My Name Is Why
By Lemn Sissay
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Canongate
*Gifted*
Watch the Breakdown
My Name is Why is a memoir that explores author Lemn Sissay’s experience of spending his childhood in the British care system. Bulked up with Lemn’s childhood worth of social services documents you get to read first hand the dealings of an institutional care system and also open up yourself to question such as what is the meaning of home and family?
At the age of 17 Lemn Sissay was given his birth certificate and found out that only name and identity he had known his life, ‘Norman Greenwood’ wasn’t actually his birth name. (As a teenager he tattooed the initials N.G on his hand.) At birth he had been named Lemn Sissay, by his mother who was Ethiopian. He then discovered that his mother had been pleading for him to be returned to her after social services took him away from her when they were living in a home for unmarried women.
Lemn spent his whole childhood in the care system, initially with a foster family for the first 11 years, and then was ejected into a foster homes for the last 6 years after his relationship with the the only family he ever knew broke down.
It sounds like the plot of a thriller movie but it’s real life. It’s his real experience.
“I work in rain said the storm
Thunder broke his heart
I woke in light said dawn
And spun the sun in the dark”
Is that how you’re feeling yeah
Memoirs are supposed to be personal and you’re supposed to learn from them. So tick tick, but Lemn’s memoir is that bit more special because he puts his signature all over the book. I mean he’s not just a writer but also a poet who has a way of raising the perfect mixture of emotion out of you; some annoyance, disappointment, but not to the point that you want to put the book down and stop being curious to know more about his life. This writing thing is his speciality, and I’m especially a fan of each chapter starting with a short poem. The memoir flows throughout.
When I read this book I felt like it was a major release. For anyone who has gone through the care system, on one hand it could be triggering, but the greater good is that things have been said and shown that should warrant a look into the current care system and clear failings.
I feel like I just want to have a really quick word with the family that fostered Lemn though to be able to move forward, around the corner. Especially that Mrs Greenwood! She really vexxed me! How are you going to promise someone a forever home and then throw them out when you’re over it. I think how that played out was cruel.
“She says Norman is a naughty boy, and that she sometimes thinks he is ‘amoral’. ”
It Hit me when
Two things throughout the memoir really hit me. The first was reading reports from social workers interactions with people who should have been nurturing Lemn. Grown-ass people that were moving absolutely out of this world and should have known better from a professional commitment but also on a deeper moral level.
The second was when I read about Lemn’s time in his final placement before he went to live independently. It was in a facility called Woodend, a remand centre- he should have never of been there. The letters written in response to a post Lemn had written about Woodend were hard to read with people sharing their own personal experiences of their time there.
I met Lemn Sissay at a charity event in 2017. Whispers this* I had no clue who he was at this time*, but I remember being captivated by his keynote speech about a project he was so fond of. I remember his passion when he discussed The Gold from the Stone Foundation which he had set up, and hosts Christmas dinners around the UK for care leavers. Bringing people together so they don’t feel alone over the holidays.
“Spoke to Mr Graves several times on the phone and eventually visited the school. He felt that Norman’s successes were too many for Chris to cope with. Went on to talk about another placement for Norman- without any consideration of how the boy might feel. I put it to him that it was the only home the boy had known.”
Length
193 pages. It was the perfect length, because I wasn’t waiting for it to finish. Neither did I feel like I’d been finessed and missed out on information.
Seasoning Level
CO2 | Salt | Pepper | Mixed Herbs | All Purpose Seasoning
The book was all-purpose seasoned. A definite read. Lemn Sissay MBE, yes put some respeck on his name and add them last 3 letters. Lemn Sissay is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, artist and broadcaster. As much as you read this book and are in shock (or not) at how this young black child was dragged through a problematic system and feel angry at the injustices he has faced, you can’t help but smile when you realise who this man grew up to be. Stories like Lemn’s show the strength of resilience, and why believing in your sauce is so important.
The Big Quote
“‘I do this job because I love children.’ In all my time in the children’s home they never said, ‘I’m in this job because I love you’. I was becoming invisible.”
*Gifted by Canongate Books
Frizzy