In The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, sixty year-old, Yambo, loses his episodic memory, the memory tied to his emotional experiences, and goes on a journey into the caverns of his childhood to try to remember what made him the man he became before his amnesia.
Before his accident, Yambo was obsessed with fog, and after he really did live in one. He had some help through the fog; he said to his wife, “You know quotations are my only fog lights (p. 63).” His vast academic knowledge was all he remembered of his life, and as he ventured to uncover his childhood at Solara he hoped that his quotations and books would help shine a lot on the experiences he didn’t remember. Instead, these books of his childhood caused him to remember the experiences of all children living in fascist Italy, the experiences of a generation. It was difficult for him to distinguish which memories were his and which were of the public’s.
In losing his memory, Yambo also uncovered memories he was unable to face before. He was given a second chance at his life. Before his accident, he had repressed the memories of Solara, finding it difficult to face the sad events that had happened there. He hadn’t been to his Chapel sanctuary or the beloved attic for many years and found it difficult to go to the house at all. He had also cheated on his wife, not really knowing why. Thanks to his accident, he was able to uncover the causes of these events, something he would not have tried to do if he hadn’t lost his memory. He learned of the events of his childhood that shaped his identity, and he learned about his lost love, Lila, the woman he sought out with all of his affairs, and of Queen Loana, the character that sparked his love of Lila. If not for his accident he would have never learned the events that shaped his identity.