Tracey Emin - Strangeland

I recently purchased and have already read Strangeland by Tracey Emin.

After viewing her interview with Mark Rawson, i became enthralled with her life and her story, so i bought her book and began to read.

This semi-autobiographical book recalls Emin's memories of being a child, growing up in Margate with her mother and brother, her dad here and there as he also had his other family.

The more i read of this book, the more i didn't want her story to end.

The relationships she describes in this book are different from the ones i have come into contact with, but it's seeing this miraculous turn around of her life that i have more respect for her.

At times in the book, you don't know wether the recollections she is having are real or not, dreaming or living in the real world. But it does give and insight into the troubled mind she may have suffered from, and her experiences during those times.

The sheer frankness and honesty in this book is something that drew me in right away, and the scribbles of Emin's handwriting grace the pages from time to time, showing the personality behind the artist and her true feelings as she wrote them.

They say you can look into alot in handwriting, so maybe that's why Emin chose to have the notes printed into this book; to show her personality through her art rather that printed letters.

She may have just included the notes as another one of her art forms; as well as her collections of drawings.

Her book is very effective and fascinating but for me it didn't pull on my heart strings and beg for my sympathy. It gave me the information honestly. I like that in a book. I prefer autobiographies and hard hitting novels. I prefer brutal honesty and raw emotional tales of life.

That's exactly what Emin delivers in this book.

While reading this book, you see how Emin has become the strong woman she is today. Her candid recollections of her childhood; sex, drinking, dancing...all those hardships she experienced, especially with sex and men.
It seems as though Emin has always been a strong character. In her book it seems as though her memories remind her of how she got to where she is today; she's always fended for herself, stood on her own two feet while her father was away and her mother worked to support her children.
Then she discovers men, and alcohol. But she doesn't become trapped in a vicious cycle, she stands up for herself and stays ona somewhat right path.
Although the drink becomes a problem later on, i believe she used it as a tool to block out the past, the sense of unwant and abandonment. As she says in the first page of her book " But at the moment of my birth into this world, I somehow felt a mistake had been made".
Emin says "My soul had been floating along when, somehow, i got caught up in his (her brother Paul's) conception".
Again this immediate sense of undesirement as soon as she is born sets as a backdrop throughout this book, with her father having other families, wives, children and her use of men, and their use of her, for sex. Just sex.

The book seems to be compiled of exerts from Emin's memory, so the information doesn't flow smoothly, but this is the beauty of how the book has been written.

It takes you into a dreamy state, reminiscent from your own childhood where you recollect memories at different stages.

Usually the memories you remember are sometimes the more vivid and important ones, and that could be why Emin has inserted these memories to show an overview of her childhood, the most dramatic stories and the most touching.

Overall i thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and am in the process of reading it again, picking up on things that i missed the first time around.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Tracey Emin, art and life.