Kathryn Harrison (1) (1961–)

This has to be the most honest memoir I have ever read. The subject matter in almost any other context would be impossible to read about. The underlying story is deeply disturbing, but the writer's ability to shape and color, and place the events in a relatable storyline, is absolutely first rate. I know I am writing this 25 years after it has been published, but I read it as part of my research into writing my own deeply disturbing memoir. It was recommended in at least two show more how-to-write-a-memoir books I have read recently. Highly recommended within the framework noted above, but not everyone will be able to read it. show less

The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison
Memoir

Incredibly brave and poignant recounting of the author's dysfunctional relationship with her entire family. The focal point of her life had always been her mother and father, who had married young after becoming pregnant. She always felt invisible to her mother and wanted only to be seen and loved by her. Her mother was incapable. She had her own internal demons which left Kathryn abandoned, neglected, forgotten.

Her father, who was forced out by his wife's show more parents, left the family when she was six months old. She saw him only a few times as a child, and even though he had remarried, he and her mother still had an obsession with each other which Kathryn witnessed with curiosity on the few occasions they were all together.

After a 10-year absence, Kathryn and her father were reunited. She was then 20 years old, a college student. They both seemed to be mesmerized by each other--Kathryn feeling like she was getting to know herself when she saw similarities between herself and her father, same walk, same face, same gestures. Her father, by then a successful minister, seemed to have fallen into an obsessive trance when he was near her. He couldn't stop touching her, staring at her, crying over the years lost. Even though it seemed over the top, Kathryn ate up all the attention she received from him. She finally was being seen by someone who declared he loved her.

I don't know it yet, not consciously, but I feel it; my father, holding himself so still and staring at me, has somehow begun to "see" me into being. His look gives me to myself, his gaze reflects the life my mother's willfully shut eyes denied.

From a mother who won't see me to a father who tells me I am there only when he does see me: perhaps, unconsciously, I consider this an existential promotion. I must, for already I feel that my life depends on my father's seeing me.

Slowly and cunningly, her father forces her to give everything to him, all or nothing. He is determined to own her, to possess her. In his mind, he feels that God gave her to him. She becomes distraught and unable to function in daily life; she even leaves college for a while. All her attention is focused on him and she is unable to explain to anyone what is happening inside her. ...I know it is wrong, and its wrongness is what lets me know, too, that it is a secret.

Her story is really heartbreaking and maddening. It seems at every turn, she encountered yet another person who was incapable or unwilling to give her a safe place to grow. Abandoned by both parents, grandparents withheld physical affection. Several people saw the unnatural relationship between her and her father developing but did nothing but cluck their tongues. To be fair, at one point her mother did suspect that something was going on and brought Kathryn to her therapist. In the telling, however, it almost seemed like the mother was doing it not out of concern for her daughter, but possibly out of jealousy or the need to prove her level of importance in the "contest" for the father's love.

In any event, there was evidence of a cycle of abuse through generations (her father's father made a pass at her as well) and no one seemed to be doing anything to stop it, including the author herself. There was no epilogue informing/reassuring her readers that her younger sisters or even young women in her father's congregation were kept from his possible manipulation. All that being said, her honesty is commendable, she's a talented writer, and her ability to put words together in such a beautiful way is a rare gift. show less

First, I was really sucked in by this book. It is simply great storytelling, using the sparest kind of writing, incorporating things like loneliness, meteorology, mathematics, sexual obsession, Alaska during WWI, etc. I mean there is a lot of fascinating stuff in this slim novel. I admit that I would be the first to say, Who cares about weather, or the math used to predict it? Well, in THE SEAL WIFE, Kathryn Harrison writes about these esoteric elements so well that she makes you show more care.

Harrison has written a half dozen or more books by now, but THE SEAL WIFE is the first one I've read, although I certainly remember all the publishing industry buzz nearly twenty years ago about her notorious memoir, THE KISS, which detailed an incestuous affair an adult Harrison had with her father. So, knowing that much, perhaps I should not have been surprised by the sexual detail found in THE SEAL WIFE, about Bigelow, a young weatherman in Anchorage, Alaska, who becomes obsessed with a mysterious, self-possessed and silent Aleut woman during the years of WWI. Harrison paints a darkly luminous portrait of the loneliness of frontier life in the land of the midnight sun, a rough, bleak region populated mostly by men.

Again, one wouldn't think reading about the mathematical calculations needed for weather forecasts or constructing a giant kite to send weather instruments miles into the sky would be all that interesting. Well, trust me, it is.

Far in the back of my mind, I keep recalling a novel I read years ago about an Irish fisherman who marries a "seal wife" - a riff on the Selkie legends - but I cannot for the life of me remember the title or author of that book. In any case, there are very subtle elements of that old Celtic myth artfully woven into the story of young Bigelow and his Aleut lover.

But I don't want to spoil any of this story for other readers. It is, however, one of the most mesmerizing books I've read in a long time. I LOVED it! Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Kathryn Harrison's ENCHANTMENTS tells the story of Masha, the elder daughter of Rasputin, and her experiences following his assassination in 1917 Russia. Both Masha and her younger sister are taken in by Tsar Nicholas and his family, where Masha in particular is expected to take over her father's role as the helper and savior of the young Tsarovitch. Harrison depicts a fascinating world through Masha's eyes, showing readers Russia in the midst of a revolution that forever changed the outlook show more of the country, poised as it was between the old, traditional world and the start of a more modern one.

What I found particularly intriguing about this book is the very real, personal voice Harrison gives to the circumstances. History conveys many stories, both harsh and sympathetic, about this final ruling family of Russia, and of Rasputin himself, who was looked upon as everything from a holy man to a crazed interloper. Harrison takes a far more objective look, despite addressing the history from the viewpoint of a participant. She also makes the period in history feel very real and recent; in many ways it seems similar to modern day struggles between the old ways and new technology.

I did find that in some places the shifts between current happenings and Masha's flashbacks were a bit jarring, but that could easily be a case of layout issues--an additional space between paragraphs would clarify a great deal.

Overall, the book was engrossing and beautifully written. Harrison's turns of phrase are lyrical and the imagery in vivid and compelling. A very worthwhile and enjoyable read. show less