Memoirous

An Angel at My Table is an autobiography by New Zealand author Janet Frame and a film by Jane Champion released in 1990. The latter had a big effect on me. Maybe because of the scene where because of the anguish of her mental illness she’d submitted to have a lobotomy—which was stayed by news of a major literary prize for a collection of her short stories. For years Ms. Frame suffered from the misdiagnosis of schizophrenia. On the scale of personalities she was extremely shy and perhaps on the autism spectrum. She certainly had had a rough go if it growing up, losing two beloved sisters in two separate drowning accidents, as well as other disjointed and bitter family interactions. In the end, surviving all this, she turned into a prolific literary writer and was rumored to be on a list for the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature. What has stayed with me, at the end of the film, Frame emerges from a little trailer parked it would appear in someone’s driveway, perhaps a sibling’s or fri...