With Mitsuko, she’s the one character in the book who was constantly comforting folks through food. Even if her dialogue isn’t seen as particularly comforting by Benson at some points, or Mike at some points, she’s constantly nourishing and constantly looking to give the other characters pleasures, and she does that through cooking and through the meals that she’s able to conjure. So trying to find the different ways that cooking can fill a void in a conversation or in a relationship and even the character interactions is really important to me.
Memorial takes place in Houston, as Lot does, but also in Osaka. What kind of research did you do to write the part of the story set in Japan?
In non-pandemic times, I’m usually in Osaka once or twice a year, and it’s been that way for the past few years. I’ve got friends out there. Usually when I’m out there, it’s not in a research capacity or with a book project in mind, or any project in particular, so much as just going to see friends and hang out. So part of that was travel, and I actually edited the last draft of the book in Osaka. I was there for most of the summer last year, kind of heading into fall, because there were certain details that I felt like I needed to edit while I was there in order to get them the way I wanted to. And I think a lot of ways the process for getting the place on the page wasn’t particularly dissimilar from the process that I have when I’m trying to get Houston on the page. And that’s just a lot of talking to people, a lot of going places, a lot of research, a lot of just editing, and really getting at a singular iteration of the place.
What takes a lot of pressure off of wanting to get it right, whether that’s for Osaka or for Houston, is keeping in mind that you’re never really going to get a place right, because it’s a singular experience, and one place can be many different things for a lot of different people, or one place can be many different things for one person. So I was just trying to figure out what each of the characters saw in that place and how it contributed to their development and who they were and the context that they moved around in, and writing from there.
Where are you turning for hope or inspiration or joy right now?
You know, I’m turning to mundanity in a lot of ways, like having routines has been really helpful for me. Whether that’s cooking at home, whether that’s watering plants; I’ve gotten really into candles and incense in the past few months. I always sort of peripherally was, but now I super am.
But another part of it is also being in community, even if it’s taking a very different form than it would have taken this time last year. Finding different ways through which to contribute to communities that I’m either a part of or that I’m peripheral to. And also finding the different ways that others have created community, and that other folks are connecting and magnifying those connections, are really bright spots.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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