The Story of Forgetting

May 15, 2008

Gregory Baird rated it

Recommends it for: Fans of Jonathan Safran Foer or Nicole Krauss

Shelves: 2008-booklist, arc, fiction-literature

“Could there be anything more sad and more lonely than remembering what terrible things the future will bring?”

In his ambitious debut novel Stefan Merrill Block shows off the wide range of his talent. “The Story of Forgetting” combines elements of science, history, and fable into four storylines that weave together to tell a single story. And it works, for the most part. I can see how some may have been turned off by the quirky nature of Block’s storytelling or grown bored with ...more “Could there be anything more sad and more lonely than remembering what terrible things the future will bring?”

In his ambitious debut novel Stefan Merrill Block shows off the wide range of his talent. “The Story of Forgetting” combines elements of science, history, and fable into four storylines that weave together to tell a single story. And it works, for the most part. I can see how some may have been turned off by the quirky nature of Block’s storytelling or grown bored with the genetic history storyline, but I have a feeling that the majority of literary fiction fans will enjoy Block’s novel just as much as I did.

The first storyline concerns Abel, an elderly hunchback living in isolation and haunted by the ghosts of his brother and sister-in-law and the daughter that ran away from home never to be seen again. He bustles around his dilapidated house in his failing body, desperately filling the void around him and trying to avoid stillness that might lead to reflection on how he got to this lonely point and whether or not it is deserved. The modern world is creeping up on all sides of his property, showing Abel just how little use the world can make of an outdated person like him, and his neighbors are trying to force him out so they can raise their property values. But Abel is holding onto the hope that someday his daughter might come looking for him, and he wants to be waiting when she does.

Second is the story of Seth, your typical gawky, angular teen and a stereotypical nerd and social outcast. His mother has recently been placed in a home after a nasty fall and a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease – an extremely rare genetic disorder that Seth, who may someday be a victim of the same disease, becomes obsessed with researching. In truth, his research is equal measures avoidance and an attempt to get closer to his family. All his life, Seth’s mother was careful not to reveal anything about where she came from or even why she felt the need to be so secretive, and his research allows Seth a unique opportunity to finally find out just who his mother is. At the same time, it allows him to escape the nightmare of his social life, visits to the home where his mother is by far the youngest resident, the paralyzing fear that he too may suffer her fate, and lonely nights where his father drinks too much and watches the History Channel, unable to bear the burden of disappointment and sorrow.

The third storyline introduces us to the mythical world of Isidora, a “land without memory, where everything one needed was at arm’s length, where there was never reason to be afraid, where nothing was ever possessed and so nothing could ever be lost.” Isidora provides a curious link between the stories of Seth and Abel, because both of them were raised on fairy tales of the fabled city. While one may question whether or not Isidora is actually as utopian as the author would like you to believe, the charming element of fable that it brings to the novel and the creativity and passion of its creation will win you over in the end.

And finally is a storyline concerning the genetic history of Seth’s family and how the genetic variant that created the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease got started and spread, tracing the lineage all the way to Texas, where Seth and his family reside. If it occasionally feels superfluous and not that consequential to the plot, Block imbues it with the same charming element of fable that makes you forgive the excess in the end.

The main attractions here are Abel and Seth, and they make “The Story of Forgetting” well worth your while. And if the link between their two storylines is painfully obvious about sixty pages in, it is still a heartfelt journey seeing how their lives converge in the end. As for Block, he proves to be a remarkably thorough and creative writer, as well as a literary talent to watch in the coming years.

Grade: A-(less)

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Apr 03, 2008

Peggy rated it

Some books are easy: they engage your head with strong characters and/or good storytelling, but somehow miss connecting with your heart. That's not necessarily a bad thing--I'm wholly in favor of reading for the sheer fun of it, and every book isn't going to connect with every reader.

But some books...some books are hard. They hit you in the gut, and once they have you, they don't let go. You can still get the strong characters and the good storytelling, but this time they're wedded t...moreSome books are easy: they engage your head with strong characters and/or good storytelling, but somehow miss connecting with your heart. That's not necessarily a bad thing--I'm wholly in favor of reading for the sheer fun of it, and every book isn't going to connect with every reader.

But some books...some books are hard. They hit you in the gut, and once they have you, they don't let go. You can still get the strong characters and the good storytelling, but this time they're wedded to a plot or situation that grabs you by the heart and squeezes till you can hardly breathe. The experience isn't always enjoyable, but when it's all over, it feels right, somehow. Necessary.

The Story of Forgetting is about a family devastated by a genetic variant of early onset Alzheimers. We spend our time alternating between Abel, a hunchback who lives with his twin brother Paul and Paul's wife May in the 40s, and Seth, a modern day teenager whose mother is suffering from the disease. The connection between these two threads is a family story of the golden city of Isadora, where there is no sorrow because there is no memory.

Maybe it hit me so hard because, like most people passing 40, Alzheimers is the biggest Boogeyman in my personal Anxiety Closet. Diseases of the body are bad, no doubt. But in most cases they can be fought, and even if they can't, you don't lose who you are in the process. You will be changed, certainly, but not lost. With Alzheimers, you can lose everything: friends, family, security. Worse, your shell is still around, but none of the people who care about you can connect with you.

Maybe it hit me so hard because I was thinking about my own mother, who passed away a few years ago. Her problems were physical, to start with, but soon her mind began to go, too. We were luckier than many--she lost track of time, but she still recognized us till right at the end. Still, her confusion was heartbreaking.

So yeah, this book was difficult for me. But having gone through it and come out the other side, I feel a little bit better about it all. Don't get me wrong--there are no easy answers. But sometimes, it's enough to spend some time with someone who understands.(less)

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Jan 07, 2008

Amy rated it

Shelves: fiction

I’ve been reading poetry almost exclusively for about three years running, so I was both excited and a little wary upon picking up The Story of Forgetting, Stefan Merrill Block’s debut novel. It had been so long since I’d read so many words at one go…I guess I’d forgotten how one can become immersed in a story, carried effortlessly along by fictional devices like plot & character. Luckily, Block’s novel provided an immediate reminder of such pleasures.

The novel’s strengths lie in the...moreI’ve been reading poetry almost exclusively for about three years running, so I was both excited and a little wary upon picking up The Story of Forgetting, Stefan Merrill Block’s debut novel. It had been so long since I’d read so many words at one go…I guess I’d forgotten how one can become immersed in a story, carried effortlessly along by fictional devices like plot & character. Luckily, Block’s novel provided an immediate reminder of such pleasures.

The novel’s strengths lie in the clear, compelling voices of the two main characters, Abel Haggard and Seth Waller. Block moves seamlessly between these two narrative threads. Abel Haggard, a 68-year old hunchbacked hermit, is constantly haunted by memories of his now-absent family. Seth Waller is an awkward adolescent, who strives for what he hopes will be an impenetrable protective wall, or “Mastery of Nothingness”, but manifests more as “weirdness with nothing to compensate for it…nothing greater or more profound than its zit-encrusted, slouching, skittish, Too-Smart surface.” (pg. 225) These two main characters are simultaneously repulsive and endearing, and my fondness for them kept me reading.

The plot is relatively simple: Seth embarks on a research project to uncover his mother’s mysterious family history in order to fully understand her familiar curse of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The plot also propelled my interest for the majority of the book—a genetic mystery novel!—although the final discovery is not particularly surprising or unexpected, which was a little disappointing.

The main storyline is intercut by two different threads: textbook-ish and scientific information about Alzheimer’s disease, and a fable about Isidora, a mythical land of forgetting. I enjoyed the science more than the myth; the Isidora chapters come across as too broad, and a little heavy-handed in terms of the allegory and “memory loss” symbolism.

Perhaps my poetry-bias caused me to be particularly charmed by the sharp & well-defined details throughout the book. Block is deft at setting the scene and fleshing out even the most minor characters: Abel’s horse (Iona); Abel’s truck (humorously dubbed The Horseless Iona); and Seth’s classmate Victoria Bennett, nicknamed The Sloth, as her movements are “slouching and sluggish…her hair was a long brown tangle…whenever possible, she avoided predators by disappearing into the trees.” (pg. 79) Block offers many lovely moments such as the description of the game that Seth plays with his mother, before her illness: “My mom & I also had another game…one of us would start to pretend to be the other…” (pg. 125) I felt that the story was the most interesting and original in these moments, and the interactions that Abel and Seth have with the more minor characters best reveal their foundational human-ness.

In the end, I wanted a little more of these elements—and less of high-concept historical mystery and scientific theory—but enjoyed the journey nonetheless. I’d definitely recommend this engaging book for its solid engine and warm heart.
(less)

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Apr 29, 2009

Heather Marsiglia rated it

Although before starting this book I was emotionally involved in its subject matter, having lost an uncle to Alzheimer's Disease, I still think this is one of the best books I have ever read. I would recommend this book to just about anyone. I will admit the ending had me wanting a firmer resolution. I wanted everyone to be ok- but true to life, that's not how stories end. I loved the mix of “true life”/fiction, science, and fairytale. The writing is excellent.

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Mar 02, 2009

Isabella rated it

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Shelves: favorites

This is a story of Alzheimer's disease - or, more precisely familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease. The subjact matter being very sensitive and sad, obviously, this also makes up the tone of the book.

We follow two people over the course of the book.

Firstly, there is Seth, whose mother becomes ill when he is 15. Knowing very little about her life before she was married he sets out to learn about the disease that inflicted her (and sharing that information as he is gathe...more

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Aug 09, 2008

Ruby rated it

Recommends it for: anyone, especially lovers of myth and anyone who's been touched by Alzheimer's

Shelves: fiction

If I didn't really like this book, I'd hate Stefan Merrill Block. The kid – and yes, I mean kid – was born in 1982, as his book jacket brags. He's still in his 20's. And this book is good, not good like macaroni art is good, or good like that time that your 12-year-old cooked you pancakes and forgot the eggs, it's bona fide good. Maybe it's not great, but jeez, he's gotta have something to shoot for, right?

Block creates a familial mythology that is interwoven with a genetic disease, ...moreIf I didn't really like this book, I'd hate Stefan Merrill Block. The kid – and yes, I mean kid – was born in 1982, as his book jacket brags. He's still in his 20's. And this book is good, not good like macaroni art is good, or good like that time that your 12-year-old cooked you pancakes and forgot the eggs, it's bona fide good. Maybe it's not great, but jeez, he's gotta have something to shoot for, right?

Block creates a familial mythology that is interwoven with a genetic disease, an imagined variety of early-onset Alzheimer's. On his website, stefanmerrillblock.com, he details the personal origins of his fascination with Alzheimer's:

When I was a small child, my grandmother was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease. At that time, I hardly knew what the disease was (I thought the word was "Old-Timer's"). For the first year or two of her decline, her symptoms were subtle and I was too young to notice anything unusual. By the time my mom invited my grandmother to come stay with us, however, the disease was in its middle stages, and I was old enough to understand that something was deeply wrong. Just before my grandmother arrived, my mom explained to me what I should expect: cognitively, I was now more advanced than she. Difficult as it was to comprehend, I would now have to think of myself as more mature than my grandmother. I would have to watch out for her, like a brother would for his little sister.

Like the disease, the myth of Isidora is carried from parent to child, from one generation to the next. The Isidorans start out unable to remember anything – this is not considered a flaw, but key to their bliss.

Complicated are his ideas on memory, but they are ideas, not permutations of characters at play, but actual ideas. He could have been more coy with his ideas, weaving them seamlessly into stories, but he states them outright, with poetry and grace, and I, for one, am glad he does. Take his ideas of DNA as Memory, birthed of its parent, Chance:

...Chance also created some astoundingly complex and resilient successes, and memory didn't miss a chance to take these opportunities as far as it could. Eventually, with higher domains of complexity, Memory took on new responsibilities. Once Chance and Memory devised the nervous system, for example, Memory found work for itself beyond its endless, monotonous transcription. Chance interred Memory in their mutual creations, allowing, for example, a simple fish to remember not to eat a bluish alga, or swim too close to the coral. Chance encouraged Memory's new work, and in new organisms new forms of memory were invented all the time: instinctual memory, procedural memory, sensory memory, short-term memory.

Perhaps the ending, which carefully leaves some laces untied, is still a little too perfectly assembled. I can't say that I understand how you strike that balance between order and potential, though. Maybe in the next ten years, either Block or I will get there.
(less)

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May 12, 2008

Maya rated it

Shelves: fiction-2008

It seems strange to describe a novel about early-onset Alzheimer's as a compelling read, but there you go: it is.

I have to confess that Alzheimer's ranks right up there among Diseases I'm Petrified That I Might Get--I can't imagine anything more terrifying than to slowly lose my mental faculties. And it so happens that I'm vaguely acquainted with a family in which the mother experienced this terrible disease beginning when the youngest of her children was still in high school.
...more

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Jan 24, 2009

Rachael rated it

This was a great book -- I was depressed, though, to note that the author is a scant one year older than me. The story was moving and the recurring images were lovely. The narrative is broken up into the point of view of a teenage boy (who also narrates case studies and medical notes) and an older man. I was somewhat thrown by the boy's voice, in that it didn't vary much from the man's, and that it was in far too sophisticated a tone for his age, but that is clarified somewhat by the final pages...more

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Mar 04, 2011

Deb rated it

Shelves: fiction, literary

This powerfully descriptive book is not one the reader is likely to forget, as it vividly humanizes the lives of two families affected by early onset Alzheimers, among other things. The book follows the stories of Seth, a 15 year old boy struggling to deal wth the illness of his mother, normal teenage problems like puberty, and the withdrawl of his Dad and of Abel Haggard, an elderly hunchback living in a decript farm with only his memories and the hope that his long lost daughter will find him...more

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Jan 13, 2009

Nancy rated it

In Stefan Merrill Block’s extraordinary debut, three narratives intertwine to create a story that is by turns funny, smart, introspective, and revelatory.

Abel Haggard is an elderly hunchback who haunts the remnants of his family’s farm in the encroaching shadow of the Dallas suburbs, adrift in recollections of those he loved and lost long ago. As a young man, he believed himself to be “the one person too many”; now he is all that remains. Hundreds of miles to the south, in Austin, Se...more

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Dec 19, 2008

Ami rated it

Shelves: favorites

Just finished this. I randomly picked this book up in Boston and began to read it while also trying to read A Voyage Long and Strange. Both were very interesting, but something about this one struck me. The narrative of the character, Abel, had bore an uncanny resemblance to the narrative of one of my closest friends. I read on, at one point, allowing myself to dream that she had perhaps written the book under a pseudonym. (She didn’t. To my knowledge anyway.) But the way in which each sentence ...more

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Feb 25, 2011

Susan O'Bryant rated it

"At a certain point, the worse you get, the worse it is for everyone around you, but the better it is for you." (from page 195 in the advanced reader's edition)

You realize that this book has a very literal title when you find out what's written inside. The Story of Forgetting is a brilliant yet tragic novel with two main characters and two side narratives, all of which gradually come together as the pages are turned. It begins with Abel, and his story of remembering falling...more

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Jun 25, 2010

Stephanie rated it

Shelves: mainstream, literary

Faces. Stories. Events. Places. Dates. Each person has a unique knowledge of a range of these discrete little pieces of knowledge. Arguably, it’s the very way that we knit these data together that makes us who we are. After all, without these facts, without memory, there would be little left. Worse still than the loss of these memories would be the loss of the ability to create new ones coupled with the loss of the basic human functions that we take for granted. Speech. Writing. Movement.
...moreFaces. Stories. Events. Places. Dates. Each person has a unique knowledge of a range of these discrete little pieces of knowledge. Arguably, it’s the very way that we knit these data together that makes us who we are. After all, without these facts, without memory, there would be little left. Worse still than the loss of these memories would be the loss of the ability to create new ones coupled with the loss of the basic human functions that we take for granted. Speech. Writing. Movement.

It’s no wonder, then, that memory-related diseases and conditions stir a sense of twinned curiosity and trepidation within us. A combination of the exigencies of living longer lives and the increased diagnostic power of our medical professionals means that we seem to be surrounded by conditions that, while once vague and inchoate, are now sharply, cruelly defined. Of these, though, there seems to be one condition in particular that is at the forefront of the consciousness of the layperson: Alzheimer’s disease, that progressive degenerative disorder that to varying degrees we fear may lurk within us, or within our loved ones. Perhaps what makes it so disconcerting is that it seems to pick off its victims in an undiscerning sort of way–and, worse, that it doesn’t only appear amongst the elderly. In fact, a variant of Alzheimer’s, known as Early Onset Alzheimer’s, has been isolated in particular family groups, and can result in startlingly quick mental degeneration, with sufferers succumbing within a period of between five and seven years. It’s this particular form of Alzheimer’s with which Stefan Merrill Block’s debut novel The Story of Forgetting intimately deals.

The Story of Forgetting invokes a complex narrative style that disconcertingly replicates the complexity of the subject matter and tenuous relationships it so tortuously describes. The novel is a braid of three, perhaps four different narratives, and these travel in a serpentine manner towards a painful, inexorable ending. It’s not an unpredictable narrative by any means, as the eventual outcome of the novel is underscored within its opening pages, but the circumspect and surprisingly upbeat, matter-of-fact manner by which Block takes us there is the book’s strength.

Our two major narrative threads are those of Seth, a tragic teenaged social misfit who has come to the gradual realisation that his mother’s eccentric behaviour and general absentmindedness are of more sinister origin than first suspected, and of Abel, an elderly man who, despite being physically crippled, retains an impressive mental acuity–and an even more impressive determination to beat off the demands of a changing society.

Perhaps the most oft-uttered phrase in this book is have we met before? It’s a heartbreaking phrase, and one that in other circumstances could be so innocuous. But when Seth’s mother begins asking him this with painful repetition, Seth sets out in an attempt to find others who have the condition in order to find out what is in store for his mother, but also, given the fifty percent likelihood of eventually suffering from the disease himself, what is in store for him. However, despite his efforts to trace his mother’s past and build a coherent narrative, Seth has little to work with. All his mother has ever given him as a clue to her past is a series of fanciful stories of a place called Isidora, a land of the memory-less.

The mirror image to the have we met before? is the elderly Abel, an unwelcome oddity who is slowly being pushed out of his home by a determined invasion of McMansions and glossy family cars. Abel, though, has retained his tenacious grip on his land for reasons of his own, and none of which are simply due to intransigence or his crotchety nature. Abel, it turns out, fathered a child with his brother’s wife many years ago, a secret he only revealed to his daughter after she watched her father waste away with early onset Alzheimer’s. Abel reassures her that he has shown no signs of the disease, and that she need not worry herself.

These two narratives are linked by a series of gentle stories of the land of Isidora. Unfortunately, while these stories should have provided the cement to the careful building of the plot, I found that they detracted from the overall narrative, and often fell into insipid mawkishness. Similarly, Block tells a narrative of the origins of the particular (fictitious) variety of Early Onset Alzheimer’s described in his book, and while this is in parts curious and amusing, here and there it does devolve into a lengthy indulgence (with one particular rumination on Chance and Memory being a particularly painful example of this).

While perhaps the most ambitious component of this book is its narrative structure rather than the narrative itself, the stories of Abel and Seth are well-told, and complement each other as they fumble towards an emotional (if somewhat trite) conclusion. Unfortunately, the descriptor “ambitious” also serves as a euphemism for “tried, but doesn’t quite work”, and I’m afraid that this is the case here. While The Memory of Forgetting is a novel story that brings to mind books such as A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (review) or even Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, it does suffer from a touch of narrative pomposity, and some strange flights of fancy that it would have been stronger without.(less)

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Sep 22, 2009

Katherine Marple rated it

"The Story of Forgetting" is told from nearly four perspectives:

-The first is an elderly, disfigured Abel recounting on the love of his life (also his twin brother's wife) and his mom.
-The second is the "teenaged" version of Seth, telling in present tense what he researched and felt while his mom was developing early onset Alzheimer's disease at her age of 35.
-The third perspective is all of the medical jargon- the back history that scientists and r...more"The Story of Forgetting" is told from nearly four perspectives:

-The first is an elderly, disfigured Abel recounting on the love of his life (also his twin brother's wife) and his mom.
-The second is the "teenaged" version of Seth, telling in present tense what he researched and felt while his mom was developing early onset Alzheimer's disease at her age of 35.
-The third perspective is all of the medical jargon- the back history that scientists and researchers discovered to find the earliest version of Alzheimers (named after Dr Alzheimer) to find the genetic link so that they could suppress it... or cure it (though more likely the first).
-The fourth is the story of Isidora- little snippets of a love story that Abel and Seth's mom told to them.

I loved Abel's story. How he found out that he was in love with his brother's wife nearly at the beginning of the story. He was a lonely, tragic character- yet also very smart and sometimes very funny. His inner dialogues with himself (as he lived alone quite a bit) were sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek.
Seth's story was interesting, but I didn't feel all that much for him. I want to say that I didn't feel "connected" to his character as much as I did to Abel's.

The biggest issue I have with the novel is all of the medical background. Whether it's made up for the story's sake, or if it's actually true... it seems to be more appropriate to have it in the appendix of the book... or in a second "medical" edition. There was just too many stories going on at once that many times I had to flip back a few pages to find out who was telling their story on the page that I was reading.

It became very confusing and seemed to completely dilute the entire story that I was trying to unveil.

The story of Isidora was also very interesting. The reason I'm not pointing it out as much is because Block kept those pages to only one between each chapter. The story was short, sweet, and broke up the Abel/Seth stories nicely.

If it weren't for the pages and pages of medical history (though interesting), I would have given this book a 4 star rating instead. Because of the work and frustration I had to put into reading it... it's a 3 star from me.(less)

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May 13, 2009

Rhlibrary added it

There is something unutterably sad about Alzheimer's. It's not only that it steals the essence of the person affected, leaving them a husk of their former selves—it's the devastating effect on the family members and assorted loved ones who have to deal with the disintegration, and in the process, often make wrong choices influenced by emotion. The Story of Forgetting tells the familiar yet unique story of such an extended family seen mostly through the eyes of the brilliant, misfit teenage son, ...more

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Dec 05, 2011

Nojood rated it

Shelves: fiction, english-books, 2011-readings

A very informative novel about a unique kind of alzahimer that attacks young people. It is inherited, thus young people see their future downfall in the lives of their fathers or mothers. How parents comfort their children with an imagenary world, which goes in parallel with reality, that begins as enchanting, develops to be chaeotic and ends with hope, is a brilliant idea.
I wonder why such unheard of diseases are emerging out of no where. One cannot but wonder whether they are man made...more

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Aug 31, 2010

Candice rated it

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This was an excellent book. It was structured around four stories - the story of Abel, a sexagenarian hunchback; Seth, an awkward teenage boy; the story of this particular strain of early-onset Alzheimer's; and a fantasy story about a land called Isadora. The four parts blended well and added up to a terrific story.

I couldn't help but contrast this with another book about Alzheimer's that I read recently, Still Alice. Where that was the story of one woman's experience with the dis...more

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Sep 29, 2009

Michael rated it

Block's first novel is well researched, well written, and nicely structured. The information on the genetic basis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which forms a major theme of the novel is both fascinating and frightening. The transmission of the meme of the fabled land of Isadora along with the gene responsible for early-onset Alzheimer's disease makes an interesting motif. Although I found some of the sexual content extraneous to the plot, most of the writing is lean and drives the narrativ...more

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Jul 24, 2011

Julia rated it

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Ein Buch eines jungen Autors, das erstaunlich professionell aufgezogen ist und ein schwieriges, oft verschämt verschwiegenes Thema sanft und mit distanzlosem Zartgefühl in das Licht der Aufmerksamkeit rückt.

Der deutsche Titel und Klappentext, beide versuchen, vermeintlich verkaufshemmende Begriffe wie "Krankheit, Tod, Vergessen... Alzheimer" zu verschweigen, wie ich denke, verliert Dumont so aber eine potentielle Leserschaft.

Block zeichnet gefühlvoll Charaktere, die mit dem Vergessen P...more

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Jun 15, 2009

Sherrie Y rated it

Recommended to Sherrie Y by: Library e-mail

Shelves: read-in-2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 13, 2011

Cmorice rated it

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Impressionnant premier roman d’un auteur de vingt cinq ans, Stefan Merrill Block, Histoire de l’oubli raconte, des années 50 à la fin des années 90, l’histoire d’une famille frappée de génération en génération par une forme précoce de la maladie d’Alzheimer.
Seth, un adolescent de 15 ans, conscient que ses parents lui ont toujours caché les secrets du passé familial, se lance dans une véritable enquête sur ses origines. à quelques centaines de kilomètres de là, Abel Haggard, un vieil ermite...more

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Nov 06, 2010

Kiki rated it

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Shelves: wertvolligkeit

Wenn man den Buchrückentext liest, könnte man glauben, es erwartet einen hier eine wunderschön melancholische Liebesgeschichte. Weit gefehlt! Stattdessen ist es eines der besten Bücher über Demenz. Zugegeben - ich kenne überhaupt kein anderes, das dieses (Tabu-)Thema behandelt. Aber es wäre schwer, Stefan Merill Block zu überbieten. Feinfühlig zeigt er die Verzeiflung, mit der die Familienmitglieder mit der Erkrankung ihrer Mutter, ihres Vaters umgehen. Geheimnisvoll entführt er den Leser nach I...more

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May 25, 2009

Huda Felimban rated it

Recommended to Huda Felimban by: Mrs.NJD

Shelves: english-books

هذا الكتاب غريب نوعا ما
ينقلنا بشكل متقطع بين مشهدين
الأول هو لـ آبيل ؛ الأحدب الذي يعيش مع أخيه وزوجة أخيه
وابنته من (زوجة الأخ)، التي تقرر فجأة -بعد أن تسوء ظروف العائلة - أن تترك المنزل بلا عودة
وبين المشهد الثاني لـ سيث ؛ المراهق الذي أصيبت والدته بمرض الزهايمر المبكر
ورحلته العلمية في فهم مايجري لها بعد أن نقلها والده إلى دار رعاية
كنت مشتتة قليلا في البداية بين المشهدين ولكن سرعان ما اكتشفت الرابط بينهما

امم بالرغم من أن قرائتي لهذا الكتاب كانت ...more

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Sep 15, 2009

Karen rated it

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Shelves: fiction

When I was a child I often heard my beloved grandmother worry out loud that someday she would become "senile." Her lifelong fear did not materialize until she was in her late eighties. The last time I saw her Granny's fear had become a real condition. Her memory was almost gone, and she did not know me or her own daughter. She had devolved into a sweet child, twinkling, at that moment, with mischief and delight. It was these memories and the little worry-voice that Granny planted ...more

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Aug 11, 2009

Jake Rideout rated it

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This is my favorite book cover of all time. Normally that would be enough to convince me to read the book, but this one is not my kind of novel--it's about two men, Alzheimer's, and Texas...none of which are things I normally read about (see below for confirmation). I read this because Stefan Merrill Block is a hilarious and awesome person, which I learned at a BEA luncheon in May. I'm really glad I read it. The book is about Abel, a hunchbacked old man who has lost his twin brother to familial ...more

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Sep 05, 2009

Kathy rated it

In the present, a teenage boy tries to learn as much as he can about the genetics of his mother's early onset Alzheimer's disease. In the past, a twin brothers, one married and the other one unmarried, with a birth defect, and secretly in love with his brother's wife, all live together. Several hundred years ago, a single mutation on the gene of a promiscuous man leads to the eventual spread of the disease now known as early onset Alzheimer's. And finally, the tale of Isadora, a make-believe c...more

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Apr 13, 2010

sisterimapoet rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to sisterimapoet by: Mew

Shelves: fiction-2010

I loved the way we were dragged straight into the story. We were welcomed but were expected to work out where we were ourselves. There was no spoon-feeding going on here. We had to draw our own connections. That felt inclusive and involving. A real case of show rather than tell.

I liked the multiple layers between the different narratives. I like the sense of revelation as you started to notice the connections. This novel made me think, which is apt as much of it is about the a...more

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Apr 10, 2009

Jen rated it

Amazing read, the protagonist is as much memory itself as the various memory-inflicted characters in the book. Think this one will stick in the recesses of my brain for a while (ahh, memory, again...)

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Oct 01, 2009

Kelly rated it

Shelves: medical, family-issues, love-story

I really enjoyed this story. It's weird that I picked this book up to read after reading Still Alice because both books deal with early-onset Alzheimer's.

I liked that this story contrasts two viewpoints - Seth who is 15 and Abel who is 65 - and it's neat how their stories intersect. I also like that there is a folktale/myth running throughout the story as well - which also connects to both Seth's and Abel's stories. The author obviously researched this topic well, and Seth explains ...more

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May 22, 2010

Susan Henn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: modern-fiction

5/10 A talented young author's first book. The story is told flipping back and forth through the eyes of two characters. One character is an old man who has experienced a great deal of loss in his life including the loss of his brother and mother to early onset familial Alzheimer's. The other character is a precocious teenage boy whose mom is dying from the same disease. The boy sets out to discover the mysteries of his mom's past by pretending to compile information about the disease for a ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
heredity	1	3	Feb 14, 2011 01:27pm
GRL Review	1	11	Feb 07, 2009 02:04pm

title link	preview: The Story of Forgetting
avg rating	preview: The Story of Forgetting Goodreads rating: 3.61 (978 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2052367.The_Story_of_Forgetting?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320411368m/2052367.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2052367.The_Story_of_Forgetting?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block[/url]

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