My Place by Sally Morgan

This is an autobiography of a woman in Australia, who believed for much of her youth that she was Indian, when in fact she was part aboriginal. In her search for information on her identity she writes about the lives of three generations. Here, again as with My Darling Dead Ones we can find a model for writing one's family history in an interesting and evocative way.

My cousin pulled me out of her house down to a bookstore in Rotterdam so she could buy me this book. We plan to write something of our own one day, treat our family history with the respect Sally Morgan shows her ancestors.

She begins by meandering through her youth, filling us in on all those details that seem exotic and faraway to someone who hasn't lived them. Halfway through the book the story becomes about writing the family history, with all the resistance she meets, as well as other obstacles. Her mother's birth certificate has a blank in place of her father's name, for example "Just a blank? Mum muttered slowly, Just a blank. That's awful, as if no one owns me."

At this point the first person shifts and now we are wandering through the narratives of her great-uncle, her mother and finally her grandmother, each with its own special language and tone. Her grandmother concludes "Aah, you've always been naughty. I'm not frightened for you any more, Sal, you'll be protected. I think maybe this is a good thing you're doin'. I didn't want you to do it, mind. But I think, now, maybe it's a good thing. Could be it's time to tell. Time to tell what it's been like in this country."

More personal histories all around please.

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