Unfinished Woman

October 2, 2023
Australian travel writer Davidson (Tracks) excavates her childhood, romantic life, and family traumas in this raw and thorny memoir. She begins with a recollection of her mother’s 1961 suicide and the fight the two got into that day, before doubling back to interrogate the notion that the argument and the suicide were connected at all. “My mother is as close to me, and as hidden from me, as my own face,” Davidson concludes. In another passage, she describes her family’s shared jokes as granting them “the illusion of unity, belying the fact that behind each set of eyes were barricaded hordes of strangers. But then any human head is a bedlam, if you care to look.” This self-awareness underpins Davidson’s unsparing ruminations on her tense relationship with her older sister, the friction in her parents’ marriage, and her own interpersonal struggles, including a “catastrophic love affair” while she was living in London in her late 30s. Her rueful tone and assertion that her fate often felt like “the playing out of forces had no hand in” hit hard. It makes for painful yet cathartic reading. Agent: David Godwin, David Godwin Assoc.

October 1, 2023
A bestselling Australian author explores the impact of her mother's suicide. In 1977, Davidson, then in her late 20s, made a 1,700-mile journey across the Australian desert (detailed in her memoir, Tracks), accompanied by only her dog and camels to carry her gear. In her latest book, she focuses on family. For years, she struggled to write about her mother, who committed suicide when Davidson was 11. Following her death, Davidson's father was left to raise her and her sister alone. The author shares childhood memories of her parents and the dynamics of family life, including mockery and anger from her sister. Uncertain about whether jealousy over being displaced in maternal affection was the cause of her sister's hostility, the author writes, "Either way, one must never forget the crucial importance of point of view." At age 18, Davidson hitched a ride to Sydney, where she slept in parks and searched rubbish bins for food and other necessities. Over time, she and her father would become "dearest of friends," but at the time, they were also "strangers to each other." The author continued her nomadic life, living in more than 50 houses since childhood, taking on odd jobs, and meeting individuals with varying idiosyncrasies, as she attempted to come to terms with her "own strangeness in the midst of strangers." Eventually, she met Narendra, her companion for more than 20 years. In reflection, Davidson writes, "I wish I could write about that ancestral self as if there were clear continuity between us, but I can hardly believe we are the same person. I cannot enter her mind as it was, but as I imagine it now, from this far-distant perspective." In this complex yet disconnected memoir, Davidson often remains detached from the events she describes. Well-written and insightful but curiously lacking in emotion.

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August 22, 2023
Robyn Davidson is perhaps best known for her novel Tracks and has a writing career spanning over 40 years. Her latest, Unfinished Woman, is a nomadic memoir that details the author’s traumatic childhood, bohemian young adulthood and lifelong travels. The book begins in 1950s outback Australia where Robyn lives as a young child with her mother, father and sister. Flashes of Robyn’s memories show readers a homely and enchanting childhood of homemade frocks, nursery rhymes and clean sheets flapping in the wind. There was adventure, too: heat, snakes, eucalyptus trees and endless time outdoors. These days are sadly shrouded in the traumatic and somewhat fragmented memory of Davidson losing her mother to suicide, a defining moment with effects that ripple through her life. The book moves back and forth through time—sleeping in parks in 1970s Sydney, living with a dear friend in the Himalayas, writing in London, and a child again in Queensland—and is very detailed in some areas and scant in others, as the author tries to squeeze a lifetime into 300 pages. It might have been more effective to choose one or two adventures and do them justice. Still, it was a moving story. Through Unfinished Woman, Davidson explores memory, learning about the people who came before you, and reckoning with tragic memories. Davidson pieces together and attempts to understand who her mother was as a person and, by extension, who she is. This is a beautiful story about finding a home wherever you go and understanding your own narrative.