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156th out of 857 books
—
1,226 voters
The Memory Palace
by
Mira Bartok (Goodreads Author)
“ People have abandoned their loved ones for much less than you’ve been through,” Mira Bartók is told at her mother’s memorial service. It is a poignant observation about the relationship between Mira, her sister, and their mentally ill mother. Before she was struck with schizophrenia at the age of nineteen, beautiful piano protégé Norma Herr had been the most vibrant pers...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
January 11th 2011
by Free Press
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1st out of 10 books
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4 voters
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I read 130 Pages before deciding I'd had enough. The book just seemed to be a little too scattered for me, and not sure who it was really about. Too many minor details, besides being quite depressing, and I just kept feeling like I was reading the same event over and over again, in a way. I get that the whole family is artistic and that it was a terrible waste for her mother to be as she was, but just as the oldest daughter was able to run away and hide from her mother for so many years, I also...more
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Edit :: 05/06/13 :: see comment #'s 9 & 10.
This book was a bit of a let down. I wanted more details and less of the narrative. I still do not have an understanding of how Mira and her sister were able to go on and live such successful lives. Nor do I understand the overall ambivalence about having a mother that was so mentally ill. On the other hand, this is a very loving account of a difficult relationship.
This book was a bit of a let down. I wanted more details and less of the narrative. I still do not have an understanding of how Mira and her sister were able to go on and live such successful lives. Nor do I understand the overall ambivalence about having a mother that was so mentally ill. On the other hand, this is a very loving account of a difficult relationship.
5 likes · like · see review
This memoir was incredible. I don't need to debate how to rate it.
Bartok hit it out of the ballpark. She and her mom and sister pass through, aspire to, or survive, family life, abusive men, homelessness, classrooms, shelters, museums, concert halls, loving husbands, freedom, religion, myths, reality, etc. not to mention their divergent perceptions of the same. Mostly what the book is about is the three of them trying to stay attached without being destroyed by the mother’s schizophrenia. When...more
Bartok hit it out of the ballpark. She and her mom and sister pass through, aspire to, or survive, family life, abusive men, homelessness, classrooms, shelters, museums, concert halls, loving husbands, freedom, religion, myths, reality, etc. not to mention their divergent perceptions of the same. Mostly what the book is about is the three of them trying to stay attached without being destroyed by the mother’s schizophrenia. When...more
14 likes · like · see review
Every now and then I'm fortunate enough to encounter a book that is not only elegantly written but also profoundly thought-provoking. The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok is one of those treasured books and could easily be classified as a literary masterpiece. Intertwined with the author's drawings and elegantly written prose, as well as the often obscure journal entries of her mentally-ill mother, Bartok provides the reader with an in-depth passage into a world that teeters between profound genius...more
I might go back and make this four stars instead of three. For some reason I had it in my head that this book did not get especially good reviews, or, there were a few reviewers out there that really didn't like it, somehow--I don't know why I felt sort of prejudiced against it before I even read it. I really liked this book a lot. I think it's beautifully organized. It's beautifully written. The fact that Bartok experiences a brain injury that causes her to feel empathy with the mentally ill mo...more
Jan 29, 2011
Mary (BookHounds)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011,
from-publisher-author
I had never heard of a Memory Palace before and found that the title for this book fits perfectly. A Memory Palace is created by creating an Escher like space in your brain to link memories to pictures. Mira Bartok uses her mentally ill mother's belongings and journals to create a Palace and takes you through her childhood based on the objects of her mother that are found in a storage container. This memoir is probably one of the best I have ever read and I am amazed that the author keeps a sens...more
Aug 01, 2010
Junebug
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who wants to learn the true meaning of empathy.
Shelves:
slice-of-life,
health,
memoir,
non-fiction,
biography,
philosophy,
arc,
favorites,
first-reads,
goodreads-giveaway
*Goodreads Giveaway.
PROS:
→ Easy read.
→ Poignant storytelling.
→ Engaging from the get-go.
→ Incredible prose.
→ Every single character in her life had personality and made a significant contribution to the book no matter how minor their role.
→ Audience was shown things, not merely told.
CONS:
→ This is a personal thing but I didn't like how minor ethnic groups were pointed out. For example, "the black woman in a pink coat" versus "the woman in a pink coat."
COMMENTS:
I won this book as a Goodreads G...more
PROS:
→ Easy read.
→ Poignant storytelling.
→ Engaging from the get-go.
→ Incredible prose.
→ Every single character in her life had personality and made a significant contribution to the book no matter how minor their role.
→ Audience was shown things, not merely told.
CONS:
→ This is a personal thing but I didn't like how minor ethnic groups were pointed out. For example, "the black woman in a pink coat" versus "the woman in a pink coat."
COMMENTS:
I won this book as a Goodreads G...more
Mira's memoir of her mother's mental illness and of how she and her sister endured their battered childhood is a fascinating, compelling read. Mira's tangled, painful youth does not still her ability to feel compassion for her brilliant, gifted and deeply troubled mother. Both women, and sister Rachel as well, are talented, vital personalities brought to vibrant life in this heart-felt memoir. As their history unfolded, revealing the extraordinary and painful complexities and needs of Norma Herr...more
An autobiographical memoir of two daughters growing up and dealing with a schizophrenic mother whom ends up being homeless as her mental illness deepens and the daughters move out and away from that life. We also experience a view of the mother's death and what it reveals to the daughters whom had to separate their lives from their mother's life in order to work and live "normal" lives. We feel the pain and guilt of that separation and how it eats at the daughters even though it enables them to...more
This is a painful book to read because of the suffering of Mira that she verbalized sometimes eloquently and often with confusion. Some readers feel that she repeats situations and it has a laborious feel. In thinking about this, I realize that it is a good way to have the reader understand the experience of the illness itself. For many sufferers and their families, the experience of being stuck with the sadness and frustration seems to go on and on. There can be no way to get productive help or...more
Word has it that certain ill-informed haters on NPR Fresh Air web site and various book review web sites have been bashing Mira and her sister for their decision to change their names at adulthood, leaving their mother to drift in her disordered state from shelter to bus station to mental institution. Screw that. Bartok explains her history with grace and little rationalization, and the times she and her sister spend with her dying mother make up for decades of little contact.
I should state fo...more
I should state fo...more
2 likes · like · see review
I read this book as a condemnation of our public health system's failure to deal compassionately and wisely with those who suffer the most extreme types of mental illness. Intelligence and talent do not protect families from the horrors of living with someone who is a victim of his or her psychoses. It is a terrible, cruel, life-destroying family situation. No one in Bartok's family went unscathed. Fear, guilt, self-doubt, anger, and despair: they run the gamut of negative feelings as a result...more
In her touching memoir, The Memory Palace, Mira Bartok explores her memories of growing up with a schizophrenic mother. Through years, moves, and life stages Mira remembers. Each chapter is different room of her “memory palace”, where Mira holds her experiences. Mira reveals the fear and insecurity she and her sister, Rachel, felt as young girls. Mira processes the responsibility they felt for their mother, Norma, as she worsened. She illustrates the shame and embarrassment that characterized he...more
This book focuses on the author's mentally ill mother and the effect of her illness on the author's and her sister's childhood. (They eventually changed their names and avoided being in her presence for many years).
I wish Bartok (her adopted name) had devoted a little more time to the Memory Palace metaphor-- where she found it, how she used it, why she used it (I've already given the book to someone else so I can't remember if the Memory Palace came before or after the brain injury that Bartok...more
I wish Bartok (her adopted name) had devoted a little more time to the Memory Palace metaphor-- where she found it, how she used it, why she used it (I've already given the book to someone else so I can't remember if the Memory Palace came before or after the brain injury that Bartok...more
The Memory Palace is a beautifully composed memoir about the relationship between the author and her schizophrenic mother, complete with the complex range of emotions you would expect from a difficult family relationship-- fear, anger, guilt, hope, and love. Bartok writes without an agenda. She tells it like it is and lets the readers decide how they should feel about mental health care, homelessness, and her mom, along with the various family relationships.
In addition to the story line, Bartok...more
In addition to the story line, Bartok...more
This book is a memoire of a women's (the author) childhood with a schizophrenic mother. The book retells Mira's decision to take up another name and relocate for safety, from her mother. Mira tells of the guilt of abandoning her mentally ill mother in persuit of her own safety. However, no matter what her mother put her through she and Mira were always connected via letters. I loved this part of the book, because it goes to show the bond between mother and child. That no matter what Norma (Mira'...more
This was really a disappointment for me. I absolutely love memoirs and I have been reading them like crazy. I desperately wanted to like this book.
Mira has obviously lived a very interesting life, and has overcome so much - as the daughter of a woman with paranoid schizophrenia, and as someone who survived a traumatic brain injury herself.
However, her interpretation of everything that happened to her seemed somehow empty or lacking to me. She seems to write about the most potentially heart wrenc...more
Mira has obviously lived a very interesting life, and has overcome so much - as the daughter of a woman with paranoid schizophrenia, and as someone who survived a traumatic brain injury herself.
However, her interpretation of everything that happened to her seemed somehow empty or lacking to me. She seems to write about the most potentially heart wrenc...more
Mira Bartok has dealt with the emotional upheaval of growing up with a schizophrenic mother by writing a haunting memoir, whose words linger with this reader. The author needed to shut her mother completely out of her adult life for her own preservation, and she expressed honestly the pull between guilt that her mother was homeless and self-preservation. One applauds the writer for emerging as a woman of strength. This memoir speaks for the great need for resources and help for the mentally ill....more
This is another tough book to rate. Ideally, I would give it 3 1/2 stars, but settled for three, since it didn't quite qualify for the fourth star.
It was beautifully written, but that might be its flaw; it was too beautifully written. I felt that Mira Bartok wanted to present her mother in a favorable light and so glossed over the more unpleasant aspects of her mother's illness. I just didn't believe that her mother's behavior was so extreme that the author and her sister both had to change thei...more
It was beautifully written, but that might be its flaw; it was too beautifully written. I felt that Mira Bartok wanted to present her mother in a favorable light and so glossed over the more unpleasant aspects of her mother's illness. I just didn't believe that her mother's behavior was so extreme that the author and her sister both had to change thei...more
This was a mixed bag for me. It was extremely well written by a talented author, but despite the fact that it is a memoir of the author's mother's mental illness, I found myself far more drawn to Mira's life. Not to sound cold, but there was a stagnancy and inevitability to the mother's story. I wanted to see how Mira's played out.
That Mira and Rachel's mother, Norma, was seriously mentally ill was not in dispute. At the start of the book she is dying and the daughters have come to see her one l...more
That Mira and Rachel's mother, Norma, was seriously mentally ill was not in dispute. At the start of the book she is dying and the daughters have come to see her one l...more
Mira Bartok and her sister had it tough, dealing with a mentally ill mother. When she became so threatening that the two girls, by then grown, actually feared for their safety, they both made the hard decision to change their names and not tell their mother where they lived. The knowledge that her mother was homeless haunted Mira, and this memoir reads like a running commentary of the daily guilt that Mira felt over her break with her mother. In creating her memory palace - a place where she can...more
This book really hit home: Artist and children's author Bartok describes a life dominated by her schizophrenic mother. After experiencing decades of craziness and suicide attempts, they finally cut off all ties with their homeless mother. Once the mother faces a terminal illness, the daughters try to connect with her again and heal some of the wounds. An amazing book that deserves a larger readership.
A few memorable quotes:
- Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most b...more
A few memorable quotes:
- Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most b...more
In reviews this book was likened to The Glass Castle and having loved that book I was super excited to read this one. Let me tell you though that this book is no Glass Castle. In fact I think it was trying way too hard to be The Glass Castle and in doing so became a bit of a mess. Even the title is a bit too mimicy (yes I know that is not a word) for my liking. However, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I'm guessing Jeanette Walls must be feeling pretty flattered right about now.
I...more
I...more
7 likes · like · see review
The Memory Palace is a memoir which tells of Mira Bartok's life growing up and living with a mother who suffered from schizophrenia . The book begins at the end as Mira rediscovers her mother who is nearing the end of her life. It then proceeds to describe the process of their life in snapshots as rooms in Mira's "memory palace."
The memory palace is a tool that associates our memories with a concrete place and object. Your palace has rooms, and each room has a significant object which triggers m...more
The memory palace is a tool that associates our memories with a concrete place and object. Your palace has rooms, and each room has a significant object which triggers m...more
This complex memoir touches on the difficult and little understood subject of schizopheria. It is the story of how Mira and her sister Natalia leave their homeless and schizophrenic mother Norma after years of abuse and frustrations. They even go so far as to change their names and have post office box addresses in an effort to totally detach themselves from their ill mother.
After 17 years of estrangement and other personal traumas (Mira suffers a brain injury), the story focuses on a reunion an...more
After 17 years of estrangement and other personal traumas (Mira suffers a brain injury), the story focuses on a reunion an...more
Adult sisters deal with their mother's mental illness. They have even changed their names, moved without leaving forwarded addresses, etc.
The memory palace refers to a 'place' author has built in her mind to remember and categorize the events of growing up with her mentally ill mother.
Favorite Quotes:
"Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend." P 32
"Our brains are built for selective attention---we focus on some things while ign...more
The memory palace refers to a 'place' author has built in her mind to remember and categorize the events of growing up with her mentally ill mother.
Favorite Quotes:
"Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend." P 32
"Our brains are built for selective attention---we focus on some things while ign...more
For such a potentially moving subject, I felt oddly disconnected from the author's story. There is never really any deep thought or feeling, it's mostly Mother did this and we did that in response and a lot of guilt expressed. I also don't like when authors ask questions constantly. For instance," ...."Should I turn back, should I go home? Will she ever be okay?""What is on the other side of the golden wall?" "What do the pictures mean?". "Can a painting save a person's life?"
Who is the author...more
Who is the author...more
6 likes · like · see review
Hmmm.
There are a lot of overwhelmingly positive reactions to this book, and I hesitate a little to be among its detractors. I'll let those other reviewers focus on the positives and the plot summary, and explain why I didn't love it:
It's not well written. It jumps all over the place, not in a jumble of memory but in a disjointed way. The author uses a constant "I wonder what my mother would be doing right now. Would it be A? Or would it be B? Or would it be the violent option, C?" This exact pa...more
There are a lot of overwhelmingly positive reactions to this book, and I hesitate a little to be among its detractors. I'll let those other reviewers focus on the positives and the plot summary, and explain why I didn't love it:
It's not well written. It jumps all over the place, not in a jumble of memory but in a disjointed way. The author uses a constant "I wonder what my mother would be doing right now. Would it be A? Or would it be B? Or would it be the violent option, C?" This exact pa...more
3 likes · like · see review
This was a challenging book for me. I liked the idea of a memory palace and believe I had read a review that compared this to Jeannette Wall's "The Glass Castle". I was expecting something similar with this book.
It was an interesting read but I felt detached from Mira (which may have been the point) and her relationship with her mother. This may have been Mira's coping mechanism but so much of the book centered on the act of running away from her mother and her mother's disjointed letters, inter...more
It was an interesting read but I felt detached from Mira (which may have been the point) and her relationship with her mother. This may have been Mira's coping mechanism but so much of the book centered on the act of running away from her mother and her mother's disjointed letters, inter...more
I loved this book. Bartok is a talented writer and artist, and her use of the "memory palace" device worked very well for this story. All of her characters are richly drawn, people with whom we can sympathize even when they're behaving badly toward one another.
I entered into this book from a couple of different perspectives: as a writer, as a scholar of traumatic brain injury and trauma studies, and as the child of a man who suffers from schizophrenia. While our childhood was quite different fro...more
I entered into this book from a couple of different perspectives: as a writer, as a scholar of traumatic brain injury and trauma studies, and as the child of a man who suffers from schizophrenia. While our childhood was quite different fro...more
1 like · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aiossa's Senior 5...: Shannon Schooler Book Review | 1 | 16 | 27 sept. 17:28 | |
| Win 1 of 3 copies of The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok – Ends 3/1 | 2 | 27 | 07 fév. 04:28 |
Winner of the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, Mira Bartok is an artist and writer living in Massachusetts. Her writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been noted in The Best American Essays 1999 and other anthologies. She is the author of over 28 books for children and author/illustrator of the New York Times bestselling memoir and ALA Notable book, THE M...more
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“Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do comprehend.”
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“We humans are different - our brains are built not to fix memories in stone but rather to transform them, our recollections in their retelling.”
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