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sunshowerdandelionFinished The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto. It is a very comfortable novel. There is a deep, deep loneliness throughout, on the same wavelength as mine, and I knew immediately that her notion of beauty is similar to mine also. Everything beautiful is at the same time sad and vice versa, although the sadness is a special, melancholy kind. I think it's called saudade.
And the book feels very twilight. I mean this as a whole: there are multiple scenes describing the scenery, and most are melancholy. The backdrop is a tragedy and strange love. The narrator, Yayoi, constantly evokes nostalgia, which I thought was really clever - I get nostalgia when I'm about to remember something, and in her case the nostalgia is very much a phantom feeling. But yes, that is the feeling of the book: beautifully, nostalgically, gently sad.
I think it's also very tender. This veers into writing - I think I need 'prep' in order to write well. Most of my good writing, I think, is quite emotional, and I need to be in a certain headspace to write my best work. All this time I thought the headspace emotion was nostalgia. I'd listen to older music, music from things I might have enjoyed, had I been born elsewhere, at another time, and yes, that is part of it. But another important part is tenderness.
Yoshimoto is very, very tender towards her characters. Despite the tragedies, they are swaddled in that pretty sadness. Things work out. I think this is the only recent novel I've read that's had a happy, up-looking ending, and while I'm sometimes skeptical of them, I think this one is one that is eminently believable. Nothing gets resolved, but people are tender towards each other.
Today, while writing and before writing, I'll try to evoke that tenderness. I'll try very hard.
And the book feels very twilight. I mean this as a whole: there are multiple scenes describing the scenery, and most are melancholy. The backdrop is a tragedy and strange love. The narrator, Yayoi, constantly evokes nostalgia, which I thought was really clever - I get nostalgia when I'm about to remember something, and in her case the nostalgia is very much a phantom feeling. But yes, that is the feeling of the book: beautifully, nostalgically, gently sad.
I think it's also very tender. This veers into writing - I think I need 'prep' in order to write well. Most of my good writing, I think, is quite emotional, and I need to be in a certain headspace to write my best work. All this time I thought the headspace emotion was nostalgia. I'd listen to older music, music from things I might have enjoyed, had I been born elsewhere, at another time, and yes, that is part of it. But another important part is tenderness.
Yoshimoto is very, very tender towards her characters. Despite the tragedies, they are swaddled in that pretty sadness. Things work out. I think this is the only recent novel I've read that's had a happy, up-looking ending, and while I'm sometimes skeptical of them, I think this one is one that is eminently believable. Nothing gets resolved, but people are tender towards each other.
Today, while writing and before writing, I'll try to evoke that tenderness. I'll try very hard.
