Letters In Unobtrusive Hands is a short book written by my very dear best friend Tarissa W. which was made specifically for me a short while ago, and I have just finished reading it, I thought to talk about this because I feel not far enough in my current book for a suitable topic. This book focuses on two people who were best friends, in which one struggles with remembering things, (Can be interpreted as Anterograde Amnesia or not) and the other writes letters to this person to guide them through what one could describe as a “Trauma Response”.
“If this is your winning personality, I would hate to see you losing it. It feels good to know that me and my old self agree on something. Tell me a story about us, are you this charming to all your friends or am I on the privileged list?”
This quotation touches my heart, truly because in these words “It feels good to know that me and my old self agree on something” signals that Kinsei (our character that struggles with memory) is intact with himself, it makes him feel happy too, its sort of the feeling that you cant recall or know why something makes you feel lifted, but it just does. The part about losing the winning personality is also heartwarming, it is more or less something that makes sense when you actually read it, where the “winning personality” is actually just the other character being confident with themself, which is often seen as being self-absorbed, but i think this was a nice touch that Kinsei finds a peace at the confidence. Looking into it better, both parts of him agreeing goes to show how it just feels so right, to have that kind of energy, it suits the person, its comfortable. I think everything about this story is a nice touch, even the ending which made me feel very sad, it definitely is a more accurate portrayal with internal struggles, it feels way more real to me than most books I read with this kind of stuff, which often uses stereotypes of mental illnesses instead of looking into the actual phycology and things. While reading this story I also researched along the way to get a better grasp at things, lovely short story, bawling my eyes out at the end if I am going to be honest.