Jenny Diski

Jenny Diski was the undisputed queen of literary experimentation: travelogues, essays, memoirs, fiction, and non-fiction, all approached with a startling sincerity and curiosity rarely found within such a broad body of work. Never one to shy away from a challenging topic, Diski has produced candid literature on topics ranging from mental illness and alcoholism to chaos and homosexuality. That Diski won few awards in her life is both disappointing and relieving because it shows us that she was carving a unique path with every book she published.

Jenny Diski: author

Jenny Diski (née Jenny Simmonds; 1947-2016) was born in London, England, to James and Rene Simmonds. She had a fragmented, abusive childhood; her father deserted the family when she was six, causing her mother to suffer a nervous breakdown. Diski was subsequently placed in foster care. Her mental health suffered greatly from this ordeal, and she would spend many years of her youth in psychiatric hospitals.

In 1963, at age 15, Diski was taken in by famous author Doris Lessing (1919-2013). The relationship between the two soured quickly, and the pair only remained partially in contact for the rest of Diski's life.

In 1976 Diski met her first husband, Roger Marks; the pair chose the name Diski together. In 1977, their daughter Chloe was born. After five years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1981.

Diski wrote avidly and widely for over thirty years. She published her first book, Nothing Natural, in 1986. The controversial novel tells the story of a single mother who meets a lover and becomes trapped in an abusive relationship. Diski would continue to approach challenging themes within her work. Her subsequent novels, Rainforest (1987), Like Mother (1988), Then Again (1990), and Happily Ever After (1991), would approach topics as far-reaching as madness, unjust persecution, chaos, and alcoholism.

In 1997, Diski published her first non-fiction book, Skating to Antarctica, which narrates her incredible voyage to the edge of the Earth, interspersed with a personal journey to discover what happened to her abusive mother. The book was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Non-Fiction.

Jenny met her second husband, Ian Patterson (1948-), moving to Cambridge with him in the year 2000.

Diski's next travelogue, Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America with Interruptions (2002), narrates a railway trip around the United States of America. It won the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

Diski continued to write extensively until her death in 2016, publishing a new novel, Apology for the Woman Working, in 2008, closely followed by non-fiction works The Sixties (2009) and What I Don't Know About Animals (2012).

In 2014, Diski was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given two to three years to live. Her final memoir, In Gratitude (2016), is a candid, sincere exploration of her experience with the disease. She died in 2016, aged 68, survived by her husband and daughter.

Jenny Diski: Skating to Antarctica

Diski's most famous work, Skating to Antarctica, reads like two stories intertwined. Primarily, the book describes a journey to Antarctica to see the polar ice, but it soon becomes apparent that it is about more than that. As the story progresses, readers realise they are embarking with Diski on a journey of personal reflection.

Diski chooses to travel to Antarctica in the hopes of finding inner peace. While being treated for depression in a psychiatric hospital, she learned to value the unnatural silence and isolation she found there. Her journey to Antarctica initially began as an opportunity to experience that 'stillness' once again. She believes that Antarctica's unbroken white emptiness will allow her to experience the safety and solitude she craves.

Fig 1. To Diski, the journey to Antarctica was an opportunity to experience true stillness and solitude once again.

The character that turns Skating to Antarctica from an unadorned travelogue into an intimate personal reflection is Diski's teenage daughter, Chloe. For years, Diski has avoided learning the truth about what happened to her abusive mother. When Chloe decides to research what became of her maternal grandmother, Diski is reluctantly compelled to confront her past and find closure.

The book cleverly alternates between its two main narratives. On the one hand, Diski provides sparse, astute descriptions of the Antarctic wilderness. From vast expanses of ice and long nights at sea to small deserted towns and half-sunken whaling ships, Diski explores Antarctica's mysterious aura in astonishing depth. On the other hand, Diski intersperses her narrative with chapters of emotional reflection and deeply contemplates the events of her childhood.

When Diski discovers that her mother has been dead for many years, she acknowledges that she now has closure and can move on with her life.

Jenny Diski: Stranger on a Train

In her second travelogue, Stranger on a Train, Diski travels the circumference of America by rail. On her journey, she meets an assortment of interesting characters, each with an exciting story to tell.

If Skating to Antarctica was an examination of her childhood, Stranger on a Train is Diski's attempt to recollect and contemplate her troubling teenage years. She discusses her experience of the 1960s, explores the culture of the era, and details her battles with drug addiction and depression at the time. Much like in Skating to Antarctica, Diski intersperses astute observations and poignant descriptions of contemporary America with moments of intense reflection.

Diski links her teenage years with her time in America via the circular route of the train. She reveals that as an adolescent she would ride the Circle line on the London Underground simply to have a place to go. She uses this as a basis to better understand how much has changed and to draw parallels between the person she was then and the person she has become.

Fig 2. While travelling the circumference of America by train, Diski reminisces about her teenage years spent repeatedly riding London's Circle line, simply to have a place to go.

Jenny Diski: writing

Diski is praised for her individuality and unique approach to complex, difficult topics. Throughout her writing career, she tackled many themes that were equal parts distressing and engrossing: madness, sado-masochism, and depression, among others. Diski's determination to push herself into new territory and treat each novel as a departure from the last has garnered her a reputation as one of the most experimental writers of the 21st century.

Diski's writing is renowned for its wit, humour, and startling honesty. When writing non-fiction, she is candid and never indulges in self-pity despite the traumas she endured throughout her life. She approaches topics with dry irony; nothing is off-limits. Her books don't shy away from being opinionated, and she has never been afraid of being controversial. She cites Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), and James Joyce (1882-1941) as her literary heroes.