From the Publisher
The Night Parade is both an entirely new perspective on bipolar disorder and a fascinating education in mythology by an expert who so clearly loves the material. It might be Lin’s first book, but it possesses the self-assurance, courage, and mastery of a seasoned writer.” — Vulture, “Best Memoirs of the Year”
“Among the most beautifully made books of the year, from the typesetting to illustrations by the author’s sister. Lin’s speculative memoir weaves together her struggles with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and Japanese folk tales, in an attempt to process her grief over the death of her father.” — The Boston Globe, Best Books of the Year
“In an extraordinary exploration of life in all its stages, debut memoirist Jami Nakamura Lin turns to the monsters of Japanese and Taiwanese folklore to better understand her own mental illness, the death of her father and the birth of her child. Featuring illustrations of these fantastical beasts by the author’s sister Cori Nakamura Lin, this book is an ‘abundant feast for our living and our dead,’ according to local author K-Ming Chang.” — San Francisco Chronicle, A “Highly Anticipated Book to Put on Your Radar”
“This genre-bending and emotionally resonant memoir offers a masterfully braided narrative of Lin’s experience with mental illness, the death of her father, the grieving process, and Japanese, Taiwanese, and Okinawan legends to interrogate the very notion of recovery. The result is a deeply textured portrait of the experiences that haunt us and the ways in which we can begin to feel whole again.” — Chicago Review of Books
“Lin’s braiding of personal experience and cultural touchstones make this memoir very special.” — Los Angeles Times
“Both heart-wrenching and heart-filling. . . It’s breathtaking to read the way [Jami Nakamura Lin] skillfully utilizes the Hyakki Yagyo—a procession of supernatural oni and yokai in Japanese folklore and mythology—to recontextualize and reconsider narratives of grief, mental illness, and memory-making. This is a book to keep at your bedside.” — Conde Nast Traveler
“[A] gorgeous and unique debut memoir. . . A memorable and moving exorcism of the monsters within." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Gorgeous writing . . . richly illustrated . . . An engrossing memoir by an extraordinary debut author." — Library Journal (starred review)
“Throughout this inventive narrative, Lin takes calculated literary risks, ranging from the use of epistolary forms to experiments with point of view. These risks pay off mightily, coming together in a vulnerable, insightful, and refreshingly original meditation on survival, illness, and grief. A stunning memoir about the stories that make us who we are.” — Kirkus (starred review)
“Beautiful and bizarre. . . explode[s] conventional narratives of mental illness and grief. . . weaves together fable and memory, research and family history with elegance and honesty to create a singular record of family, diaspora, art, and belonging.” — Kathleen Rooney, Chicago Magazine
“Inventive. . . Jami Nakamura Lin weaves together threads of memoir and Japanese and Taiwanese mythology to create a gorgeous mosaic of family, grief, illness, inheritance, and love.” — Shondaland
“Epic in structure, this is a simply written, often poignant examination of ‘the things we fear and do not understand.’” — Sydney Morning Herald
“Offers insight and enlightenment in shapes and forms like no other memoir.” — Nichi Bei News
“Based on a traditional Japanese narrative structure, this riveting speculative memoir by Jami Nakamura Lin is accompanied by the luminous illustrations of her sister, Cori. Grappling with themes of family, neurodivergence, illness and identity, Nakamura Lin presents a nuanced, raw and poetic redefinition of memoir.” — Ms. magazine
"Jami Nakamura Lin has reinvented the genre of memoir, weaving an intricate braid of fable, memory, art, cultural legacy, and legend into a gorgeous tapestry of the stories that made her. The haunting illustrations by her sister, Cori Nakamura Lin, are a potent reminder that no one is self-authored. We all collaborate to become ourselves. Serpentine, polyphonic, and stunningly textured, The Night Parade positively pulses with life." — Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, award-winning author of The Fact of A Body
"A gorgeous invocation of the magic-haunted spaces between lived experience and folkloric traditions, between the living and the dead, between memory and story. I loved The Night Parade." — Kelly Link, bestselling author of Get in Trouble
“Beautifully written and imaginative, The Night Parade takes speculative nonfiction to new heights. Jami Nakamura Lin is both poet and storyteller, mystic and philosopher, teaching us to see the world differently, to suspend our disbelief, using mythology to interrogate our notions of family, grief, fear, love, and belonging. There is no other book like this—it’s truly a stunning and visionary work of art.” — Jaquira Díaz, award-winning author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
"In this debut speculative memoir, Lin isn’t afraid of her demons. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager, Lin struggled to manage her illness while caring for her cancer-stricken father. Unhappy with the rose-colored narratives about recovering from mental illness, she takes a different approach here, leaning into the darkness. Inspired by Japanese, Taiwanese, and Okinawan ghost stories, Lin blends memoir and horror—plus stunning illustrations—to consider what it means to coexist with anguish." — The Millions (The Great 2023 Book Preview)
“Genre-defying and deeply poetic, The Night Parade invites the pandemonium within the personal and mythic to a round table where ancestors and folkloric creatures transform grief, memory, and mental illness into the tangible. Impossible to put down, gut-wrenching, and magical. I cannot think of a writer who has written so personally while acknowledging ancestral and cultural grief with such grace and honesty. A crucial and groundbreaking entry for the literature of the Asian Diaspora and explorations of mental illness.” — Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark
"The Night Parade is a stunning excavation of personal and collective histories, filled with the endless alchemy of storytelling. Jami Nakamura Lin writes with meditative precision and expansive empathy, challenging and reaffirming what communal stories can make possible. Exploring the many worlds that flourish beyond certain knowledge, this boundary-blurring memoir finds power in the undefinable. It reveals to us that the fracturing of a story can be beautifully fruitful. Teeming with language that is transformative and fully embodied, and gorgeously illustrated by Cori Nakamura Lin, The Night Parade is a generous and abundant feast for our living and our dead, our salvaged lineages and our continuing stories." — K-Ming Chang, award-winning author of Bestiary
“With abundant honesty and tenderness, Jami Nakamura Lin wraps her story in the expansive frameworks of folklore and the mystical, bringing in centuries of storytelling about love and loss, death, illness, and mystery. A moving and notable memoir." — Aimee Bender, New York Times bestselling author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
“The Night Parade is stunning — it is haunting and magical and terrifying at once. Deeply intimate, but with a sense of scope that transcends history and genre, I loved stepping into this dream of a memoir, of a shared experience.” — Catherine Cho, author of Inferno
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-06-28
Lin uses mythology from her Taiwanese and Japanese heritage to make sense of mental illness, cancer, and pregnancy loss.
When the author was 17, she was hospitalized for a psychiatric condition doctors would diagnose as bipolar disorder. She recalls her week in the psychiatric unit, which she refers to as “Upstairs,” as a relief, remembering, “I did not feel the need to prove I was sick, like I did with people outside who thought my illness was an attention grab or an evasion of responsibility.” Among the other patients, Lin felt a sense of community, finally finding young women who could relate to her experience—something she missed later in life when, pregnant, she realized she didn’t know any other “bipolar parents.” Her hospitalization marked another important milestone: the day when her father, finally recognizing the depth of her teenage distress, asked her, “Do you need help?”—and finally the author was able to answer, “yes.” The memory became particularly poignant when, after a miscarriage, Lin gave birth to a daughter weeks before her father died from cancer. To make sense of these interwoven stories, Lin relies on Asian mythology, using the legend of the “woman of bone” who preys on her ex-lovers to describe her feelings around her miscarriage or using the baku, “swallower of nightmares,” to explain how she felt about her father’s death. Throughout this inventive narrative, Lin takes calculated literary risks, ranging from the use of epistolary forms to experiments with point of view. These risks pay off mightily, coming together in a vulnerable, insightful, and refreshingly original meditation on survival, illness, and grief.
A stunning memoir about the stories that make us who we are.
