The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things: A Year of Salvage
by Suzanne Joinson
Blurbs:
Suzanne Joinson grew up in a 1980s council estate in Crewe, where her parents were followers of The Divine Light Mission cult. This clash of class and counterculture destroyed her family, leaving a legacy of turmoil and poverty. ears later, she attempts to reclaim what she's lost and piece together the impact of a childhood infused with esoteric yoga practices, psychedelic encounters, and meditation techniques. She acquires replicas of beloved objects that had to be destroyed in regular purges in the hope of restoring family ties. The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things explores the realm of mother-daughter relationships and inherited trauma, in a moving, delicately-woven account of coming to terms with a complicated past.
The Indigo Press has snapped up The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things: A Year of Salvage, a memoir from Suzanne Joinson - Oct 18, 2023 by Katie Fraser
Founder and publisher Susie Nicklin acquired world rights from Rachel Calder at the Sayle Literary Agency. The book is a lead title for the publisher who is presenting it at Frankfurt Book Fair 2023 with publication set for September 2024. Joinson grew up on a council estate in Crewe in the 1980s where her parents were followers of The Divine Light Mission cult: "This clash of class and counterculture destroyed her family, leaving a legacy of turmoil and poverty." Now, in The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things, Joinson explores mother-daughter relationships and inherited class-based trauma in a "moving, delicately-woven account of coming to terms with a complicated past". Joinson is also the author of two novels, A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar (Bloomsbury) and The Photographer's Wife (Bloomsbury), and won the New Writing Ventures Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
She commented: "This memoir shares my experience of growing up in Crewe with parents who were part of The Divine Light Mission. Along the way, I lost almost everything I ever owned. By pulling together a museum of myself, I explore complex family relationships full of pain, but also love. It's a hugely personal book, of course, and the team at The Indigo Press have been amazing. I am very excited about it going out into the world." Nicklin added: "How does a child cope when their possessions are destroyed every six months? How does she respond when her parents eventually decide their devotion was misplaced? How can she participate in society through art, and how can she create a home for her family when that concept is so alien? I am deeply impressed with both the seriousness and the lack of ego in this extraordinary memoir and can't wait to share it with readers worldwide."
I found this book inctredibly depressing. Suzanne Joinson was a child who had no say in her family's involvement with Divine Light Mission. However it is difficult to believe she is talking about Divine Light Mission as I knew it. It appears her parents were in a cult inside the cult with their initiator/instructor/controller "Bill" pulling all the strings and preaching a form of DLM dogma that is extreme to say the least. He claimed he was a chauffeur to the young guru on his second trip to England and on this "spurious spiritual credibility" he appears to be able to select people to "receive Knowledge" or make them think he can. The background information about DLM and Maharaji's speeches come from my site www.prem-rawat-bio.org and are bona fide. The teachings of "Bill" appear designed to gain control over Joinson's father who appears cuckolded, witless and constantly stoned. Drugs were not allowed to followers of Guru Maharaj Ji. Her father mouthed rubbish like "Draw him like he's your special friend. That way you can talk to him in your mind. You can call him Master. With each stroke of the pencil, you start to know you love him. Feel it? You know you are ready. Nothing else makes sense, everything else is dust. You can do that through drawing, you know, right?"
He even teaches her the techniques. She's a disturbed child. Who wouldn't be in this household? She even tries having her frenulum cut by some other stoned non-premie crazy in a London squat to which she has run away.
Fortunately her father does at least one good thing and was waiting around the corner from the squat to rescue her. Her mother even apologised and at least "Bill" was now sent packing from their lives. Her mother comes across lost, depressed, angry, hateful and spends decades accusing the daughter with suicidal threats.
Joinson makes some mistakes in the events of DLM's history that ring true, from memory. Nineteen eighty-something. Dusk coming in. … "Don't look so sad, Suzy-Sue,"' Dad said, sucking on a rollie. "It's just paper and dust. Let it all go. It doesn't change how we feel inside." He'd been told to destroy anything with Guruji's face looking too 'Eastern'. Maharaj Ji was changing his look, or, as my dad said, his vibe. Shaking off the whiff of the seventies. No Mansons, Jonestowns, all that, I'd heard my dad say. We can still kiss his feet, but in secret now, because it looks too whacky. Don't mention it at school, okay?
Earlier, he'd burned all his copies of the Divine Times. Then the meditation pamphlets, satsang programmes and rules for ashram living. All gone. But what I couldn't understand was why our photographs had to go." There had been no commandment to burn personal photos but her father was a fool.
"'Maharaj Ji,' she says, 'has declared himself human. Not the Lord. The One. Perfect Master.' 'What are you supposed to call him now?' I say. 'Ultimate Ruler.' I laugh. Even Mum laughs and meets my eye, but Bill is fuming." Nice joke, Maha Raj. - Maharaji April 7, 1979: Just You And Me
Once the 80's rolled on there was no longer a pretense of ascetic bliss and peace through meditation but an arrogant attitude that these losers were somehow special through their tenuous association with Maharaj Ji, their secret God.
Life in DLM England appears gray, rainy and desolate. The men are sexist, lazy and try to rape a 12 year old girl if it's at all possible and the women are depressed, angry and controlled.
I'm sure there were wealthy, happy premies who enjoyed themselves and very sensibly kept well away from the premie underclass. At least, I hope these stories came from a premie underclass of bongos and are not indicative of most of DLM.