Birthmark: A Hologram

by Stephen Clingman

When Stephen Clingman was two, he underwent an
operation to remove a birthmark under his right eye.
The operation failed, and the birthmark returned, but in
somewhat altered form.
In this captivating and beguiling book, Clingman takes
the fact of that mark – its appearance, disappearance and
return – as a guiding motif of memory. This is how we
remember the worlds we are born into, how they become
a set of images in the mind, surfacing and resurfacing
across time and space. South Africa under apartheid was
itself governed by the markings of birth – the accidents
of colour, race, and skin. But what were the effects on the
mind?
Here a further motif comes into play, for in the operation
Stephen’s vision was affected, and his eyes came to see
differently from one divided vision in a divided
world. How, in these circumstances, can we come to a
deeper kind of vision, how can we achieve wholeness,
acceptance, find our place in the midst of turmoil and
change?
In an enchanting and cumulative narrative set on three
continents, Stephen’s memories make up the hologram of
the book’s subtitle. It is a story that is personal, painful,
comic, and ultimately a book not so much of the
coming of age, but the coming of perspective.

214 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2015