Well, I had such high hopes of doing lots of short story reading this weekend but in the end I managed to only read my Tove Jansson story. It is another good one, so no disappointment there at least. I am a third of the way through the collection and I think there won't be one bad apple among them all! If I have a towering pile of 'on the go books' at the moment, my short stories are quickly approaching the same mammoth proportions. But more about those after this week's story.
Isn't "The Woman Who Borrowed Memories" a wonderful title? Her stories are so memorable, each on, thanks to their uniqueness and unusualness. I can still vividly recall each story that I have read and scarily I am finding I tend to forget things far too quickly these days. I mentioned when I started reading the collection that the introduction by Ali Smith is very good and one of her observations she makes keeps resonating with me with each new story I read. "The collection revels in this paradox, the human longing for solitude versus the human need for contact." I feel this paradox in the stories I am reading. Sometimes the stories are a little disconcerting or disorienting, but in an ordinary--'life is disconcerting'--sort of way.
Last week's story verged on the surreal and this week's does as well. What happens when you return to your former life, one filled with happy memories and good former friends, only to discover the friend seems to have usurped your life (or your version of it anyway)? Your memories of your younger self all of a sudden are questioned and denied. I don't know about Stella, but I began questioning whether I could rely on the character's narration. What is true and what is not?
It's been over a dozen years since she's been home, but when Stella returns to her old flat after living abroad, it almost seems as though nothing at all has changed. At least superficially. The landlady is her old self and the building is as if she had just left yesterday. But Mrs. Lundblad, seeing Stella come in and dash up the stairs, seems wary of Stella's effusiveness on returning home. "It's like that old saying: when the swallows go, it's because the home's no longer a happy one. And one swallow doesn't make a summer".
So many years ago Stella let her friend Wanda stay without paying any rent. Then Stella won a scholarship and went away, and Wanda stayed. And Wanda filled in the space, still filled with the essence and belongings of Stella. The two women begin to reminiscence over old, happy days, yet Wanda seems to have "borrowed" Stella's past life, her memories. Stella tries to gently remind her:
" . . . 'surely you haven't forgotten that I was the one who lived here. This was my home. Be honest, it was my place, wasn't it? Of course it was'. Wanda laid her hand over Stella's and went on in a friendly voice. 'Memory plays funny tricks. But don't worry about it; it's totally natural. You're every bit as welcome now as you were then'."
And so it goes on. Wanda seems to reimagine each memory of Stella's putting herself in the starring role. Until it all becomes too stifling. Leaving the flat Stella only feels a heavy weight lifted, not a sadness, not a rosy nostalgia, just relief. What does all this say about looking back? Maybe it is really true that you really can't ever go back home again, and it is probably a wise idea not to want to.
Another thoughtful story, told in such a vivid and 'memorable' manner! Next week, the titular story, "Travelling Light".
***
Along with the books of stories mentioned last weekend, I now have a few more to add to the pile. I've discovered these wonderful little Everyman's Pocket Classics, which is a series of books of short stories gathered by theme. Most seem to be anthologies, so stories by various authors, but there are a couple of collections of stories by John Updike and I have The Maples Stories, which I think will be my next story collection I'll be reading from weekly. Updike published a story in 1956 about a married couple, Joan and Richard Maple, and then over the course of his career he returned to them time and again and now they are collected together in one volume. I'm very eager to get started, but of course I am still excited to continue on with the Tove Jansson collection, too.
Along with the Updike stories, I have Stories of Art and Artists, and New York Stories. They are gorgeous little books and I think I have only previously read one of the stories. Books to look forward to and I might just continue to collect the other books in the series. Quite a treat for a dedicated story reader!