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2 comments about In Fond Remembrance of Me: A Memoir of Myth and Uncommon Friendship in the Arctic.

1. This memoir is full of reflections of the time he spent almost thirty years ago in the Arctic where he'd gone to listen to an old man tell "stories," myths, folk tales, some of which I think he made up. It is about a Japanese woman eleven years older (had the ages been reversed, it might (probably would) have made a difference) than he, who is also there to translate the same stories into Japense for a publishing concern. They formed a close relationship and he learned from her and her battle with cancer.
   
   The old man, Frank, tells his myths and how he understood the fable of Noah and the Ark from our HOLY BIBLE. He enjoys Helen's mannerly presence, but there is friction flavored with antimosity toward Howard. He wants to make sure that he will be paid for his knowledge. Both men, young and old, are influenced by her quiet ways and intelligent interpretations. Helen discovers her illness while on this project. Howard is there for research purposes on behalf of a Michigan museum.
   
   In 1998, NORTHERN TALES: STORY FROM NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE ARCTIC AND SUB-ARTIC REGIONS is published and it is the basis of this short tome about his feelings toward the other writer. Helen is his most "unforgettable character." He won't admit that he loved her, only that he held her on a pedestal of sorts. It is sad to read how they interrelated and helped each other to understand the old Eskimo's tales as he transcribed them into English and she in her native Japanese.
   
   He seemed overwhelmed by the fact that they came from opposite ends of the earth and met in the cold Arctic region on a literary job. She types her notes on an old-fashioned Remington typewriter similar to the one on the cover of this book; he kept his in notebooks written in longhand. What he did reveal was the nature of their friendship of an older woman and younger male and how much it meant to him. Had she not died, perhaps fate would have been nicer.
   
   After Helen's death, Howard went on to marry and settle in Vermont but he would never forget this lovely woman who had influenced him in many ways. He has written THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, THE MUSEUM GUARD, and others. Now this Fond Remembrance of Helen, a truly remarkable woman.



2. Although the title may sound like Norman is on an ego trip, he's really talking about another human being, a woman with whom he was once quite close, a woman he met, as Rex Harrison did Kay Kendall, while she was dying. Her name? Helen Tanizaki. Norman was a junior and Tanizaki a senior translator and Arctic analyst, and the two of them had met up in God's own country, Manitoba Canada, to transcribe
   
   Did you know that both Deanna Durbin and Nia Vardalos (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING) are both from Manitoba? Marshall McLuhan and Neil Young are others who hail from this part of the world. In the Inuit legends, Manitoba, about which Norman has written often, is derived from the sound that spirits play while beating on a "drum." Compare the word "manitou."
   
   As Norman was to discover, there were one million filk legends on the Manitoba wind, and they had been so distorted by time and whispers that his informant, a colorful fellow, might tell Norman one version of the same story one afternoon, and that enebing he would have told Helen quite another. Howard Norman, of course, grew up to be one of the world's great story tellers himself, and this book is a bittersweet reflection of a love that didn't really "happen," but it happened nonetheless, and in her conviction of friendship for Norman, Tanizaki's name shall be long remembered, for he has written an astute memoir about her. I loved the part where Norman watches in helpless irritation, while Helen doubles over in laughter by something their Inuit informant is telling them. The truth is that Norman just isn't expert enough in the kanguage to understand Mark's quite ribald native humor. Helen never rubs it in, she merely gives him space enough for him to figure out that he isn't quite the authority his training had left him thinking he was. For out in the field, Norman was often hampered by his own inexperience while Helen, quite a bit older than he, had the benefit of many years of working and thinking and creating with all sorts of people in many cultures. Rather touchingly, as the two become closer, he asks her for a reading list of modern Japanese fiction, and she complies, saying, these books qill keep you for quite awhile (for she knew that she would be dead before he had finished all of the books).
   
   Thus into this cold Canadian paradise crept something of the romantic, renunciatory spirit of Der Rosenkavalier. Though not everyone will enjoy this book, those of us who like a good love story, such as the old chestbnut 84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff, will find plenty to like here. Norman's understatement can be a bit annoying from time to time, but there is never a moment when we lose sight of the important threads of the story. As Helen says, "Illness tends to turn you inward. It makes you eccentric in ways you ever wanted. It's hard to explain."
   
   Hard indeed, but Norman does his level best and that should be enough.