Yes Jan, I will once it's done!! In the meantime I will post chapters of Broken Whispers-- Life and Times of a Pavement Prostitute -- a novel in verse. I am waiting to make an email list before posting in Substack..!
Loved this chapter Jan. I’ve also referred to my own experience with overwhelming sadness as a mist of melancholy which lingers gently after the thick fog of depression has lifted. Your interactions with Ngat and her family via the gift of Nikes from a friend is interesting and provides more insight into life there in Hanoi as do your descriptions of the streets.
This chapter had lots of themes in it and I found the last scene/story about the MD like person on the plane at odds with the rest, or maybe too unrelated … or unrelatable me. Maybe it leads into the next chapter I’m about to read.
I'll look at the plane scene, there are other performance ideas to come... and about reading The Lover, as I say in Chap 1, I think it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. There is a movie, The Lover directed by Jean Jaques Annaud, that tells the story in a more conventional way. It's a good movie.
Thanks Maureen, ah yes, that mist, comforting at the same time so all pervasive. The town where Marj lived out the rest of her years and I lived my last 2 years of high school before leaving, used to get heavy fog til 2pm in winter. Marj hated it and investigated S.A.D. as a cause of her depression. I used to love going jogging in it, disappearing with out a trace...
Again, your writing draws me in an. And.. because I am family. I had the same parents as you but saw them through my eyes. I too battle with the thwarting. Is it in our DNA? I often wondered if all my adventure activity was to escape the 'thwarting."
Thanks Pip, oh that's interesting, yes I think you are onto something there! DNA, I don't know, but given Jeanie's illness after giving birth to Marj maybe it's connected...
Such an interesting read, this one, Jan. You weave MD and her incident gracefully. Your choice of words/phrases/imagery are a literary treat.
I have been writing about a sexagenarian classical musician searching about for a nineteen YO maverick girl in Kolkata and the setting is mostly around the riverbank Babughat and Princep Ghat (which I have been haunting since my childhood) and this novel-in-verse resonates with your memoir. Keep up with your fabulously literary piece !!
Thanks Bob, I really appreciate your interest and comments. I'd love to read your Kolkata story, and in verse too! Sounds like a great setting, woukd you think of sharing it on Substack?
Yes Jan, I will once it's done!! In the meantime I will post chapters of Broken Whispers-- Life and Times of a Pavement Prostitute -- a novel in verse. I am waiting to make an email list before posting in Substack..!
Ok, excellent, I can (barely) wait!
Loved this chapter Jan. I’ve also referred to my own experience with overwhelming sadness as a mist of melancholy which lingers gently after the thick fog of depression has lifted. Your interactions with Ngat and her family via the gift of Nikes from a friend is interesting and provides more insight into life there in Hanoi as do your descriptions of the streets.
This chapter had lots of themes in it and I found the last scene/story about the MD like person on the plane at odds with the rest, or maybe too unrelated … or unrelatable me. Maybe it leads into the next chapter I’m about to read.
I'll look at the plane scene, there are other performance ideas to come... and about reading The Lover, as I say in Chap 1, I think it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. There is a movie, The Lover directed by Jean Jaques Annaud, that tells the story in a more conventional way. It's a good movie.
Thanks Maureen, ah yes, that mist, comforting at the same time so all pervasive. The town where Marj lived out the rest of her years and I lived my last 2 years of high school before leaving, used to get heavy fog til 2pm in winter. Marj hated it and investigated S.A.D. as a cause of her depression. I used to love going jogging in it, disappearing with out a trace...
Again, your writing draws me in an. And.. because I am family. I had the same parents as you but saw them through my eyes. I too battle with the thwarting. Is it in our DNA? I often wondered if all my adventure activity was to escape the 'thwarting."
Thanks Pip, oh that's interesting, yes I think you are onto something there! DNA, I don't know, but given Jeanie's illness after giving birth to Marj maybe it's connected...
Yes! I can see it too!!!!
And Melancholia, the Lars Von Trier film... have you seen it? A weighted, slow walk through melancholy. One of my favs.
I’m so enjoying these chapters and the graceful weaving layers of you, your mother and MD.
Thanks Kimberly, oh yes, I have seen it, it is amazing. I love the way we are tag team reading each other's memoirs, yours is hard to put down!
Lovely threads and surprising synchronicities.
Such an interesting read, this one, Jan. You weave MD and her incident gracefully. Your choice of words/phrases/imagery are a literary treat.
I have been writing about a sexagenarian classical musician searching about for a nineteen YO maverick girl in Kolkata and the setting is mostly around the riverbank Babughat and Princep Ghat (which I have been haunting since my childhood) and this novel-in-verse resonates with your memoir. Keep up with your fabulously literary piece !!
Thanks Bob, I really appreciate your interest and comments. I'd love to read your Kolkata story, and in verse too! Sounds like a great setting, woukd you think of sharing it on Substack?
Love the writing the easy flow of your words taking me back to some place years ago
Thanks Phylli, that’s lovely to hear!