Episodic Memory

 

Episodic Memory / Liubov Holota
trans. from the Ukrainian by Stephen Komarnyckyj
Kalyna Language Press, 2015, c2008.
228 p.

I'm finishing off my #WITMonth with two 5-star reads. The first is this one, Episodic Memory. 

It's a slower paced read, and I read it in sections. It's a poetic and lyrical novel with dreamlike elements to its style and content. But it also deals with very non-lofty topics, like death, political repression, betrayal, poverty, and more. 

It is based in the village of Lyubymivka, a small settlement near Kryvyi Rih in Eastern Ukraine. Most of the books I've read from Ukraine are set in Kyiv or the Western part of the country, so this was a good addition to my reading. It's told by a woman who has returned to her village from her life in Kyiv, to sit a 40 day vigil for her mother who has just died. Her younger brother is there in the beginning, but is about to leave for South America to work as an engineer. This not uncommon flight is part of the story, as they have a conversation debating leaving or staying in your country - although most of the book is the woman's thoughts, memories and talk, not too much of anybody else's response. 

The title is explained early on, when she says that 'episodic memory' is the type that is personal and tied to one's life, while a deeper memory exists that is more of an historical or cultural memory -- but they are both tied together. And the way the narrative moves back and forth, showing the background to much of Ukraine's history and society, through her own memories, follows this distinction. The book examines memory itself, as much as this particular life.

We meet many of the inhabitants of this small village in her stories, as they were when she was a small child, and those who remain now. The communist days of the 50s (her childhood) are shown in many small  ways, and then the strange years of the 70s and 80s when things were still Soviet but changing -- both from rural to urban, and from communal to a bit more individual concerns. Also the continued presence of jealousy and informing on those, like our heroine, whom others felt were too self-contained, too intellectual. 

But the presence of the past is constant, both in the landscape of the Steppe, and the memories that arise from being in her mother's house. In once section, she picks up the quilt from her mother's bed, made up of pieces of clothing that had belonged to both her and her brother, along with a few pieces from their parents. This quilt becomes a memory prompt as she sees familiar pieces of fabric stitched in. I found this a realistic and visceral way of drawing out memory. 

It's beautifully told, in thoughtful and literary style. The only thing that threw me a little was the ending -- I'm not sure what the last few pages mean, or if there is something of more significance to them that I'm missing. Otherwise, I enjoyed the time I spent reading this. The way that the stories wrap around one another is so well done. Her own stories are told clearly, but in between we have some memories of others from the village, as well as her own forebears, and when these are being related, the text is italicized; I think it made the tales distinct. 

I would definitely reread this; there is so much to explore, a lot of depth to the writing and references to follow. Really wonderful.