Shalimar

This was a beautiful piece of writing, with an unique poetic writing style Quinlivan weaves together memories of her family and their history to try and discover who she is, from looking back over many generations she is able to see a part of herself in many family members. The story starts off with her father’s diagnosis of cancer and it follows the changes to Quinlivan’s life as she deals with this outcome, we all deal with this sort of news differently and Quinlivan gives us an honest account that warms the heart. The love for her father really shows on the pages and she gradually builds an image of her father that is as good as any photograph, I got really caught up in her words and was left feeling this could have been my father. I loved how this story spends so much time looking into the past and after the funeral the focus shifts to the presence and Quinlivan shares her own story adding her life to the family history.

I found myself feeling jealous at how many stories Quinlivan had about her family, the have lived a hard life, being uprooted and travelling around the world but they have made the most of their lot and cared for each other immensely….my family have lived in the one town for a million generations and barely see each other… I am grateful that these stories have been shared and in such a wonderful way.

This was a wonderful book, I really enjoyed the story, you could call it a memoir but it is more of a family tree and I wish there were more books like this out there.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/02/22/shalimar-a-story-of-place-migration-by-davina-quinlivan/