One Life: My Mother’s Story

We already know that Grenville is one of Australia’s most-loved story tellers. We already know that each of her stories reflects upon Australia’s history and consciousness. One Life is no exception. In her introduction, Grenville says that this book, the story of her mother, is a story about the past, but it’s very much about the present too. Women today are still steering a course around the same puzzles: working out how to manage motherhood and a career, making and breaking relationships, and establishing the balance between looking after others and looking after themselves. Using found writings, fragments of conversations and photos, Grenville has pulled together the story of her mother’s life into a wonderful narrative of Australian history.

Born in 1912, Grenville’s mother trained as a pharmacist, married a solicitor who turned out to be a Trotskyite revolutionary, and twice started her own businesses while at the same time running a household. She was tough, and kind and worth knowing. As with all Grenville’s writing, the reader is in safe, pragmatic hands. I was drawn into the world her mother occupied and was keen to find out what happened next. I loved the snatches of conversations, the views of the landscape and worried about the emotional wellbeing of her mother. I was transported to the time of boarding houses, beer halls and political change brought about by World War II. This story becomes more than an elegy to a mother; it is an ode to our own past. Grenville has put her mother into our minds, into our very own chronicle.

Chris Gordon