole of a narrative that mark out good memoir writing, and I tend to think that this mosaic-type, pointillist style of assemblage baulks at that final step of integration and creation.
For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2021/12/21/...
Each separate vignette is carefully written in very polished, introspective prose but it is the reader who puts them together into a narrative. For me, it is the connections and transitions across the whole of a narrative that mark out good memoir writing, and I tend to think that this mosaic-type, pointillist style of assemblage baulks at that final step of integration and creation.
For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2021/12/21/...
October 10, 2021
In Ten Thousand Aftershocks, Michelle Tom gives an intricate view of what it is like to live through a major earthquake (in Christchurch) as well as the fallout due to the aftershocks that followed.
It also gives a paralleled insight into the fallout of a major quake within the Michelle’s family (a childhood family secret) and the consequences that threatened to destroy the family unit that was felt for years to come.
Her memoir shows a strength of character in that, Michelle learned to manage the challenges in dealing with her family issues from her childhood and it tells of the courage it took to move her family to another country to begin a new life away from the trauma the was endured.
This book is brave, insightful, and very hard to put down.
This memoir comes highly recommended.
It also gives a paralleled insight into the fallout of a major quake within the Michelle’s family (a childhood family secret) and the consequences that threatened to destroy the family unit that was felt for years to come.
Her memoir shows a strength of character in that, Michelle learned to manage the challenges in dealing with her family issues from her childhood and it tells of the courage it took to move her family to another country to begin a new life away from the trauma the was endured.
This book is brave, insightful, and very hard to put down.
This memoir comes highly recommended.
December 17, 2021
Ten Thousand Aftershocks by Michelle Tom is a moving and heartbreaking memoir about a shattered family, the Christchurch earthquakes and the aftershocks that are the consequence of both.
Michelle wrote the book to honour the memory of her brother and sister. It's also an acknowledgement to all those whose lives have been tossed and broken by earthquakes. The form of the book mirrors the way trauma and natural disasters can fracture the lives of those affected.
As someone who has never experienced an earthquake, I found the parts of the memoir that cover those events equally fascinating and horrifying.
Ten Thousand Aftershocks is a brave, confronting and heartfelt memoir.
Michelle wrote the book to honour the memory of her brother and sister. It's also an acknowledgement to all those whose lives have been tossed and broken by earthquakes. The form of the book mirrors the way trauma and natural disasters can fracture the lives of those affected.
As someone who has never experienced an earthquake, I found the parts of the memoir that cover those events equally fascinating and horrifying.
Ten Thousand Aftershocks is a brave, confronting and heartfelt memoir.
December 13, 2021
In this exquisitely constructed memoir, Michelle Tom explores the impact of a childhood lived in chaos compounded by living through the Christchurch earthquakes as an adult in 2010 and 2011.
Told in fragments that move you back and forth in time, this is a story that makes you think about the sum total one act or one comment can have on an individual and a family.
This memoir is a perfect example of how one tiny crack can turn into a permanent chasm. I can only imagine and admire the courage it took to write it and then put it out into the world. Amazing.
Told in fragments that move you back and forth in time, this is a story that makes you think about the sum total one act or one comment can have on an individual and a family.
This memoir is a perfect example of how one tiny crack can turn into a permanent chasm. I can only imagine and admire the courage it took to write it and then put it out into the world. Amazing.
July 22, 2022
A profoundly moving and artfully woven memoir, intertwining Michelle’s lived experience of violent earthquakes and scenes from a traumatic family life. Michelle Tom has shown incredible courage in the face of these life events and even more courage in writing this book, gifting us huge insight, perspective and hope.
June 3, 2022
Quite a full on memoir; I had plenty of tears. You jump back and forth in time, experiencing some very painful memories, as the book goes through the five stages of an earthquake.
I found Michelle Tom’s memories of the Christchurch earthquake remarkable, and read with great interest.
I found Michelle Tom’s memories of the Christchurch earthquake remarkable, and read with great interest.
October 6, 2022
Powerful and heartfelt.
February 7, 2023
An extraordinary, fragmented memoir about inherited and acute trauma, earthquakes and grief, difficult familial relationships, and what we require to feel safe and to heal. Bravo.
December 17, 2023
Beautifully written brave memoir.
April 29, 2024
One of the best memoirs I have ever read.
January 25, 2022
"Our home held firm because broken does not equate to weak. Broken does not equate to hopeless. Broken may only need time or care - another coat of glaze - to bring it back to a high shine."
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