Ruth Cracknell (1925–2002)
Autor(a) de Journey from Venice
About the Author
Obras de Ruth Cracknell
Mother and Son: Season 1 1 exemplar(es)
Mother & Son: The Complete Series 1-6 1 exemplar(es)
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome de batismo
- Phillips, Ruth
- Data de nascimento
- 1925-07-06
- Data de falecimento
- 2002-05-13
- Sexo
- female
- Nacionalidade
- Australia
- Ocupação
- actor
- Premiações
- Australian Living Treasure, 1998
AM, 1980
Membros
Resenhas
Prêmios
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Estatísticas
- Obras
- 6
- Membros
- 263
- Popularidade
- #87,567
- Avaliação
- 3.6
- Resenhas
- 7
- ISBNs
- 16
A good memoir requires, at least, one of four features: an author with either a unique voice, perspective, experience, or insight into the world. Ruth Cracknell has part of an experience and nothing else to offer.
Journey from Venice records Cracknell's support of her husband, Eric Phillips, as he falls ill during a holiday in Venice, Italy. When these events sit at the forefront of the work, there is hope for the memoir being a valuable read. However, Cracknell insists on Venice only powering half of her story. The rest struggles to elevate beyond a synopsis of incidents that millions of families go through each year. Granted, it is tragic and painful, and the writing of a book helps heal the wounds, but the product is ultimately one of self-service.
That is not to diminish its execution. It is a competently written piece - at times even compelling. Its basis is a matter-of-fact style that allows Cracknell to adapt the structure and prose to suit the action on the page: long and clear sentences depicting periods of calm routine; non sequiturs and sporadic language depicting anxiety; introspective and even poetic language for revelatory moments. If only this attention to style and detail remained consistent.
At times it is an itinerary of landmarks and portraiture. At other points Cracknell lifts content directly from her travel dairy. She also manages to work in her rolodex of acquaintances from her annals of geo-politics, the arts, and medicine. There are even points of poetic reflection that fall flat solely because of Cracknell's completely sheltered life, leaving her out of touch with even the most basic of realities.
For those like me who do not know, Cracknell was an Australian actress from 1946 up until her death in 2002. It is not an exaggeration to say that one of her great revelations in the book's Epilogue was that beneath its tourist trap of a facade, Venice was in-fact a city like any other, containing hard working citizens fighting against the odds to persevere. Cracknell even had the gall to claim to be one of them, having spent three-weeks there not holidaying as planned. This is only the terminus in a long line of unlikable quirks she reveals in the pages of the book: a general main-character mentality to the world around her; being the centre of attention (often positively) to every medical establishment she and her husband set foot in; having the exclusive right to exhibit road rage; little hesitancy in looking down at those around her she deems lesser.
And while its blurb and quoted reviews highlight the love story angle, the actions reflect the bare minimum of what a loving family would do when one of their own is in trouble.
With each of these issues weighing it down, what should be a short, snappy read drags. Ongoing repetition of medical evaluations and family reunions that rather than reading for effect come across as summaries of events. Cracknell's observations of her experience seem to be written with a tone of poignancy, but instead resonate with the dulcet tones of "is that it?"
Really, Journey from Venice boils down to being a book that had the weight and appeal of a built-in audience brought about by fame. While I do not regret my time with the book - and I didn't come away from it with less than I began - it just barely balances itself out to being fine. Some readers may be helped in knowing that others have experiences similar to theirs, but far better texts exist to help with that sort of healing process.… (mais)