Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here (2024)

This book came along at the right time. It was what I needed. Tasmanian author, Heather Rose, has written a powerful, thought-provoking memoir that captures what it means to be alive.

“Emotions are like winds on the lake, the Buddhists say. You are the lake, deep and quiet. The winds come and go, ruffling the surface. They are erratic and temporary. The winds are not you. You are the lake.”

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here is beautifully written and immensely quotable. Each sentence packs a punch, serves a purpose and maintains a satisfying rhythm. It’s lyrical and hypnotising. Heather’s words transported me around my home state of Tasmania and the world itself.

While uniquely Tasmanian, it also felt universal. Heather’s vivid descriptions ensure her travel writing is among the best you will read. Some may even argue, too vivid.

“I sigh and raise my eyes to the ceiling. There, to my horror, are another twenty-three huntsmen awaiting their evening fare of small flying creatures. Twenty-three just above my head.”

Central to the book, is a family tragedy that occurred when Heather was twelve. This event, alongside a relatable chapter on health, showcases Heather’s writing at its vulnerable best. I knew aspects of Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here would be close to home – I just didn't realise how much (the book opens with the ‘67 Tasmanian bushfires, that my Mum narrowly survived).

During the read, I unintentionally found myself immersed in the same waters on the same beaches that Heather described, all in my own attempts at healing and reclaiming myself. The book is not only a meditation on healing and spirituality, but a call to arms to protect our planet, especially Tasmania's pristine environment. It was during a particular foreshore walk, just after reading this chapter, that Heather’s words echoed in my mind as I stood in front of bulldozers and construction zones, and listened to the cries of penguins.

Some of my favourite passages involved an encounter with a family of dolphins, and her hiking the Overland Track with her son. I also enjoyed the quotes chosen for each chapter, and the inspiring takes on creativity and ways Heather navigates her health challenges. Various chapters began to flow into areas of my life and sparked conversation with others – all signs of a powerful book. Not everyone will agree with the choices she makes (I didn’t) or the extreme nature of some spiritual ceremonies - but this just makes things more human.

I’m grateful Heather wrote this. It’s a magical, raw example on how to live life to the fullest. It’s about joy and curiosity. It's about the courage to be vulnerable and the courage to embrace all that makes up the human experience. It may get you exploring mindfulness. It will definitely get you making the most of each day, and viewing it as a gift to be fully present in. It might even get you delving into Tasmania’s ancient forests.

A book that will stay with me. I look forward to reading more of her work.

“Putting the past aside to focus on now, on this moment, on this beautiful moment, is a victory. Every time we are here, in the vivid now, with breath and eyes, smell and touch, is a victory.”

Many thanks to Allen & Unwin for a copy of this book.

This is a serious contemplation of an interesting and complex woman’s life story. I have not read any of her books; I will remedy this when the opportunity arises. As I read this book, my mind was wandering into the territory of Eat Pray Love, and I really did not like that book so I had a little dip. Although I do not lead a spiritual life as the author does, I did enjoy hearing about her journey, and that of her family. Given my thoughts of a book I did not enjoy, I was aware that there were swings and roundabouts in this reading experience.

There was much tragedy that the author suffered, a lot of death and loss, but this woman shows us her capability and tenacity throughout. She is a doer, a strong woman that does not shy away from anything. She punched a man in the face, twice (for very good reason), on her travels, shocking her travelling companion into quickly realising she was not meek and mild as assumed.

She has many health problems, but this really did not get much air play. The author listed the many therapies she has tried and tells us how people have called her a drug addict. She needs drugs for chronic pain, and she has many ailments. But again, this is not complained about, only discussed. The author wants to be heard, not pitied, treated with respect, not offered advice from others who have not suffered sickness.

Recently I had faced some strange health situations. I did not handle myself with grace like Heather has, so I do take pause and have great respect for this attitude. She has a great rheumatologist (the same area I had problems), I am very pleased that she has a great doctor who has committed the condition Heather has to become one of her life projects and researching it for women sufferers.

I loved hearing about Tasmania, and her worldly travels. I have never considered hours upon hours of daily meditation or participated in sweat lodges – the author lists 53 therapies over 40 years. On the other hand, she tells us of her life’s work, travels, mothering, hiking, lobbying, running a successful business and being a writer all the while without the notion of any of these problems!

Her imagined tombstone would be I made the most of every moment. I think I would add to this the words with humour and grace.

I decided upon a four star rating as this woman has overcome much, has an amazing story, and is gifted in the telling. I over came my comparison to Eat Pray Love – this isn’t fair, and I take my hat off to Heather. Another little spark of goodness that came from this experience, and encouraged me to read this book was that my spirited 19 year old daughter was in Bruny the day I requested this book from the publisher. (A novel of that name is one of the aforementioned books I need to read).

May I say, as a definite extra bonus with this book, as I alternated between hard copy and audio - this was one instance where the autor excelled in narrating her own story, I don't think this should always be carried out, but Heather delivered remarkably here. I think narrator should be added to her already huge repertoire!

With my thanks and gratitude from Allen & Unwin for my uncorrected proof copy to read and review. I love the books on offer from this publishing house.

This is the second memoir by Australian women (Meg Mason was actually born in NZ, but now lives in Sydney) I finished today, while I rarely read memoirs. This memoir by Tasmanian born and present resident Heather Rose, also known as the author of The Museum of Modern Love and Bruny, neither of which I have read, but have owned the first for many years and will now read.

One cannot judge the life of a writer, only the writing itself, not the events. Ms Rose has led an extraordinary life, filled with heartbreak and tragedy, adventure, chronic ill health, raising three children and doing some extraordinary exploration of self, including living in a Buddist monastery in Thailand and participating in Sun Dances over four years in North America and swimming with a pod of dolphins in Tassie.

Well worth the read, I particularly enjoyed her hiking the Overland Track over six days with her 13 year old reluctant son, as I relived my own walk there with her description of the places and experiences she shared with her son there. Recommended.

Three and a half stars
I was keen to read this after having read and enjoyed Heather Rose’s novel Bruny. The author has certainly led a varied life, though like many of us not without pain and hardships. Her life takes her overseas,* a long way from her Tasmanian childhood. She explores Native American spirituality and later that of indigenous people of Australia. Much of what she writes about is definitely outside the realm of my own experience, but it certainly makes for interesting reading. It is beautifully written and so descriptive, but I have to say the incidents in Bali and encounters with Huntsman spiders had me totally creeped out. No way I’d have been getting any sleep there. It was so vividly described I had to put the book aside for a time.
While I struggled to understand some of the author's choices at times, I appreciated her honesty in sharing her experiences and the writing is lyrical. Definitely some interesting and thoughtful insights and observations as she approaches life, both good and bad and chooses to look for the positives in each experience.
Many thanks to Allen & Unwin for my ARC which I won to read and review. I don’t normally read many memoirs. Definitely glad I gave this one a go.

While the writing was consistent (consistently fabulous), my enjoyment of Heather Rose's memoir was not. For me it started off really well, painting a vivid picture of a Tasmanian childhood of a similar vintage to my own, but tapered off as she entered adulthood and began exploring her spirituality. This held no interest for me at all, except to the extent that it became contextualised by the final section of the book where Rose candidly filled in the background details of what it's like to live with debilitating chronic pain. The hours of listening to her (frankly mellifluous!) voice were worth it, to arrive at such a raw and moving destination. Looking backwards, I can now see this book for what it is - a most precious gift for her children.

Reviewing memoir can be fraught. We all have a memoir in us, a life story to tell, what I thought made a memoir great is the writing, the ability to extrapolate from the personal outwards. This was beautifully written but completely failed to captivate me which was confounding. I read it because I admire Rose’s fiction and thought I would like to know more about her life. Had I known that the bulk of the book would be a spiritual search through multiple countries and Buddhism, meditation, sweat lodges and eagle feather-clad dancing, I would have known it was not for me. I wish I was more spiritually curious but I’m really not. And some of the content was distressing and extreme. Rose is clearly endlessly curious and that’s a beautiful thing. This was a case of the wrong book for this reader. I enjoyed the opening of the book about Rose’s childhood in Tasmania and the tragedy that befell her family, and the final section of the book about hiking with her son, her environmental activism and her life with chronic pain. I’m sure these things are linked to that middle section but it was lost on me.

This was a deeply personal memoir of the wonderful writer of The Museum of Modern Love. I found it to be a tad heavy on the spiritual experiences of the author. However, what a brave and free soul Heather Rose is, her youthful adventures around the world were probably my favourite sections. I hope she will find the physical peace that her body needs one day soon. Recommended reading.

This book is absolutely ripe for a full-length, meticulous takedown of the sort Chelsea Watego lavished on Cathy McClennan's Saltwater* or Elias Greig provided for Heather Rose's own Bruny, but I do not have the energy just right now.

I do want to just make a couple of points about Indigenous culture and people, though, that I think are important context for this book, and might be useful for other readers, since one of the main narrative strands of the book is Rose's engagement with Lakota ceremony and a visit to Uluru.

Rose is a Tasmanian writer whose works and career are very much shaped by the place where she lives. She barely engages with Tasmanian Aboriginal culture or people in this memoir, though - at one point she mentions having a "senior Aboriginal person" as a friend, but otherwise she very much repeats one of the oldest racist tropes in Australia, the "not a real 'Aborigine'" one (link goes to a review of a book by Anita Heiss discussing this trope):

Indigenous Tasmanians have a history flowing back more than 60,000 years. Their culture was decimated, their land, languages and ceremonies largely lost. In the Central Desert, though, there are still ceremonies that have been performed for millennia. I am keen to participate if I am permitted (p.135).

When she is not, in fact, able to participate in an Aboriginal-led dance at Uluru (which she wants to do because she thinks it might "ground me", p.133), she ends up in the desert with a bunch of other white people, where she understands "the Dreamtime" for the first time (apparently it is not a sophisticated set of collectively-created texts which cover social science, astronomy, spirituality and the complex kin relations that structure humans' relationship to Country and the more-than-human, as I thought, it's just, like, when it's really really hot).

In Central Australia the heat ripples. It stretches. It leans into me and weighs down my limbs. It insists that I slow. Pause. Be. I hadn't understood the concept of the Dreamtime until I found myself in a 48-degree day. To survive, some part of me has to leave my body. I sit with my back against a gum tree and drop into meditation. I glimpse how creation stories have been summoned through the heat and the stars.

(I do find it slightly funny that Rose seems to make a serious claim that something deeply spiritually significant happened on this trip because of how many of the white people on the trip go on to "lose our faculties", "go mad", "die early" or "end up in the psychiatric unit", p.138. I can think of a couple of other explanations for that...)

Anyway, this is all just really a minor element, because Rose is much more engaged in Lakota culture, and the book talks about her repeated trips to North America to participate in the Sun Dance, one of the most sacred ceremonies of the Plains peoples. From what I can figure out in the dates, Rose is doing this over several years in the early-t0-mid-1990s, around the time of the 1993 Lakota Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality:

Whereas for too long we have suffered the unspeakable indignity of having our most precious Lakota ceremonies and spiritual practices desecrated, mocked and abused by non-Indian “wannabes”, hucksters, cultists, commercial profiteers and self-styled “New Age shamans” and their followers; and... sacrilegious “sundances” for non-Indians are being conducted by charlatans and cult leaders who promote abominable and obscene imitations of our sacred Lakota sundance rites

and not long before non-Indigenous people were outright and permanently banned from participating in the sun dance by the Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, in 2003:

The Wi-wanyang-wa-c'i-pi (Sundance Ceremony): The only participants allowed in the centre will be Native People. The non-Native people need to understand and respect our decision. If there have been any unfinished commitments to the sundance and non-Natives have concern for this decision; they must understand that we have been guided through prayer to reach this resolution. Our purpose for the sundance is for the survival of the future generations to come, first and foremost. If the non-Natives truly understand this purpose, they will also understand this decision and know that by their departure from this Ho-c'o-ka (our sacred altar) is their sincere contribution to the survival of our future generations.

And -- I mean, okay, maybe Rose didn't know about this, and maybe her participation was over before the 1993 Declaration of War (she was born in 1964 and says she was "twenty-something" when she started her four or five years of vision-questing and sun-dancing), but to not even address this? To blithely go on talking about the profundity and authenticity of your participation in something that the cultural authorities have literally declared war on and described as unspeakable indignity?

I got those quotes and links from Wikipedia by the way when I googled "sun dance". It's not hard to know this stuff. It's a settler strategy called settler ignorance not to know it.

What this all adds up to is a profoundly awful sense of Indigenous culture, spirituality and ceremony as available to white settlers, who are able to walk in to the supermarket of other people's culture and pick and choose the bits that appeal to them. It's a combination of arrogance ("I have a right to go where I want and do what I want") and an objectifying/extractivist attitude that is the enabling foundation of colonialism and settler racism.

*Mykaela Saunders describes Watego's essay on Saltwater as "cold, calculating critique"

" Words are fragile. Like weather they come and go. Words take root in the places I know. From there I follow them into places I do not."

Heather Rose's words are dreamlike, full of poetry and vivid description. They paint resonating pictures of her life, as well as the emotions she moves through in this book. This is a memoir unlike any other I have read. The chapters capture steps in Hearher's life, amd each brings a new perspective of growth, fragility and vulnerability. We feel the emotions within the relationships with her parents, her partners, and her children. We feel her passion as she becomes part of the anti-forestry campaign, as a writer and feel the anguish, the depths of her beliefs as she becomes a sun dancer, and the chronic pain from ankylosing spondylitis.

Her return to the site of one of her most painful memories - where her grandfather and brother Bryon drowned - is achingly beautiful. This is where it all seems to cometogerhrt and the title of the book is played put before us. Heather finds peace in the place where her beloved family members drowned: “nothing bad ever happens here”. Every life and death happens. It is painful, tragic, and it hurts, but deep down, do we really understand that is how it has to be. This is so profound, yet comforting to me. This is a book to read this year. Find it, savour it, and life your life with as much joy as you can muster.

"Life is a process of forgiveness for the choices we make in order to be ourselves."

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here has kept me breathless, immersed in the worlds within worlds within galaxies inhabited so vividly by Heather Rose.
To say I LOVE this memoir is understating the impact it has had on me; the wave after wave of resonance; the sense of having found, at last, a beloved sister. The life I've lived is very different from the life Heather has lived, yet the number of synchronous experiences - especially in spiritual and esoteric realms - is uncanny.
This book makes the popular talk of authenticity seem superficial. It is Heather's soul laid bare; the product of courage, honesty, down to earth vulnerability, fearlessness, joy, love, pain and generosity.
I read it first as a library ebook, and went straight to the Kindle store and bought it. Because this is a masterpiece I need to have at my fingertips; a treasure I need to have in my library.
I've loved every one of Heather's novels but this - this is at another level altogether.
Thank you, Heather, from the depths of my heart.

An interesting memoir in essays of Australian novelist, Heather Rose. She is a unique individual who has accomplished a lot in her life. The mother of three now adult children. She has worked in advertising, business and the arts. In 2017 she won the Stella Prize for her very good novel, ‘The Museum of Modern Love’. She has had five of her adult novels published.

She concisely and touchingly describes the deaths by accidental drowning of her fifteen year old brother and her grandfather. As an adolescent she travels to Asia and at 19, lives in a Bangkok monastery, studying Buddhism. After the birth of a child, she travels to the USA to visit a sweat lodge and discover the power of sun dancing. She returns for one month each year for the next three years. For much of her life she has suffered from chronic pain. She has experienced months in bed, suffering a variety of illnesses. There is one essay about a strenuous 70 kilometer walk she did with her fifteen year old son.

A very interesting, worthwhile read.

This book was first published in 2022.

Wow! F@#king brilliant!

I started planning my GR review in the early chapters however as the book progressed my thinking was completely overhauled and by the end what I planned to write had totally changed. One must have an open mind while reading this book, it made me think about so much, and raises so much for discussion. I was going to write my thoughts in this review however I think this book and my thoughts are best kept for discussion with those that read it (love or hate it, the conversation will be interesting).

I wept and wept while reading the chapter on the author's experience with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) as it resonates with my own experience; the chronic pain that accompanies the condition; the flares.

The ending....WOW!
So many great quotes I want to share but I don't want to spoil any of the content so I choose only one:

"We become what we are story by story, piece by piece. We are all capable of extraordinary things." (p234)

A memoir from one of my favourite authors.
This is a difficult one to review because, while we are a similar age, our experiences differ and I suspect our attitudes to what happens in life differ a bit too. That's surprising to me because when I've heard Heather talk before reading her memoir, I wouldn't have thought that was the case. Nor would I have thought that from reading her novels.
Heather experienced profound grief at the death of her loved ones early in life and I think any grieving process can cause us to experience magical thinking as a way that our brains handles that grief, but my impression is that Heather has a different take on that. While I've had a few deja vu dreams, I've generally found explanations. Our brains are phenomenal things and help us cope with our worries and challenges in interesting ways. Heather has experimented with various substances, has had to cope with chronic pain and has tried to find all sorts of ways to cope. Her reactions and attitudes made me feel she has a lot of internalised ableism, which is quite a common thing in our generation and the previous generations. I've had chronic pain for a different reason for the past 15 years and my coping mechanisms while not 100% effective and certainly not for everyone, have meant I haven't had any medication over most of that period and unfortunately in the list of things she's tried, it seems she never had access to the biofeedback therapy that I learned to use, nor the chronic pain management course that I've done.
However, she comes across as an extremely kind person, and I'm in awe of her work on trying to fight for the Tas forests. The devastation of those forests makes me feel physically ill and no amount of chronic pain management can dispel that feeling.
So it seems not really a review but a few random thoughts that came to mind as I was listening to the audiobook.
Anything she writes certainly makes me think. Which is a great thing and not how all bits of writing affect me.

There is a lot, so much, too much to unpack in this book. I jot down some lines that hold truth for me.

Home becomes that small carved figure and whatever book I am reading.

Sleep becomes an extension of meditation. A time of breath and release, a supine reprieve for the body.

Each of us is a light. None of us is brighter or duller than another. Every one of us glows exactly the same. Each of us is beautiful beyond imagination.

Marriage taught me to pay attention, to hone my instincts, to foster compassion, grace and kindness. I learned how hard fearless conversations are. I learned love can be created and re-created on a moment-by-moment basis. And no matter how good we make it look, love is not always healthy for the people involved. Sometimes the cost is too great. Sometimes the only way to grow is to complete commitments we thought were forever.

Every human life is perfect in its own way. We cannot understand that, because it seems like there is so much suffering. But every life is perfect for what we need to know and learn and see and understand.

I knew something existed beyond this life because my brother came to visit, and he was smiling.

I have dear friends who suffer from mental illnesses. They too have flares. Their minds go to places they cannot come back from without medication, time and healing….We are all doing the best we can. Experiences are not simple. Suffering is not simple.

Often I appear younger and healthier than my peers. I’ve had to think about well-being for decades whereas other people my age are just beginning.

Every day is a good day. Each day he gets to be with his family and friends, to walk a favorite path, listen to a favorite piece of music, read a loved book, be alive in this world, is a good day.

Most of all we can forgive ourselves. Forgiveness is a doorway to joy.

It’s easy to be ashamed of the f*ck-ups, mistakes, and regrets, but in comparison to the magic, they really are quite small. I’m not covering them up. I’m putting them in perspective. I’m forgiving myself for what it took to get here….but reassured that all of this, all of it, is good.

We don’t know how long we have, but here we are. This world is a beautiful, mysterious, magical place to live.

Start with love.
Create ceremony.
Invite everyone.
Speak your truth.
Hold nothing back.
Swim in the beauty.
Dance, even a little.
Talk to each other.
Trust your instincts.
Practice silliness.
Love who you want to.
Forgive yourself.
Forgive one another.
Watch the sunrise.
Sing to the moon.
Read ten new books each year.
Be kind to all people, especially yourself.
Welcome simplicity.
Be grateful.
Choose joy.

I picked this up to read because we will be reading “The Museum of Modern Love” for Bookclub next year, and I wanted to know more about the author before reading it. This is a beautiful memoir, written in essays and I loved that each chapter/essay starts off with a quote. It is absorbing, very personal, courageous and an unexpected surprise. Also a comforting read as despite the heartbreak in her life, Heather Rose emphasises the positivity and joy that each day brings. This is my last read for 2022 and a great book to end the year with!

Heather’s life is incredible, mind blowing and inspiring. Her various adventures and recounts are fascinating and eye opening. The book is written beautifully would recommend

- thanks to @allenandunwin for my #gifted copy

Admittedly, this is probably the most unfair review I have ever written.

I have always tried to be as neutral and unbiased as possible when reviewing memoirs because... who am I to judge someone else's life? Personally, Memoir is the most challenging genre to review, but so far, I have always managed to focus on the writing when it is time to review. Making emphasis on how the story is told instead of the actual story is a self-imposed rule I have been very comfortable following. Until now.

Unfortunately, Nothing Ever Happens Here is the first exception to my self-imposed rule.

I find that I cannot concentrate on commenting on the writing as I usually do because I don't have much to comment about. Although I cannot say I was mesmerised, I was still able to appreciate Rose's writing style and the general structure of her memoir. I believe the book is reasonably easy to read, and I didn't find any problems with the chronological order of events (which can be detrimental in Memoir sometimes), sentence structure or rhythm.

It saddens me to admit that my problem with this book is that I did not connect with Rose's personal story. I could not appreciate her spiritual journey or her commentary on loss and love. Although I cannot say that I found myself judging her —because I genuinely did not— I was still unable to emphatise with her life story, her decisions and her way of seeing the world.

In all honesty, I am still puzzled as to why I reacted the way I did to this book. It has never happened to me before with a Memoir; I have never felt like I could not empathise with the author in any way, because usually there is something I could highlight or appreciate about a fellow human's experience. However, I cannot deny that I was uninterested and utterly unmoved by Rose's story.

Overall, Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here was not my cup of tea. But, I am confident that other readers will appreciate this book way more than I did.

I enjoyed this book. I couldn’t relate to the more mystical / spiritual experiences, especially the sun dances she did to such extremes when her son was so little. I really like the way she described living and coping with her chronic pain condition and she earns my respect, not just for her beautiful writing, her honesty and her environmental activism but also for the way she seems to handle the disappointment and hurt by her mother, and the suffering of her illness, with such grace and acceptance.

This is an autobiography written as a novel. Whilst the author's life was varied, I found the writing plain and uninteresting, and surprisingly lacking in emotional connection to people, as opposed to nature. For readers who embrace spirituality, who believe in visions, ghosts, the paranormal, that natural phenomena signify the spirit world communicating, you may be able to identify with this book. I do not, and did not.

One of my favorite Mary Oliver Poems, “Mysteries,Yes”, ends with these verses:
“Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.”

Let me keep my company with authors such as Heather Rose!
“Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here” is a textured and deeply touching memoir. Heather’s delightful early childhood years in Lime Bay, on the coast of Tanzania, are soaked in sunshine and sea, reading and music, birds and boats. “I live on an island at the end of the world”.
But at age 12 there is a family tragedy which rips apart her parents marriage and casts a pall on her youthful reality which launches her into a lifetime of travel and immersive exploration of spiritual healing. Barely twenty years into her life, she briefly experiments with opium and heroin in Indonesia before landing herself in a Buddhist monastery in Laos, falling in love with “the silence of meditation and the cadence of breath”. She adopts an austere and harshly disciplined schedule requiring 13-16 hours of sitting meditation, yet this new life brings her a welcomed serenity. She becomes ready to see what else the world holds for her. Her subsequent journeys into indigenous spiritual practices become increasingly extreme. I wondered how she made her choices. At times I thought she bordered on pathology with self abusive behaviors. Spending hours and days in sweat lodges, she is called, within a dream sequence, to join the American Lakotas as a “Sundancer”. She impulsively leaves her new husband and child to join the sundance,- she seeks a vision quest, and she prays (in a primal sense) for the health and safety of our planet. She details her “out of body experiences” over the course of the next 4 years, and I’m telling you, it is wild stuff!! Upon her return to Australia she grows her family, establishes a successful business, writes several highly acclaimed novels, forms environmental activist alliances and creates resistance against Forestry Tasmania and their vulgar clear cutting of the county’s once massive virgin forests. The honest retelling of the ups and downs of environmental activism is gut wrenching when the profits of corporate entities spoil the political playing field.
Ultimately, I appreciated the totality of her journey, especially as Heather shares her current perspective as a mature woman who struggles with a chronic illness which is crippling when she has flare ups. Still, she has learned what makes her feel peaceful, how to practice joy, the value that gratitude adds to her personal health. She remains curious. “Perhaps spirituality is another word for curiosity”.
Heather Rose is an exquisite writer. I love her intelligence, her vulnerabilities, her braveness, Her eye for details and how she conveys it in her written words. She speaks directly from her soul and I received her imagery through my own soul. I cannot explain how she does this, but to have you feel it for yourself; “It is a magnificent morning. The sea and the sky have made some arrangement to shine for each other alone.”
I hope to read her fiction books “The Museum of Modern Love, and “The River Wife” are the two that are calling to me. I have only read a few memoirs, and I don’t even know what caused me to read this one- but I am grateful I did!

Rich and inspiring recount of a very lived human experience. Loved.

Memoirs are such tricky books to review. They’re kind of tricky to read too, if I’m honest. I’m not always a fan of them and select them very carefully. This one was not what I was expecting, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Going in, I think I was prepared for a memoir on grief and writing, and to a certain extent, I got some of that. I was particularly interested in Heather’s journey through life as a sufferer of chronic pain with a debilitating condition, but she only really got into that in the last chapter, a pity, because I really enjoyed that chapter a lot and would have preferred more on that than what she did focus on.

I am not opposed to spirituality, nor am I completely sceptical of the paranormal. But I found the majority of this memoir hard going. From her twenties onwards, Heather seems to be constantly seeking something, at first, I thought it was to deal with grief, then I wondered if it was on account of her chronic condition, yet much of what she does seems to cause more suffering and put her body and mind under such extreme duress, that I got to the point where I began skipping forward. I just didn’t want to read about it anymore. A lot of it was just confusing. Much of it dumbfounding. And here is the trickiness I mentioned above: in being critical of this, I feel as though I am judging her on her life choices, and that’s not what I feel I have the right to do, with anyone. I will comment though, that I did feel uncomfortable with many things she chose to do. I simply don’t understand why someone who is not of a certain culture feels as though it is their right to participate in said cultures sacred and traditional rituals. It’s a form of white privilege that does not sit well with me.

Writing wise, this memoir is as lyrically beautiful as any of Heather Rose’s novels. She is so talented with words and evocation of time and place. I listened to this one, read by Heather herself, and apart from the spiritual parts – which were many and also confusing and incredibly drawn out – I didn’t mind it, particularly the later years. I understand why Heather may not have wanted to focus too much on her chronic pain, after all, this is not something any of us want to be defined by, the conditions we suffer and have to live with. The knowledge of it though, coming at the end, may have provided greater context for the spirituality stuff that preceded it if it had been more incorporated throughout. I honestly don’t know how she managed to put herself through all the things she did with the condition she has.

I neither recommend nor not recommend this one. It’s just one of those memoirs that you’ll either love or hate. I’m ambivalent, if truth be told. I definitely wouldn’t read it again and I certainly wouldn’t give it as a gift.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy. Even though I chose to listen to an audio version, I am appreciative of the copy that was sent to me.

3.5

I enjoyed reading this book, and I would recommend it to others, but my own lack of spirituality made it difficult to connect fully with Rose’s story.

Read as an audio book as part of a '12 Books Recommended by 12 Friends in 2023' reading challenge. Well, I finished this book that I contemplated deleting multiple times. I love a memoir but never before have I read one that made me feel like the author was a completely self-involved narcissist. Magical thinking wrapped up as a personal spiritual journey and enlightenment all read in what to me felt like the author's attempt at a meditational vocal rhythm. Rather than soothing, this book grated on me. I found a line or two I appreciated and connected with in the meditation on chronic pain - when friends ask if you're not overdoing things, when what you are actually doing is seizing life when you are able to; and the endless well meant wellness advice from strangers, friends and medical professionals. Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here? Well, something bad happened to me and unfortunately it was being recommended this book.

BRAVE
I feel lazy listening to a book and not reading it, but Heather Rose’s calm and melodious voice makes this a very personal experience.
I usually scoff at spiritualist ju ju, believing I am firmly grounded in the practical but we all have a place for Desiderata in our lives and the odd ghost.
The chapter on loosing her brother, her fight for the Tasmanian wilderness and pain had me spellbound.
Keep swimming in the cold water Heather.

Heather is a wonderful writer. I varied a lot between loving and not enjoying at all the various parts of this memoir. Just felt it to be a lot of parts that didn’t come together into a whole so not taking much away from it. Which is a shame as she seems to be an amazing person.

Some say that a picture can speak a thousand words. For me, a good writer can paint their reader a picture using only a few. Heather Rose does this here. Reading this book was like sifting through a small box of old photographs. It felt so personal and somehow nostalgically familiar.
I love the early Tasmanian memories and the spiritual awakenings through Asia, Native America and Indigenous Australia. And I love the famed quotes so significantly introducing each new chapter through the book.
At one point, Rose poses the question, ‘How does so much happen in a life?’ After reading this book, I find myself asking the same question!! What an incredible lady!

DNF at 62% - I really enjoyed the first third, the writing is good and she has a nice voice to listen to but I’m not interested enough in spirituality to listen to another three hours.

Thoroughly exquisite