La Nostalgie Heureuse by Amélie Nothomb - Summary

Key words: Autobiography, Travel, Japan, Nostalgia

Introduction: "La Nostaglie Heureuse" is an autobiographical story that traces the last trip of Amélie Nothomb to Japan. This country means a lot to this author who was born in Kobe in a family of a diplomat. Amélie was raised by a Japanese nanny "Nishio San" to whom she was and still is very attached. She was snatched from the country and separated from Nishio San at the age of three years, but she returned to it later for work when she was 20 years old and this is when she met the nicest boy in the world that she's ever known as she claims; a boy named "Rinri". He proposes to her, she accepts and then leaves back to Belgium with the intention to leave Rinri and he only discovers the whole thing after she has escaped. Later, in 2000 she publishes "Ni d’Ève ni d’Adam" in which she talks about the story of their engagement.

Tout ce que l'on aime devient une fiction.

Summary: Sixteen years have passed since Nohomb's last visit to Japan. In 2012 a team of France 5 proposes to her to go on a trip back to this country to film a documentary.  Amélie Nothomb accepts immediately. This documentary is the excuse she needed to return back to this loved country for she admits she was incapable to do so before « La pulsion de néant, … cherche à anéantir mes désirs les plus vrais. » « C’est la même pulsion de néant, j’en suis sûre, qui m’a empêchée de retourner au Japon pendant ces seize interminables années. » Once the trip is confirmed, she tries to contact Rinri to reconnect with him. Rinri is surprised but agrees to see her and we discover that he has become one of her most loyal readers. Upon her arrival to Kobe, she is sadly surprised by all the changes throughout the city. And to top it all, she discovers that her childhood home was destroyed by the earthquake. So for the rest of the trip she decides to look  only for the things that have survived and focus on them. Then comes the long awaited moment of her reunion with her nanny. It is sad for her to see how much Nishio San has aged, and to learn that her own children and grandchildren do not visit her. She tries to comfort her by telling her that she is her daughter too, and melts into tears while the two women embrace. A moment later, in the car, she discovers that the whole team shooting the documentary is in tears as well.

Amélie who thought that « Les retrouvailles sont des phénomènes si complexes qu’on ne devrait les effectuer qu’après un long apprentissage ou bien tout simplement les interdire. » now declares that « À présent je pense que les séparations devraient l’être également. »

During the rest of the documentary, Amélie visits her former kindergarten the "Yôchien", which seems to be the only place to have survived the earthquake. She finds a class picture that overwhelms her with happiness for it is the proof she needed to see to make sure that she did not just dream or imagine her childhood memories but that instead she literally lived in these places and didn't invent anything. Amélie heads then to what became the modern city Kyoto and also to Fukushima which was hit by a devastating earthquake a year ago. Tokyo is her last destination, and she feels so good in this city that her answer to the question asked by a reporter on the phone « Quand rentrez-vous en France ? » was « Jamais. » « Je suis une aspirine effervescente qui se dissout dans Tokyo.». She ends up meeting Rinri, revisiting the same places they had known together, talking with him of the past, present and eventually apologizing to him « Rinri pardonne-moi j’étais folle ». Deep inside however, she is now convinced that she does not regret leaving him because with him, she always had a feeling of embarrassment and discomfort and that she still does. For a moment, one is tempted to believe that this journey would end with a lot of nostalgia and melancholy but when the airplane flies over the Everest mountains Amélie is struck by the beauty she sees and ends up swearing that she'd never have sorrow or melancholy anymore « Jure-toi, Amélie, que tu n’auras plus jamais de chagrin ni même de mélancolie ; qui a frôlé l’Everest n’en a pas le droit. Le maximum que je t’autorise, désormais, c’est la nostalgie heureuse».