How to Knit a Human (Anna Jacobson, NewSouth)

The contents of Anna Jacobson’s memoir How to Knit a Human are the stuff of nightmares: a young, award-winning artist and poet has a psychotic break, is involuntarily hospitalised and given weeks of electroconvulsive therapy. And yet, somehow, How to Knit a Human is a hopeful piece of work, mostly because the author’s writing reads as authentic and her insights creative. When we meet Anna, she doesn’t know who she is or why she’s in a psychiatric hospital. ‘Her memories stop where her madness began’—and here, it’s important to note that ‘madness’ is the author’s chosen language. The memoir alternates between chapters set in the past (pre-madness) and present (post-madness), with Anna’s ‘memory curling in and out in fragments’, looking for clues in her journals, emails, hospital records and input from family and professionals. Her recollections of the ‘psychotic beast’ consuming her and her slow unravelling (including horrific details found in the hospital files) are chilling. With the help of time, family, friends, writing and artistry, Anna ‘knits herself around the black hole of lost memories’ and reclaims herself and her creativity. While a major motivator for Anna’s memoir might be to reach out to others with related experience, How to Knit a Human will appeal to anyone who appreciates an intimate insight into creativity, writing, family, love and the fragile human condition.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Michelle Atkins is a Communications professional and published educational author. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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