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The Naming of Bones
Every object has a story to tell. Set against the backdrop of the Norfolk coast, The Naming of Bones weaves a patchwork tale of redemption and recovery. Real-life memories intertwine with dreams and folklore in this deeply moving tale of loss and unresolved grief, where tiny moments carry as much weight as the ever-present, ever-changing North Sea. As passionate as it is personal, this story unearths relics of the author’s life to reveal the transformative power of love, understanding and forgiveness.
108 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 22, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 5, 2021
The inexplicable shiver that occurs when you start reading The Naming of Bones - that opening piece that buries itself inside you and spreads like a breeze, never really lets go until the final page.
An extraordinary exploration of life, cause and effect, emotion, is here between the pages of Jan Kaneen's memoir-in-flash. A poignant visit to childhood sadness, adult unease, where an exceptional flow of prose carries us through painful situations. Memories fuse with dreams as we journey with Jan, and we understand.
Beautiful emotional writing - cathartic and uplifting.
An extraordinary exploration of life, cause and effect, emotion, is here between the pages of Jan Kaneen's memoir-in-flash. A poignant visit to childhood sadness, adult unease, where an exceptional flow of prose carries us through painful situations. Memories fuse with dreams as we journey with Jan, and we understand.
Beautiful emotional writing - cathartic and uplifting.
April 24, 2021
The Naming of Bones is a beautiful and beguiling memoir overflowing with the ache of unresolved grief, where very object and every moment carry the weight and profundity of that loss. The seascape location has a windswept rhythm of its own, and its transformative power is woven through with memories, dreams and folklore, all meted out in quiet, nuanced prose. This is a book which shows us the importance of words and the importance of silence; the way in which naming an object can bestow it with significance or remove its energy. Kaneen’s memoir is cathartic, moving and tender; a love letter to her family: a story of healing and re-invention.
April 22, 2021
The Naming of Bones, a memoir-in-flash, by Jan Kaneen is like a love letter: to writing, to the sea, to her family, to herself.
Kaneen explores writing as catharsis within her memoir. “I start writing while the dreamy-feeling is still strong and the pictures sharp and vivid in my mind’s eye, trying not to think, letting my thoughts leak out, unfiltered onto the page. The flow of words is glacial at first, a forced trickle, then it pours, faster again and it’s soaking into the paper in wave after wave after wave.”
In ‘Bagsy-Blobsy, No-Back-Answers’ four children, forging a new family, are on an outing. One small event, the mere climbing of a stile, highlights their individual roles and their roles as a family unit. The “exchange [of] watery smiles strengthen[s] the sharing of them, and that’s that, our stepfamily roles [are] set forever.”
Before this family there was another family, the memories of that family buried so deep within, it takes a trauma to crack open the door and let the memories trickle out. There is a trip to the seaside, with a picnic of sandwiches and marzipan fruit; there is a cake, or an iced bun, with candles; there is something, like shifting sand, packed away that needs to be unraveled.
Through an extended stay by the sea, writing about her dreams and nightmares, Kaneen is slowly able to unearth the treasures hidden in her memory. This is an extremely moving and tender memoir about loss, but mostly about love and its healing powers.
Kaneen explores writing as catharsis within her memoir. “I start writing while the dreamy-feeling is still strong and the pictures sharp and vivid in my mind’s eye, trying not to think, letting my thoughts leak out, unfiltered onto the page. The flow of words is glacial at first, a forced trickle, then it pours, faster again and it’s soaking into the paper in wave after wave after wave.”
In ‘Bagsy-Blobsy, No-Back-Answers’ four children, forging a new family, are on an outing. One small event, the mere climbing of a stile, highlights their individual roles and their roles as a family unit. The “exchange [of] watery smiles strengthen[s] the sharing of them, and that’s that, our stepfamily roles [are] set forever.”
Before this family there was another family, the memories of that family buried so deep within, it takes a trauma to crack open the door and let the memories trickle out. There is a trip to the seaside, with a picnic of sandwiches and marzipan fruit; there is a cake, or an iced bun, with candles; there is something, like shifting sand, packed away that needs to be unraveled.
Through an extended stay by the sea, writing about her dreams and nightmares, Kaneen is slowly able to unearth the treasures hidden in her memory. This is an extremely moving and tender memoir about loss, but mostly about love and its healing powers.
May 7, 2021
A beautiful, evocative, deeply honest, profoundly moving collection that moves between experiences in the author's childhood and adulthood, linked by themes of loss, grief, change, and healing. This memoir-in-flash (the first I've ever read) has a sweeping, haunting quality to it that I don't really have a word for, the kind of book where you sit down to skim a few pages, telling yourself you don't have time today to finish, and then two paragraphs in you get that surreal feeling where you know you're disappearing into this book and everything else can wait because you have to lose yourself in it completely.
I absolutely loved 'The Naming of Bones', and am in awe of the author's skill and strength. Will read anything she writes in future.
Highly, highly recommend.
I absolutely loved 'The Naming of Bones', and am in awe of the author's skill and strength. Will read anything she writes in future.
Highly, highly recommend.
September 3, 2021
I interviewed the author and reviewed this book on my blog, which you can read here: https://www.sarahtinsley.com/post/fla...
An unusual and beautiful memoir. This book is a collection of flash fiction that, at first, seems like a series of thematically-related stories. As you get further into the book, you realise that you've been reading fragments of the same life. There's an undercurrent of grief which the writer seems to be investigating just as much as the reader is, and delicious prose that managed to capture both the confusion of a young child and the voice of an adult longing for closure.
An unusual and beautiful memoir. This book is a collection of flash fiction that, at first, seems like a series of thematically-related stories. As you get further into the book, you realise that you've been reading fragments of the same life. There's an undercurrent of grief which the writer seems to be investigating just as much as the reader is, and delicious prose that managed to capture both the confusion of a young child and the voice of an adult longing for closure.
April 25, 2021
Set in the wildness of the Norfolk coast, this is a memoir about the healing power of the natural world and the stories that lie within in, but is is also about family and how a traumatic event in childhood can upend a person's life. The coastal retreat and Kaneen's use of writing to help heal these wounds is threaded throughout this small but memorable book.
March 23, 2024
Beautiful. Written with heartfelt tenderness. A stunning memoir about grief and love. Exquisitely executed.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews