Moving, eclectic, and full of life.
Feature image credit: Simon & Schuster
In 1990, artist and teacher Suzanne Chick found out the name of her birth mother. She had always known that she was adopted, and was told that her birth parents were both dead. She is stunned when she opens the envelope to find that her birth mother was renowned writer Charmian Clift. So begins an odyssey to find out about the mother and the woman, both of whom were, and to some extent still are, somewhat mysterious. She eventually wrote a book about this experience, Searching for Charmian, which was published in 1994, and opened up conversations not just about Clift herself, but about the broader issues of adoption and the experiences of adoptees.
This year, Searching for Charmian was rereleased.
Chick’s writing is as fresh today as it was in ‘94. She takes the reader on the journey with her: learning about ‘Charm’ and her difficult, yet just-as-enigmatic, husband George Johnston; watching Chick learn about herself; feeling someone making sense of their own identity. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Clift, who sadly died by suicide in 1969. Writer and one-time partner of Clift’s son Martin, Nadia Wheatley has recently brought out a biography, and new editions of Clift’s work. Playwright Sue Smith’s wonderful Hydra hit the stages, including here in Adelaide with a production by State Theatre Company. And most recently a new documentary directed by Rachel Lane, Life Burns High, premiered last year and is currently available for streaming.
For this edition of Searching for Charmian, Chick has written a new postscript, and her daughter Gina Chick (of Alone Australia fame) has written a foreword. This book becomes a confluence of four generations of mothers and daughters, each with their own losses to bear: each looking both back to the mother, and forward to the daughter. Clift’s other daughter Shane also died by suicide, and Gina lost a daughter at only three years old. But do not fear: Searching for Charmian is, like the woman herself, also full of life, passion, warmth, and love.
It is easy to see how this became a seminal work around adoption, and the move to crack open the secrecy that used to surround it. And it is also, of course, a wonderful addition to the works of, on, and around, Clift and Johnston. This is a beautifully written memoir which honours Charmian the mother, as much as it does Charmian the writer.
Distributed by: Simon & Schuster
Released: April 2025
RRP: $36.99
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
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