Sounds Like Love

Joni Lark’s artistic frustrations complicate her ability to identify and express her emotional experience. Since Joni was a little girl, she has understood herself through music. Her childhood experiences at her parents’ music venue, the Revelry, and her innate appreciation for songwriting grounded her in reality and herself. Her childhood passions led her to a career in the Hollywood music industry. However, in the narrative present, Joni has lost her ability to write music. The last hit she wrote was 10 years ago, when she was “younger and drunk on the kind of longing that came with spinning around to her favorite song,” back when she was someone who believed that “music truly was the food of love” (15). Now in her early thirties, Joni fears that she’s lost her creative inspiration and talent for good. Her protracted writer’s block compromises her identity because she has lost her ability to artistically articulate her internal experience.

Joni’s burgeoning love affair with Sebastian (Sasha) Fell and her month-long stay in Vienna Shores reignite her passion for music and songwriting. Until her mom’s recent dementia diagnosis, Joni was consistently “writing more and more and more” songs simply because she wanted to (26).