Bold, beautiful and constantly surprising essays about life, loss, joy and the fabric of memory. In this deftly woven work Flora Feltham explores the corners where her memories are stashed: the archive vault, her mother’s house, a marriage counsellor’s office, the tip and New World. She takes us on a frenzied bender in Croatia, learns tapestry and meets romance novelists, all while wondering how families and relationships absorb the past, given everything we don’t say about grief, mental illness or even love. Most importantly, she asks, how do you write about a life honestly – when there are so many flaws in the way we record history and, more confrontingly, in the way we remember? Bad Archive is a lucid, continually surprising, funny and at times racingly personal essay collection by the winner of the Letteri Family Prize for Creative Nonfiction in 2021. ‘Flora is just so smart and funny and these essays have so much heart. Her idiosyncratic, warm and wry voice moves seamlessly across time and space.’ -Rose Lu, author of All Who Live on Islands
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Imprint: Te Herenga Waka University Press
Publication date: 11/07/2024
Bad Archive
by Fiona Feltham
Review by Alex
This collection of short stories-meets-essays by Wellington writer and archivist Flora Feltham felt like a great catch-up with an old friend: intimate, quietly joyful, and self-affirming.
Each story pulls off a delightful bait-and-switch – exploring one thing at surface level, while so much more simmers underneath. She writes about her passing obsession with a Victorian teenager; a drug-fuelled Croatian holiday; a Meccano convention; species of gulls in Aotearoa; her worm farm. At the same time, she slowly, quietly tells us about her sister, whose loss echoes through the years; about her work as an archivist and the imperfect lens with which she peers into the past; about her slowly-warming relationship with her father; about the impact of colonisation on the ecological system.
Her writing is measured, logical, calm but also brutally honest. She doesn’t shy away from a tricky topic or hard truth. Everyday tragedies are depicted unflinchingly: infidelity, family dynamics, friendships ending meaninglessly. Inversely, when she reflects on the good in life, it is hard not to smile with her, and these small rich joyful sentences peek out unexpectedly all through the book.
This was a great debut and I look forward to reading more of her work in future. Perfect for readers who enjoy Lucia Berlin or Sarah Quigley.
You can also listen to Alex’s review from RDU below:
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