‘Searching for Mr. Yesterday’: A Review
1980s nostalgia enlivens this reflection on memory — the sweet, the bittersweet, and the heartbreaking
Disclaimer: Please note I received a free ARC of this book from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for my honest review.
Suzy is fifty-five, divorced, and has a close relationship with her adult son. She is an artist who has put her creativity on hold for five long years to care for her mother as she declined deeply into dementia. Now her mother has died, placing Suzy at a crossroads in her life.
She receives a letter from her first boyfriend, Johnny. He has enclosed a CD copied from a long-lost mix tape he found, one he had made for her twenty-five years ago and had forgotten about.
Just seeing the list of songs he chose brings pieces of them to Suzy’s mind. Lyrics she has not thought about in years, along with sparks of memory:
She is ten and illicitly attending her first concert. She and Johnny are awestruck by David Bowie and the entire experience. “She has never been anywhere this thrilling, this hot and dark and crowded and noisy. For the first time she has a sense her own life doesn’t have to be constrained.”
