Friday January 11, 2008

A journey of healing

Reviews by SU-MAY TAN

Monsoon Rains & Icicle Drops

Author: Libby Southwell with Josephine Brouard

Publisher: Pier 9, an imprint of Murdoch Books, 274 pages

FOR most people, losing a loved one makes them turn to ice-cream, religion, prayer or other forms of grief alleviation. Sydney-sider Libby Southwell hops on a plane to Sri Lanka, where she knows no one except for a friend of a friend who offers her some work.

A tad extreme, you may say, but Southwell’s grief is no ordinary dejection. She has just lost her fiance, Justin McDonald (in a mountain climbing accident), two close friends (in a plane crash), an ex-boyfriend and another friend (in another plane crash) -- all around the same period.

Southwell is hit by panic attacks and severe depression, so much so that she cannot take a lift without thinking it will collapse to the ground, or step onto a plane without thoughts of it crashing.

Monsoon Rains and Icicle Drops (dedicated to Justin) is a book about survival and coping with grief. Instead of wallowing, Southwell picks herself up and sets off to discover not just exotic new places but also things about herself. Her adventure starts with a stint as a chef for an eccentric English millionaire in Sri Lanka, followed by travels to Tibet, Mongolia, India and France. Through it all she revels in experiences as varied as watching elephant polo in Sri Lanka, being blessed by a monk in Tibet and living with nomads in Mongolia. In each of these places, she finds people, places and events which begin to fill the emotional rift left by Justin.

Along the way, misfortune continues to follow her – she jumps into a swimming pool in Sri Lanka just as the 2004 tsunami strikes, gets appendicitis during the evacuation and later survives an extreme dengue episode. In the end, however, Southwell evolves from simple advertising executive (which she was in Melbourne) to pioneer of the AdoptSriLanka organisation set up to help survivors of the tsunami.

Stylistically, Monsoon Rains is a travelogue, memoir and biography that reads like a personal journal. It may not have the ironies of a Peter Mayle but what it does have going for it is honesty. Southwell’s voice comes across quite clearly and you can imagine her scrunched up in her yak skin sleeping bag writing about the oncoming sunrise or the eight-hour hike she has just completed. Despite the colourful details about the food (fermented mare’s milk), the accommodation (a ger tent) and a sacred pilgrimage (erecting Wind Horse prayer flags on a Tibetan mountain), I found the writing style a little too direct.

Fortunately, the book is interspersed with emails and letters that break up the monotony and add to the authenticity of the work. A random letter from Justin to a friend, stipulating how he would like to be buried (should he die) is particularly memorable. “Although I will do everything I can to avoid death,” he writes, “at least if I die it happened doing something I love.”

Southwell may not be a literary master but she has what some skilled writers don’t: a story. At the risk of sounding like a movie trailer, Monsoon Rains is a story of one woman’s search for happiness, healing and recovery in the face of heartbreak. The book is a keeper, not just for its beautifully packaged pages (featuring floral Mongolian motifs and artistic scrawls) but the message of strength it delivers. In addition, part proceeds go to AdoptSrilanka, the charity Southwell was instrumental in setting up.