The Space within the Heart

by Aubrey Menen

Genres: Memoir

209 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Salvator Aubrey Clarence Menen was born in 1912 in London, of Irish and Indian parents. After attending University College, London he worked as a drama critic and a stage director. When World War II broke out, he was in India, where he organized pro-Allied radio broadcasts and edited film scripts for the Indian government. After the war ended, he returned to London to work with an advertising agency's film department, but the success of his first novel, The Prevalence of Witches (1947), induced him to take up writing full-time. Aubrey Menen’s writings, often satirical, explore the nature of nationalism and the cultural contrast between his own Irish–Indian ancestry and his traditional British upbringing. Apart from his novels and non-fiction works Menen wrote two autobiographies titled Dead Man in the Silver Market (1953) and The Space within the Heart (1970). He died in 1989 in Thiruvananthapuram.

Reviews

[Eddie Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how well read Aubrey Menen is today, but in the second half of the last century he had an international career as a dramatist, novelist and travel writer. He had relationships with Duncan Grant and Maynard Keynes, which placed him in the orbit of the Bloomsbury group in his youth. He has an unflattering reminiscence about Virginia Woolf in this book, although nothing on Grant and very little on Keynes. His attitude to the Bloomsburies is one of affectionate scorn.

The first half of this author’s memoir is interestingly structured, beautifully written and absorbing (if perhaps lighter on detail and personal revelation than one would wish) - the second half veers off into a lengthily narrated philosophical and spiritual crisis, which nevertheless is frustratingly light on specifics. The whole left me underwhelmed and unsatisfied.

[Andrew Boden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menen is admirably clear and frank about even his deepest social and psychological flaws. There was a coldness that pervaded the book, however. I found it difficult to put my finger on exactly the source of this. Perhaps it was Menen's judgements of his parents, which at times seemed unnecessarily harsh. Perhaps it was his aloofness even when his parents were suffering later in life. At the end of the book, he describes finding a space within his heart following a period of self-prescribed asceticism and self-reflection in a Roman Piazza. And, yet, his occupancy of this inner sanctuary, metaphysical or otherwise, doesn't seem to draw him any closer to humanity or increase his compassion for those nearest him. At least, obviously.

[Gurjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aubrey Menen has done full justice to an autobiography. It does not just boast about him, his traits or achievements. Rather its a beautifully depicted journey of life. One can easily relate to the humbleness and straightforwardness style of the author.
An inspirational self styled essay.
Good read for sure!

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aubrey Menen, sets about to reach that Space within his heart by peeling layers after layers of his life with an almost steely coldness of a surgeons knife.

He seems so far removed from any emotional outbursts in this exercise.
There is a lack of defensiveness in accounting for his life and the way he set about living it on his own terms.
This lack of defensiveness and subsequent unapologetic writing frees the reader from unconsciously adopting a moralistic view on his life.

After reading the book, one gets the feeling that Menen cared less about reader sentiments but more about putting down in words his journey towards the space within his heart.