We’ve all been there. The frantic scramble for misplaced keys amid a heady morning rush never fails to infuriate. “‘The brain’s a sieve. Maybe not a sieve, maybe a…what’s the name of the thing with bigger holes?’ “. But what if you found yourself forgetting not just where you placed your keys, not just words, but whole worlds? This is the struggle that shapes Jackie Kay’s Mind Away, a dreamlike story in which the symptoms of dementia weave together a mother, daughter and doctor. Published exclusively in this week’s New Statesman, it anticipates the release of Kay’s latest collection, Reality Reality, a series of short stories which place the banalities and strange obsessions of everyday life into captivating tales.
Kay is loved by readers for her ability to conjure strong, believable voices that are rooted in accessible human experiences – in Mind Away, a mother and daughter attempt to reassemble what has been lost through their own whimsical imaginings. Though saddened, the daughter resolutely attempts to jog her mother’s memory, prompting her to recall vivid sights and sensations from the past: “‘What happened to that dress?’, I asked, ‘One night your father took me to the Locarno. I remember I was wearing it then…I felt like a million dollars'”.
But the frustrating reality of the present is an ever-lingering spectre: “‘Years ago is not the problem. Yesterday is the problem. Today is the problem. Years ago are piling up!'”. To deal with the present, the daughter attempts a writerly solution – it is here that Kay demonstrates her ability to render multi-perspective narratives with real finesse, as the story wanders into the failing mind of a doctor, shocked at his own symptoms of memory deterioration.
Kay’s message is one that celebrates the power of the imagination to ease the pain of reality, and the potential of stories to be healers in themselves. As ever, she deals compassionately with moving subject matter, and even leaves room for a witty take on a situation that we often assume offers little cause for optimism: “‘What have we got to lose? Isn’t life an awfully big adventure? Who was it that said that again? I’ve forgotten'”. It’s a timely endeavour, since more people than ever are feeling the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s, both as sufferers and carers.
Mind Away is accompanied by an illustration from Liam Stevens and appears in this week’s New Statesman available from newsagents now.
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