Hoping for Happiness with Banana Yoshimoto's Dead-End Memories
Review | Banana Yoshimoto's Dead-End Memories (2024, tr. Asa Yoneda)
As the days get shorter and the air cools, there is a graceful consolation in the blue sky and yellow leaf offerings of autumn. Perhaps it is the striking contrast of the colours, or the slow descent of the leaves as they drop dry and fragile to the ground. With the shifting of the seasons, when bright days are few and far between, this fleeting beauty becomes all-the-more precious.
In one of the final scenes of Banana Yoshimoto’s short story collection, Dead-End Memories, in a moment of peaceful bliss, the narrator of the titular story is captivated by the beautiful serenity of fallen leaves.
‘There was no past, not future, no words, nothing – just the light and the yellow and the scent of dry leaves in the sun. The entire time, I felt surrounded by happiness.’ Banana Yoshimoto, ‘Dead-End Memories’, in Dead-End Memories
The experience of happiness is a running theme throughout Yoshimoto’s collection, as characters decide whether it is entirely out of our control or something that we can construct for ourselves. Yoshimoto’s characters do not all agree; blissful joy seems to come a lot easier to some than others.
‘Happiness descends on you suddenly, regardless of circumstance, and so indifferently that it seems cruel. It doesn’t care where you are, or who you’re with. You don’t see it coming. You can’t make it happen. It might arrive with your next breath, or you might never get to experience it no matter how long you wait. Like the movements of waves, or shifts in the weather, the miracle lies in wait for everyone. I just didn’t know it then.’ Banana Yoshimoto, ‘Dead-End Memories’, in Dead-End Memories
What Yoshimoto’s collection does suggest however, is that life continues to move forward. Deftly exploring the recurring implications of past traumas, Yoshimoto’s characters must navigate worlds which throw up memories that are not all healed and are often painful.
At first, I found the way that deeply traumatic events from the characters’ lives are introduced so offhandedly into the narrative quite jarring. It felt clumsy or even performative. Each character seems to have a suffered a truly earth-shattering event in their lifetime, many such being violent or even abusive.
However, as I grew to better understand both Yoshimoto’s style and characters, this narrative decision lent itself to complexity rather than tokenism. As in life, these characters each have a past - experiences they have survived that may not be visible on the surface. These past experiences form essential parts of who these characters are, sometimes without them even realising it, but they are not the only things that define them.
Everyone has ghosts in their closet, but everyone chooses to interact with them differently. Some deny their existence, some are just beginning to form a relationship with them, while others are able to amicably cohabit alongside them.
In the collection’s most literal example, ‘House of Ghosts’ features a ghostly couple living in the apartment of the narrator’s friend and love interest. The haunting is not malicious and barely even questioned by the two characters. Instead, their presence is a poignant example of true and deep human connection, acting as a catalyst for the characters own relationship.
Each character is at a different stage in processing the ordeals of their past, because to truly come to a place of inner peace requires time, emotional strength and painful reminiscing. In ‘“Mama!”’, the past trauma of an abusive childhood does not rear its head until a near-death experience forces the narrator to confront it. In ‘Tomo-chan’s Happiness’, the narrator is reminded of an assault in her youth while navigating her present life. While some are still in places of suppression and survival, even for those who have come to terms with their pasts, ongoing ripple effects are felt in unexpected and inconvenient ways.
‘This was what it took, I realised, to be something that survived. Not just constancy, or strength. But – like the ever-flowing river – to engulf everything that came your way and move swiftly on as though it had never been.’ Banana Yoshimoto, ‘Not Warm at All’, in Dead-End Memories
The stories in Dead-End Memories are each markedly reminiscent. ‘Not Warm at All’ tells the story of a woman reflecting on the loss of a childhood friend, as she processes accompanying feelings of grief and regret.
‘Time simply floated open and started to expand. Time held the two of us in light, inside a space so vast it might have reached the heavens, and turned eternal.’ Banana Yoshimoto, ‘House of Ghosts’, in Dead-End Memories
Translated from the original Japanese by Asa Yoneda, at times the English text did feel a little clumsy. Phrases such as ‘I just didn’t know it then’ or ‘that turned out to be far less boring than I expected’ may be essential for the narrative pacing of the short story form, but they did feel somewhat out of place in the otherwise poignant, emotionally charged prose. Whether this is due to translation decisions or simply characteristic of Yoshimoto’s original text, I remain unsure.
In the collection’s final story, ‘Dead-End Memories’, the narrator’s world is turned upside down by the revelation that her fiancé has left her for another woman. Only after hiding out in the city, refusing to go home until she has processed her new situation in life, is she able to move forward and move on.
‘It struck me that family, work, friendships, engagements – all of these were like spiderwebs placed to protect people from the more distressing colours that lurked within themselves. The more safety nets you had under you, the less far you had to fall, and if you were lucky you might live your entire life without even noticing what was below.’ Banana Yoshimoto, ‘Dead-End Memories’, in Dead-End Memories
And thus, Yoshimoto’s ultimate message is one of hope. Everyone has a past, something they are continuing to process, yet moving forward is not only possible, but necessary. Yoshimoto shares an admiration for those who endure the heavy burden of memory, who persist in the face of hardship, and who manage to find beauty and happiness along the way.
‘Because what you choose to pay attention to defines your world. That was the conclusion I came to.’ Banana Yoshimoto, ‘Dead-End Memories’, in Dead-End Memories