Diving, Falling – Kylie Mirmohamadi

Diving, Falling is a book set in the inconceivably large shadow cast by a volatile patriarch, even after death. It’s an intense subject for a debut, but one that Kylie Mirmohamadi handles well. Scribe were kind enough to send me a copy for review.

Even after a long illness, it’s a shock when larger-than-life artist Ken Black dies – “dying didn’t suit his personality” (page 4). His wife and two sons must quickly learn to navigate a new family dynamic in the absence of its mercurial anchor. Diving, Falling is a fascinating portrait of the complexities of grief, especially when the person lost was radically imperfect but immensely popular.

My favourite aspect, though, were the moments of incredible pith and insight. You’ll just be reading a page of Diving, Falling and Mirmohamadi will hit you out of nowhere with a line that you’ll be thinking about for days. The one that stuck with me most came as Leila is preparing to view Ken’s final work, and it occurs to her: “There would be no more potential after that, only retrospect,” (page 108). Have you ever heard such a brilliantly understated encapsulation of loss?