In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Jung Yun’s novel All the World Can Hold is magnificently subtle and profound.
Library Journal wrote of the book:
“Writing with grit and compassion, Yun unveils the heart of her characters and brings forth an engaging piece that looks into the realm of friendships, family, identity, and belonging. Book groups and fans of realistic fiction will discover a contemplative look at life on many levels and find much to reflect upon.”
In her own words, here is Jung Yun’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel All the World Can Hold:
My third novel, All the World Can Hold, follows three strangers on a cruise to Bermuda five days after 9/11. Not coincidentally, that’s also what I was doing five days after 9/11. My (then) in-laws had arranged the trip and they’d been looking forward to it for nearly a year. After the terrorist attacks in New York and D.C., I assumed we wouldn’t go, but my ex and his parents refused to cancel. I think my desire to stay in Brooklyn lost out to my need to be accommodating, so I didn’t put up much of a fight. I also knew that if I didn’t take the personal time I’d signed up for, I probably never would.
Back then, I worked in an office where late nights were the norm. Six to seven days a week, I’d find myself sitting at my desk at 9 or 10 PM, wondering what I was doing with my life. Whenever I felt tired or brainless or just plain sad, I’d maraud through the office, blasting music and searching for snacks. (This was 2001, right before the first iPod was released, so I was lugging around an electric blue Rio MP3 player that weighed as much as a human head.) Listening to music usually made me feel better, or at least capable of powering through whatever I had to do next.
I brought that MP3 player on the trip to Bermuda, so these were some of the actual songs I was listening to during the cruise. Over the years, I’ve transferred them so many times, from the Rio to countless iterations of iPods and iPhones, and I’m so glad I did. Music is such a time capsule for me, and this playlist reminds me of the person I was in 2001, as well as the people I wrote about in my forthcoming book.
“New Slang” by The Shins
I have a very distinct memory of buying this CD at the Tower Records near Lincoln Center. (I’m aware that everything about that sentence really dates me.) I’m not sure how much I understood about the lyrics back then versus what I’ve picked up over the years, but I’m not surprised that I loved a moody song about being dissatisfied with life and wanting to leave a place in search of change.
“Let Down” by Radiohead
One of the three passengers in the book is Lucy, a woman in her late twenties who was raised to get a good education, get a good job, get married, and lead a stable, respectable life. But Lucy wants to be an artist, which feels so risky compared to the lucrative career in tech that awaits her after graduation. This is the song I associate most closely with her, probably because she did everything she was supposed to do and still feels so lost.
“Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie
There’s so much to love about this one—David Bowie’s incredible vocal range, Freddy Mercury scatting in the background, the powder keg of the build. I have lots of complicated memories about the work I used to do in New York, mostly because I allowed it to take over my life, but one of my happiest memories is singing/screaming this song late at night with a co-worker who was feeling similarly delirious and overwhelmed.
“Tropicalia” by Beck
If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you know there’s no escape from Muzak, which is always being piped into the public areas. If royalty fees didn’t exist, cruise lines would probably play more popular songs like this beachy-sounding one from Beck, even though his lyrics are actually a critique of tourist culture, particularly in former colonies that are beautiful but poor.
“Family Affair” by Mary J. Blige
Another passenger in the book is Franny, who’s traveling with her family to celebrate her mother’s seventieth birthday. This song captures what she naively hoped the cruise would be: togetherness and a good time. But Franny has a fraught relationship with her mother, younger brother, and even her husband, so the close quarters and constant expectation of togetherness actually exacerbate their conflicts rather than help repair them.
“Oops, I Did It Again” by Britney Spears
Honest to God, I have no idea how this one ended up on my MP3 player. Taste-wise, it’s pretty unlike me. That said, downloading music in the late 90s took a lot of effort, so I clearly did it. Also, the ship I was on had a disco. I repeat: a disco (not even a “club”). I lost track of the number of times I walked by and heard something by Britney pumping out.
“I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones
The energy on a cruise can be pretty frenetic, similar to this Ramones song. There’s at least a dozen different things to do every hour, on the hour, as if stillness is the enemy. I’m sure that lots of happy families go on cruises together, but it seems like cruising is also an ideal way to travel if you need to spend time with your family but don’t want to talk to them too much.
“Losing a Whole Year” by Third Eye Blind
The third passenger in the book is Doug, a middle-aged actor who starred on a television series in the 70s and 80s called Starlight Voyages. The show was set on the very same ship he’s sailing on in the book. Similar to the main character in this Third Eye Blind song, Doug has a history of addiction, and he’s still not over the end of a relationship with one of his former castmates, so being on a reunion cruise for fans of the show is pretty much the worst possible place for him.
“Gravity Rides Everything” by Modest Mouse
This one is such a shapeshifter. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times (not including when it was used in that bummer of a commercial for a Nissan minivan). I appreciate how the lyrics can register as hopeful or depressing, depending on the listener’s mood. Either way, there’s definitely a thread about reevaluating the things in life that are supposed to be important, which is what I was doing in 2001, and it’s what my characters are doing too.
“Starálfur” by Sigur Rós
I didn’t know what the Icelandic lyrics meant in 2001, but I loved how this song built to such a hopeful high. Plus, it came from an album titled Ágætis byrjun (“A New Beginning”), so this was my go-to track while writing the last third of the book. I think a common assumption about a story that begins shortly after 9/11 is that it’s sad, and there are definitely elements of sadness throughout All the World Can Hold, but I also tried to create a sense of hope for Doug, Franny, and Lucy, who suddenly understand that life is finite and they have to make a choice to live better.
Jung Yun was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. She received her MFA in English and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of O Beautiful, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a New York Times Group Read, and a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year. Her debut novel, Shelter, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.