Night Parade - A Speculative Memoir

In the groundbreaking tradition of In the Dream House and The Collected Schizophrenias, a gorgeously illustrated lyrical memoir that draws upon the Japanese myth of the Hyakki Yagy¿ - the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons - to shift the cultural narrative around mental illness, grief, and remembrance.

Are these the only two stories? The one where you defeat your monster, and the other where you succumb to it?

Jami Nakamura Lin spent much of her life feeling monstrous for reasons outside of her control. As a Japanese Taiwanese American woman with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, her adolescence was marked by periods of extreme rage and self-medicating, an ever-evolving array of psychiatric treatments, and her relationships with those she loved - especially her father - suffered as a result.

Frustrated with the tidy arc of the typical mental illness memoir, the kind whose trajectory leads toward being 'better', Lin sought comfort in the Japanese folklore she'd loved as a child, tales of supernatural creatures known to terrify in the night. Through the lens of the y¿kai and other East Asian mythology, she set out to interrogate the Western notion of conflict and resolution, grief, loss, mental illness, and the myriad ways fear of difference shapes who we are as a people.

Divided into four acts in the traditional Japanese narrative structure and featuring stunning watercolour illustrations, Jami Nakamura Lin has crafted an innovative, genre-bending, and deeply emotional memoir that mirrors the sensation of being caught between worlds. Braiding her experience of mental illness, the death of her father, and other haunted topics with the folkloric tradition, The Night Parade shines a light into dark corners in search of a new way, driven by the question: How do we learn to live with the things that haunt us?

About the author

Jami Nakamura Lin is a Japanese Taiwanese Okinawan American author based outside Chicago. She is a former Catapult essay columnist, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Electric Literature, Passages North, and other publications. She is a 2022 Sustainable Arts Foundation finalist and her work was shortlisted for the 2021 Chicago Review of Books Awards. She received her MFA in nonfiction from the Pennsylvania State University. See more at jaminakamuralin.com/the-night-parade

Cori Nakamura Lin is a Japanese Taiwanese American illustrator and designer specialising in culture-centered storytelling and radical information sharing. Her work has been published in the LA Times, Eater Chicago, WBEZ Curious City Chicago, PBS Learning Media, the Twin Cities Daily Planet, and has been featured on the History Channel. 

Summary

In the groundbreaking tradition of In the Dream House and The Collected Schizophrenias, a gorgeously illustrated lyrical memoir that draws upon the Japanese myth of the Hyakki Yagyō — the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons — to shift the cultural narrative around mental illness, grief, and remembrance.

Are these the only two stories? The one where you defeat your monster, and the other where you succumb to it?

Jami Nakamura Lin spent much of her life feeling monstrous for reasons outside of her control. As a Japanese Taiwanese American woman with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, her adolescence was marked by periods of extreme rage and self-medicating, an ever-evolving array of psychiatric treatments, and her relationships with those she loved — especially her father — suffered as a result.

Frustrated with the tidy arc of the typical mental illness memoir, the kind whose trajectory leads toward being ‘better’, Lin sought comfort in the Japanese folklore she’d loved as a child, tales of supernatural creatures known to terrify in the night. Through the lens of the yōkai and other East Asian mythology, she set out to interrogate the Western notion of conflict and resolution, grief, loss, mental illness, and the myriad ways fear of difference shapes who we are as a people.

Divided into four acts in the traditional Japanese narrative structure and featuring stunning watercolour illustrations, Jami Nakamura Lin has crafted an innovative, genre-bending, and deeply emotional memoir that mirrors the sensation of being caught between worlds. Braiding her experience of mental illness, the death of her father, and other haunted topics with the folkloric tradition, The Night Parade shines a light into dark corners in search of a new way, driven by the question: How do we learn to live with the things that haunt us?

Product details

• Authors: Jami Nakamura Lin
• Assisted by: Cori Nakamura Lin (Illustration)
• Publisher: Faber Factory Plus GBS
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.10.2023
• EAN: 9781914484070
• ISBN: 978-1-914484-07-0
• No. of pages: 352
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology, Folklore, myths & legends, Gift books, Literary essays, Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology)