Epistolary Library | Letter #1
November 17, 2023
Dear reader,
This is my first of three letters to you where I’ll get to share my love of all things epistolary novels. An epistolary novel is simply a novel in letters. They typically come in the three types: monologic, dialogic, and polylogic. Letters feel very antiquated in today’s world of text messages and emails, but just as physical books will never die out, letters will forever be an outlet of vulnerability and something deeply personal. In this first letter I wanted to discuss a monologic epistolary story titled that was part of Windmill all the way back in the first issue titled Dear Kristi Yamaguchi written by Mark Brazaitis; it was composed of letters written by a young girl named Alice to Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. What makes this story monologic is that the letters don’t form a full conversation, they are one-sided, written by Alice to Kristi receiving no reply. Alice’s mother is sick, and she is unsure of what is going on, so she reaches out for advice from her figure skating hero since Alice too is a figure skater. The tone of the story is definitely somber and heartbreaking as Alice is desperately in need of an outlet to express her passion for skating and her grief over her mother. The use of the one way letters just carries this feeling from beginning to end. The letters range in length as she starts writing as a fan to express her deep admiration for Kristi’s skating and sprinkles in bits of her mom’s ailment, her own skating journey, and other personal anecdotes. At the end of the first letter, Alice indicates that she doesn’t know how to send the letter since she doesn’t have Krisi’s address; regardless, Alice goes on to write a total of 24 letters that lets the reader into Alice’s journey of witnessing her mother’s slow deterioration, her eventual death, and Alice rediscovering her love of skating.
What struck me since I read this piece months ago, was just how much emotion was imbued into these letters. The use of the monologic technique was not only practical in the reality of fanmail (if we could write letters to our heroes or celebrities crushes and get personal replies, maybe letter writing wouldn’t have died out?), but gave room for the reader to grow close to the narrative. One can’t help but imagine what advice or condolences Kristi would have sent back had she really been reading those letters, and it's evident that, even without the replies, the writing of these letters was therapeutic for Alice. I don’t know if anyone else has ever been told to write down what you're feeling, write that angry email, write out everything that’s jumbling your thoughts and simply throw it out. There is something about getting words out of your head and onto paper, even if it gets crumbled up and tossed, that is not only relaxing but healing as well. This story shows the time jump before the final letter where Alice lets Kristi know that she is getting a little better and has reconnected with her friends and is skating again. Although she addressed these letters to Kristi, I believe that they were also allowing her to process the hardships she was facing, even without the return letters. I would recommend anyone reading this if your emotions are bigger than you think you can handle—write it out!
Till the next one,
Julia De Lellis