Summer Tales 2021

SYNOPSIS

It might be more accurate to call Diem Perdidi an inventory rather than a narrative. In sentences beginning with “she remembers” and “she does not remember,” Julie Otsuka unfolds a portrait of an elderly woman with dementia, capturing her personality and personal history even as she begins to forget. The story invites us to reflect on what makes up individual identity––our experiences, our habits, our relationships––and what happens to them when they slip out of our grasp.

1. Do you notice patterns in what the woman remembers, or doesn’t?
2. What do we learn about the “you” in the story? Why would Otsuka choose to use the second person pronoun here?
3. Why does Otsuka tell a story about memory in the present tense?
4. The philosopher John Locke claimed that the continuity of “personal identity” was grounded on memory: the consciousness of having been the same person at two different points in time. Is the woman in the story the same person she used to be? Does memory loss affect one’s personhood or personal identity?

Julie Otsuka is the author of two novels focusing on the historic experience of Japanese Americans. She is the recipient of numerous awards including thePEN/Faulkner Award, the Asian American Literary Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Otsuka grew up in California before studying art at Yale University and later pursuing an MFA at Columbia. More from julieotsuka.com.