Whenever we read books, particularly those that we really liked and we can’t stop until we finish it, I think, wow, I can believe someone just came up with a such a good story and wrote it.
In reality, readers ignore how much work goes into a book. I always imagined a sort of magic pen that authors used, that made words glide and assemble perfectly in paper. The reality is that it is a long journey, that authors struggle with themselves and with others.
Books can take years… to write or to get published and writers go through a long process.
What is seen on the vitrine of a bookstore is just the end product. When looking through Joy Kogawa’s fonds, it struck me, how writers are often underestimated, when in fact what they do is a very arduous task. Seeing all the work, in papers, letters, sketches, that shaped the writing process of Obasan was impressive. Also, time is of encapsulated in those documents, and give us an insight of that particular time period.
After seeing, all her fonds, my impression of Joy Kogawa changed. Or better said, I could see the person behind the prose of Obasan. She became less distant, and a person that can be relatable. It changes the focus from what is in the book, to the creator of it, and intensifies the themes portrayed. Joy Kogawa was incredibly courageous to write about, her personal trauma but also addressing an issue of public memory, that was not so public. That touched me because, one could see the dedication she put in writing the book, and that it was not an easy task. On the one hand, confronting all her memories, and trauma and valiantly putting it in words, on the other hand , trying to publish and bear all the obstacles and consequences of publishing a book that condemns a dark period of Canadian history that was silenced for many years.
As George Orwell described it…
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”