“Language lets you down when you need it most,” Henrietta McKervey remarks, in her story A New Day, Tomorrow. Storytelling requires the right choice of words, and events – stream of consciousness, dream writing, is a bit of a con. A real rambling stream of dream is boring. Writers tell the truth by lying. They control language. Dementia – among all the other complex things it does – sooner or later robs people of that control. So how can you write it convincingly?
Jan Carson, in her brilliant introduction, observes that there has been an abundance of fiction about dementia, in recent years. She has read over a hundred books – some good, some “dire”, many trotting out old tropes based on little research or knowledge. She aimed to redress this. The 14 writers who were commissioned to write the stories all had some personal experience of dementia, among family or friends, so they write from an informed position.
In addition, “our team hosted workshops focused on how language could be used experimentally and creatively to capture something of the dementia experience”. I have never come across an anthology, apart from those arising from creative writing workshops, which entailed such careful preparation. It may sound too organised, but it has paid off.
Taking the topic seriously did not result in uniformly earnest stories. Some of them, including Carson’s own Our Dear Ladies Have Outnumbered Us, are hilariously funny. “My father had packed a single cloth bag. It contained an apple, a corduroy tie, and a sweet tin filled with elastic bands.” Humour and quirky, a startling use of language occurs in many of the stories. None is condescending.
Unsurprisingly, most are narrated from the point of view of the outsider rather than the demented, but they are all very different, utterly surprising and stunningly good. They were a revelation to me of how original and enterprising writers, presented with a challenge, can be. Carson’s introduction and Jane Lugea’s afterword are invaluable. This is a completely original book. I wish I could comment on each of the 14 wonderful stories, as they deserve. But get this book, and read it. You will learn plenty and be highly entertained. It’s an outstanding anthology.
