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Confessions of a Memory Eater
"Complicated, cool and vulnerable at the same time...you can't help falling for Pagan Kennedy's characters."—Stephen Dubner, The New York Times
Once a brilliant historian with a promising academic future, Win Duncan is at a crossroads in his career when he is mysteriously summoned by Litminov, a wild but brilliant chemist from his college days. Litminov has made millions since, and has bought a pharmaceutical company solely to develop MEM, an experimental drug that gives one the ability to recall life’s best memories with crystal clarity. Duncan becomes a beta tester and loses himself to the most delicious moments of his past—those precious few years with his mother who died tragically when he was just a child; ecstatic sex with his wife when they first fell in love—until he discovers the dark side effects of a drug that turns the past into pornography and renders the present useless.
A proven master of underground lit, beat fiction and narrative non-fiction, Pagan Kennedy takes on America’s obsession with the idealized past with freshness, wit, and an uncanny ability to measure the pulse of post-modern culture.
Pagan Kennedy is the author of seven books. The most recent, Black Livingstone, was a New York Times Notable Book and a winner of the Massachusetts Book Award. Her novel Spinsters won a Barnes & Noble Discover Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award. Her articles appear regularly in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Spin, and Salon.
Once a brilliant historian with a promising academic future, Win Duncan is at a crossroads in his career when he is mysteriously summoned by Litminov, a wild but brilliant chemist from his college days. Litminov has made millions since, and has bought a pharmaceutical company solely to develop MEM, an experimental drug that gives one the ability to recall life’s best memories with crystal clarity. Duncan becomes a beta tester and loses himself to the most delicious moments of his past—those precious few years with his mother who died tragically when he was just a child; ecstatic sex with his wife when they first fell in love—until he discovers the dark side effects of a drug that turns the past into pornography and renders the present useless.
A proven master of underground lit, beat fiction and narrative non-fiction, Pagan Kennedy takes on America’s obsession with the idealized past with freshness, wit, and an uncanny ability to measure the pulse of post-modern culture.
Pagan Kennedy is the author of seven books. The most recent, Black Livingstone, was a New York Times Notable Book and a winner of the Massachusetts Book Award. Her novel Spinsters won a Barnes & Noble Discover Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award. Her articles appear regularly in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Spin, and Salon.
171 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2006
4 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
Pagan Kennedy
26 books85 followersPagan Kennedy is a regular contributor to the New York Times and author of eleven books. A biography titled Black Livingstone made the NewYork Times Notable list and earned Massachusetts Book Award honors. She also has been the recipient of a Barnes and Noble Discover Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a Smithsonian Fellowship for science writing. Visit her online at www.pagankennedy.net.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
April 29, 2021
I wrote about this book back when it was new, and I'm just copy/pasting here what I wrote back then: "Confessions of a Memory Eater" is the perfect distillation of a midlife crisis, except it's a hundred times more fun and entertaining than that sounds. A former academic wunderkind, Win Duncan discovers a drug that allows you to relive any memory as if it were happening right now. But the drug, mem, works better if you take it with someone else who shares the same memory. Nostalgia becomes a consumer item for a cast of characters who are less than the sum of their pasts. "
September 26, 2007
This book started out in a very interesting direction and has a very interesting theme regarding memory and how we can use it and how we might harness it...
But it didn't pay off for me. I ended up skimming the last twenty or so pages. I think Kennedy should have spent another six months mining her theme for resonance. The central character and his conflicts could have been more engagingly connected to the theme.
But it didn't pay off for me. I ended up skimming the last twenty or so pages. I think Kennedy should have spent another six months mining her theme for resonance. The central character and his conflicts could have been more engagingly connected to the theme.
September 4, 2007
In this brief little novel, the main character takes the experimental drug, Mem, which allows him to re-visit scenes from his past. Kennedy has interesting thoughts about the concept of memory, but I much preferred the movie, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which deals better with the same ideas.
April 4, 2015
I thought the first half of this was utterly depressing.
March 19, 2020
Our hapless narrator, Win Duncan, is a man possessed of a smart wife, an excellent job, an erudite mind and a secure future if he makes tenure. But he’s undergoing a mid-life crisis. His wife is succeeding brilliantly in her aspirations and his novel about an opium user is flagging and he feels as if he’s lost his wife since he was a fierce firebrand.
Swanning into this malaise and miasma of discontent and self-doubt comes Litminov, a rebellisou, sharp-tongued rebel who alternately cajoles and bullies Win into trying and cataloguing the effects of an untried drug, one that submerges the user into any memory of a past event.
Litminov’s character is of the type readily recognizable in fiction: the quintessential ne’er-do-well, the rebel, the BAD BOY, complete with his insouciance and Pied piper call to perform mischievous, dangerous and/or criminal acts: Steerforth, Parolles, Peter Pan and Lord Henry Wotton are all representatives of this type. They don’t change but act as catalysts that propel the main character(s) down dark and sinuous pathways. So enough about him.
Win Duncan is a character with an incisive mind, a yearning curiosity and the foolish nostalgia that often paints our past with gilded light, forgetting the dark shadows that lay upon it. Win is determined to retrieve the memories of his passionate youth; remember when he was truly happy; figure out when, where and how it all went wrong and recapture that elusive bliss he once knew.
Ms. Kennedy subtly makes us all Win Duncans as the reader is brought along on Win’s journey. What would be like to relive the glory days from our past in vivid, Technicolor detail? What would it be like to RELIVE them as they happened, not just bathe in the dim glow of our flawed memories? We know Win’s desires are doomed to fail, that he’s grasping at straws and chasing chimeras, that’s there’s no reclaiming the past, even our clearest memories are flawed and he’s spiraling into a hazardous addiction. But which of us could resist such a drug if handed one?
The novel is as insidious as its imaginary pill, luring the reader deep into Win’s psyche, story, interactions with others and his Mem-induced hallucinogenic trips. The novel presses us deep into the dark side and through to a kind of bittersweet resolution. It’s provocative, gripping and addictive fiction that is both preparation and warning about a chemically-induced happiness that may or may not be in our near future.
Swanning into this malaise and miasma of discontent and self-doubt comes Litminov, a rebellisou, sharp-tongued rebel who alternately cajoles and bullies Win into trying and cataloguing the effects of an untried drug, one that submerges the user into any memory of a past event.
Litminov’s character is of the type readily recognizable in fiction: the quintessential ne’er-do-well, the rebel, the BAD BOY, complete with his insouciance and Pied piper call to perform mischievous, dangerous and/or criminal acts: Steerforth, Parolles, Peter Pan and Lord Henry Wotton are all representatives of this type. They don’t change but act as catalysts that propel the main character(s) down dark and sinuous pathways. So enough about him.
Win Duncan is a character with an incisive mind, a yearning curiosity and the foolish nostalgia that often paints our past with gilded light, forgetting the dark shadows that lay upon it. Win is determined to retrieve the memories of his passionate youth; remember when he was truly happy; figure out when, where and how it all went wrong and recapture that elusive bliss he once knew.
Ms. Kennedy subtly makes us all Win Duncans as the reader is brought along on Win’s journey. What would be like to relive the glory days from our past in vivid, Technicolor detail? What would it be like to RELIVE them as they happened, not just bathe in the dim glow of our flawed memories? We know Win’s desires are doomed to fail, that he’s grasping at straws and chasing chimeras, that’s there’s no reclaiming the past, even our clearest memories are flawed and he’s spiraling into a hazardous addiction. But which of us could resist such a drug if handed one?
The novel is as insidious as its imaginary pill, luring the reader deep into Win’s psyche, story, interactions with others and his Mem-induced hallucinogenic trips. The novel presses us deep into the dark side and through to a kind of bittersweet resolution. It’s provocative, gripping and addictive fiction that is both preparation and warning about a chemically-induced happiness that may or may not be in our near future.
March 16, 2020
Kitapla ilgili beni en çok etkileyen Win Duncan Beyin karısı ile yaptığı boşanma konuşması oldu. Eddie'nin boşanma ile ilgili olarak mavi bir elbise giydim ve kendimi artık bekar bir kadın olarak gördüm. İfadesi beni çok etkiledi. Güzel kitaptı vesselam. İnsanın mutlu olduğu zamanlara gidip orada yaşaması güzel olurdu.
September 24, 2007
I wrote a long review of this for the common book committee, so I'm just going to paste the majority of it here...
Summary from Amazon:
“Once a brilliant historian with a promising academic future, Win Duncan is at a crossroads in his career when he is mysteriously summoned by Litminov, a wild but brilliant chemist from his college days. Litminov has made millions since, and has bought a pharmaceutical company solely to develop MEM, an experimental drug that gives one the ability to recall life's best memories with crystal clarity. Duncan becomes a beta tester and loses himself to the most delicious moments of his past-those precious few years with his mother who died tragically when he was just a child; ecstatic sex with his wife when they first fell in love-until he discovers the dark side effects of a drug that turns the past into pornography and renders the present useless.”
At first I didn’t think it would be a good book for incoming freshman – it seemed like it was all about loosing what was once important to you, wanting to live in the past, loosing sight of yourself. I thought, these kids are just starting what many of them think of as a “new life.” They’re not going to be thinking about the past, they’re thinking about the future. I saw the parallel – that it could be a “cautionary tale” about “being true to yourself” – but I didn’t think they would. After all, this is a lesson you can’t really teach – until you experience it, it’s just theory.
But then about 2/3 of the way through, the story starts to change. It becomes more about finding your true self, staying true to yourself. The things around you, about you, can change – your job, your spouse, etc., but you have to maintain your true identity, ethics, morals, beliefs. And what you do right now shapes who you’re going to be in the future. Some quotes that illustrate my point:
“You’re a decent man,” she’d said, as of she could read it on my face. I wanted to be that man. I felt myself stretching toward him. And it was thinking of that man I would be – Win-42, Win-45, Win-50 – that helped me muster my strength. What I did now would determine whether I would become a better man or a worse one. Pg. 131
When discussing why a friend wants the drug in her last days before succumbing to Cancer:
Then I understood, in one sudden convulsion…what she meant. “You want to remain yourself,” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “Exactly. All this nastiness I’ve been through with the cancer, it’s killing my spirit. I won’t let that happen. I’m going to retain my dignity.”
“I think that’s why I wanted the drug, too. Why it’s had such a hold on me. When I’m on it, it seems to restore my dignity. My sense of meaning.” Now, I was thinking of the Rare Books Room, how I’d touched that signature’s of De Quincey’s and seemed to know who I was again – that feeling I’d had of coming home. Pg. 134
The very end of the book, which is sort of preachy but wraps ups the main character’s struggle well, also discusses the importance of being involved, being passionate about something. It implies that true potential is never reached until you manage to immerse yourself in something.
"But I hoped that the questions would flare up inside of me, and I would be gripped with the kind of passionate curiosity that for me is a synonym for happiness. That’s what I desired – to be consumed by a question, any question…But I was sure now – and I don’t know why, but I was sure – I would become passionate about something. I would rediscover that happiness that has flickered on and off, throughout my life. Good moments lay ahead, I told myself, piles of them.
There is, of course, no drug that will allow us to see what will happen to us; now way to fly, Mem-like, into our future selves. The best you can do is jot down a list on a piece of paper, a set of direc
Summary from Amazon:
“Once a brilliant historian with a promising academic future, Win Duncan is at a crossroads in his career when he is mysteriously summoned by Litminov, a wild but brilliant chemist from his college days. Litminov has made millions since, and has bought a pharmaceutical company solely to develop MEM, an experimental drug that gives one the ability to recall life's best memories with crystal clarity. Duncan becomes a beta tester and loses himself to the most delicious moments of his past-those precious few years with his mother who died tragically when he was just a child; ecstatic sex with his wife when they first fell in love-until he discovers the dark side effects of a drug that turns the past into pornography and renders the present useless.”
At first I didn’t think it would be a good book for incoming freshman – it seemed like it was all about loosing what was once important to you, wanting to live in the past, loosing sight of yourself. I thought, these kids are just starting what many of them think of as a “new life.” They’re not going to be thinking about the past, they’re thinking about the future. I saw the parallel – that it could be a “cautionary tale” about “being true to yourself” – but I didn’t think they would. After all, this is a lesson you can’t really teach – until you experience it, it’s just theory.
But then about 2/3 of the way through, the story starts to change. It becomes more about finding your true self, staying true to yourself. The things around you, about you, can change – your job, your spouse, etc., but you have to maintain your true identity, ethics, morals, beliefs. And what you do right now shapes who you’re going to be in the future. Some quotes that illustrate my point:
“You’re a decent man,” she’d said, as of she could read it on my face. I wanted to be that man. I felt myself stretching toward him. And it was thinking of that man I would be – Win-42, Win-45, Win-50 – that helped me muster my strength. What I did now would determine whether I would become a better man or a worse one. Pg. 131
When discussing why a friend wants the drug in her last days before succumbing to Cancer:
Then I understood, in one sudden convulsion…what she meant. “You want to remain yourself,” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “Exactly. All this nastiness I’ve been through with the cancer, it’s killing my spirit. I won’t let that happen. I’m going to retain my dignity.”
“I think that’s why I wanted the drug, too. Why it’s had such a hold on me. When I’m on it, it seems to restore my dignity. My sense of meaning.” Now, I was thinking of the Rare Books Room, how I’d touched that signature’s of De Quincey’s and seemed to know who I was again – that feeling I’d had of coming home. Pg. 134
The very end of the book, which is sort of preachy but wraps ups the main character’s struggle well, also discusses the importance of being involved, being passionate about something. It implies that true potential is never reached until you manage to immerse yourself in something.
"But I hoped that the questions would flare up inside of me, and I would be gripped with the kind of passionate curiosity that for me is a synonym for happiness. That’s what I desired – to be consumed by a question, any question…But I was sure now – and I don’t know why, but I was sure – I would become passionate about something. I would rediscover that happiness that has flickered on and off, throughout my life. Good moments lay ahead, I told myself, piles of them.
There is, of course, no drug that will allow us to see what will happen to us; now way to fly, Mem-like, into our future selves. The best you can do is jot down a list on a piece of paper, a set of direc
November 23, 2008
Ever wish you could go back in time and live a special moment again? I have asked people that from time to time, and I find their answers very interesting. Every now and then I do wish I could go back in time to see certain people again, but most of the time I am content to be moving forward through time. Even so, the title of Pagan Kennedy’s book “Confessions of a Memory Eater” caught my eye as I perused the shelves of the Emporia Public Library. So, I took it home with me and went on a journey with Professor Win Duncan.
Win, a former Whitman Prize-winning student at Columbia University, has settled. He turned down a job offer at Stanford University in favor of a job at a small, unremarkable college in a town he hates, so that he and his wife could work at the same institution. His wife’s successful career makes his imminent failure more pointed. This situation, of course, does nothing positive for their marriage. He is faced with the probability that he will not earn tenure at the same time that her career begins to soar. It is at this vulnerable point that Litminov re-enters his life.
Litminov and Win were grad students together at Columbia, and Litminov offers Win a new business opportunity over the phone, which in Win’s emotional state resonates. Litminov says he is in the pharmaceutical industry and needs Win to test and offer testimonials for a new drug. The new drug enhances memories, and at their first meeting to discuss this ‘opportunity,’ Litminov shares a sample with Win. Win tried the drug on his return home and was immediately addicted. The drug allowed Win to experience his memories with a vividness that made his reality drab and lifeless.
This story follows Win through his addition to and recovery from this drug, and chronicles both the things he lost and the things he found from pursuing old memories. His marriage did not survive, but Win did and because he learned from his experiences he ended up growing as a person. After witnessing Win’s experiences through this short but powerful novel, I think I may change my mind about going back in time.
Win, a former Whitman Prize-winning student at Columbia University, has settled. He turned down a job offer at Stanford University in favor of a job at a small, unremarkable college in a town he hates, so that he and his wife could work at the same institution. His wife’s successful career makes his imminent failure more pointed. This situation, of course, does nothing positive for their marriage. He is faced with the probability that he will not earn tenure at the same time that her career begins to soar. It is at this vulnerable point that Litminov re-enters his life.
Litminov and Win were grad students together at Columbia, and Litminov offers Win a new business opportunity over the phone, which in Win’s emotional state resonates. Litminov says he is in the pharmaceutical industry and needs Win to test and offer testimonials for a new drug. The new drug enhances memories, and at their first meeting to discuss this ‘opportunity,’ Litminov shares a sample with Win. Win tried the drug on his return home and was immediately addicted. The drug allowed Win to experience his memories with a vividness that made his reality drab and lifeless.
This story follows Win through his addition to and recovery from this drug, and chronicles both the things he lost and the things he found from pursuing old memories. His marriage did not survive, but Win did and because he learned from his experiences he ended up growing as a person. After witnessing Win’s experiences through this short but powerful novel, I think I may change my mind about going back in time.
January 1, 2008
This didn't have quite as much meat as I wanted. However, I agree with Marisa that this would make a good common book for Otterbein. It has fairly simple language and plot to keep a busy freshman interested. Plus there are a lot of memory-culling creative writing exercises that could go along with this. But for my interests, I wanted more descriptive and metaphoric language.
Favorite Quotes:
She stored my past inside her. She contained pieces of me.
The boy stared down at the iron birdbath in the yard below, noticing how it leaned into his own happiness, holding it in a blue circle of water with flakes of light floating on top, as if you could walk right up to that birdbath and pick the light out of the water and pop it into your mouth and it would melt like candy. The boy imagined that he owned happiness now, that it would be his forever now that he had learned the trick of it.
I opened my eyes onto the spangles on the surface of the stream and the wet rocks, little shards of light that tattooed themselves on my vision, so that when I turned to Sue, I saw them superimposed on her face, spots, ghosts, as if she were in a movie that was burning up on the screen, holes opening up in her skin the moment before the film snapped and she disappeared.
There is no such thing as forgetting possible to the mind...the inscription remains forever.
But I hoped that the questions would flare up inside of me, and I would be gripped with the kind of passionate curiosity that for me is a synonym for happiness. That's what I desired - to be consumed by a question, any question.
Favorite Quotes:
She stored my past inside her. She contained pieces of me.
The boy stared down at the iron birdbath in the yard below, noticing how it leaned into his own happiness, holding it in a blue circle of water with flakes of light floating on top, as if you could walk right up to that birdbath and pick the light out of the water and pop it into your mouth and it would melt like candy. The boy imagined that he owned happiness now, that it would be his forever now that he had learned the trick of it.
I opened my eyes onto the spangles on the surface of the stream and the wet rocks, little shards of light that tattooed themselves on my vision, so that when I turned to Sue, I saw them superimposed on her face, spots, ghosts, as if she were in a movie that was burning up on the screen, holes opening up in her skin the moment before the film snapped and she disappeared.
There is no such thing as forgetting possible to the mind...the inscription remains forever.
But I hoped that the questions would flare up inside of me, and I would be gripped with the kind of passionate curiosity that for me is a synonym for happiness. That's what I desired - to be consumed by a question, any question.
December 3, 2007
Win Duncan, a disaffected academic sleepwalking through listless days, is contacted out of the blue by Phil Litminov, a dynamic, vaguely criminal pal from his grad student days. Litminov wants Win to help test -- and to explain -- a miraculous new drug that allows you to re-live your memories. One pill and you're 7 or 14 or 21 again, your consciousness piggybacking on your younger self. One trip on Mem and Win is hooked -- if he can get his hands on enough pills, he can go remember how to be happy, he can recapture the romance of his rocky marriage, he can rediscover his purpose. Instead, Win's life spirals out of control -- he loses his job, his wife, and Litminov disappears, leaving Win without a supplier. And while he realizes that he should probably quit Mem cold turkey, his friend Sue makes a compelling case for her own need. Sue is dying of cancer and wants a supply of Mem to see her through her agonizing final days, allowing her to experience the sensations of a healthy, vigorous body rather than a frail, decaying one.
Memory Eater obviously abounds with ideas -- about the nature of memory, about how experiences shape who we are and how who we are shapes our experiences, about perspective. It's also full of emotion -- I didn't expect so much sadness.
"She was an easy person to lie to. She helped you. With a little prompting, you could get her to come up with the entire lie by herself, and hers would be better than yours."
"She'd spent years trying to explain herself to me (and I to her), but in the end, it had all been for nothing. I could recite her memories, but I could not feel them. She was another country, and I would never travel there."
Memory Eater obviously abounds with ideas -- about the nature of memory, about how experiences shape who we are and how who we are shapes our experiences, about perspective. It's also full of emotion -- I didn't expect so much sadness.
"She was an easy person to lie to. She helped you. With a little prompting, you could get her to come up with the entire lie by herself, and hers would be better than yours."
"She'd spent years trying to explain herself to me (and I to her), but in the end, it had all been for nothing. I could recite her memories, but I could not feel them. She was another country, and I would never travel there."
September 10, 2013
I really wish there were half stars, this isn't quite a 4, but more than a 3.
I found the premise of this book irresistible: take a pill and relive the best moments of your life, not just as if you were watching a movie, but feeling everything the way you had when it first happened. The disappointment is that when Win Duncan takes this pill, Mem, what he experiences seems to be no more than somewhat vivid dreams of mundane days in his past. Win says it's difficult to explain how Mem makes one feel, so there's not much of an attempt. Even seeing his long-dead mother seems not to move him very much.
Pharmaceutical time travel? Mind-blowing, given how powerful nostalgia can be. Pagan Kennedy builds up the idea of Mem, but it doesn't live up to its promise. Well-written and fast-paced, but not the evocative sort of of story I was expecting.
I found the premise of this book irresistible: take a pill and relive the best moments of your life, not just as if you were watching a movie, but feeling everything the way you had when it first happened. The disappointment is that when Win Duncan takes this pill, Mem, what he experiences seems to be no more than somewhat vivid dreams of mundane days in his past. Win says it's difficult to explain how Mem makes one feel, so there's not much of an attempt. Even seeing his long-dead mother seems not to move him very much.
Pharmaceutical time travel? Mind-blowing, given how powerful nostalgia can be. Pagan Kennedy builds up the idea of Mem, but it doesn't live up to its promise. Well-written and fast-paced, but not the evocative sort of of story I was expecting.
August 3, 2007
This book is short enough to read in an afternoon, and it is beautifully written. If you've ever wished you could go back in time and re-live certain moments, this book is for you. The pill (presumably pictured on the front cover)allows you to actually go back and re-live a memory in full. It's not exactly time travel, which makes this one different and introduces a new concept...
The cast of supporting characters was not developed well enough, leaving me feeling like I'd spent too much time with one person. My only complaint is that it was too short and came to an abrupt end. A lot more could've been done with this book.
The cast of supporting characters was not developed well enough, leaving me feeling like I'd spent too much time with one person. My only complaint is that it was too short and came to an abrupt end. A lot more could've been done with this book.
August 25, 2013
This is a quiet book that starts slow, but that rewards the patient reader. A failing academic, once an acclaimed student with a brilliant future ahead of him, meets with a mysterious figure from his past who brings a drug that allows the user to fully inhabit their past memories. Kennedy has created a meditation on addiction, on living, and on dying, and on the regrets that come with all of those states of being and the choices made and not made along the way. The text is marred with a few-too-many typos, but the imperfections of Kennedy's main character are the ones that will persist in your own memory as time grinds inexorably on.
August 4, 2009
Another in a string of peculiar books I've read since the first of the year. An underachieving history prof at a small, mediocre college is unhappy with his life, his career, & his marraige. Given a chance to take a pill that produces vivid memories--virtually reenactments but not really time travel--to particular moments in the past, he thinks he can somehow recover the kind of happiness he thinks he had in the past. With a mother who was primarily backward looking & a father who very much lived toward the future, he eventually tries to learn how to live in the present.
June 12, 2007
I had high hopes for this book after reading a sparkling review of it in a magazine last year. Although it was short, it took me a while to get through. It felt a little dense and I got bored with the narrator (who was always in his own head, as the title says). The book left a lot to be desired. Pagan Kennedey didn't try hard enough at the mysterious parts of the book, although she did wrench my heart a little when discussing a dying character.
March 11, 2008
I had high expectations for this book. But...eh.
I really liked the premise, something that I have dreamed of before. I'm loathe to say (because i like Kennedy's other works) but the execution was lacking. She could have explored a vast array of emotions, including terror, but instead it seems she wanted to focus on the academic aspect of the plot---the one that mirrors De Quincey's "Confessions...Opium Eater".
I really liked the premise, something that I have dreamed of before. I'm loathe to say (because i like Kennedy's other works) but the execution was lacking. She could have explored a vast array of emotions, including terror, but instead it seems she wanted to focus on the academic aspect of the plot---the one that mirrors De Quincey's "Confessions...Opium Eater".
September 5, 2009
Havent read this yet, but wanted to chime in with something while waiting for it to come in at the library. Id had this on my list for quite some time, but it wasnt until today when I was I was researching what my favorite director Brad Anderson might be up to, that I noticed that he was adapting this. So...now I MUST read this as soon as fnuggin possible. Will post my review and/or opinion once Ive read it.
February 11, 2009
I loved this book.
The main character is introduced to a drug called Mem, which can take you back in memory and allows you to reexperience the happiest memories of your life and essentially live in the past while you're high.
It made me think about a lot of things. What times in my life I would want to relive, if I could. When was I the happiest? What times would I avoid like the plague and be afraid of remembering in such detail?
The main character is introduced to a drug called Mem, which can take you back in memory and allows you to reexperience the happiest memories of your life and essentially live in the past while you're high.
It made me think about a lot of things. What times in my life I would want to relive, if I could. When was I the happiest? What times would I avoid like the plague and be afraid of remembering in such detail?
September 9, 2007
If only there was a pill we could swallow to get our best and happiest times back. All of the characters in this book were selfish, and I guess you would have to be to want to relive your life as you remember it best. Crack rock for the Alzheimer's set. Or just the deluded. Or just the depressed and unhappy.
September 25, 2013
I just enjoyed "The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex" so much that I felt the need to read more of her work. This book really took me in as both a story to relate to and learn from. It is a cool mixture of both sci-fiction and biography. It shows us the dangers of living in the past and the need to help change things for the better.
August 23, 2012
Kennedy has a way of weaving words into sentence fragments into stories about characters you can't help but care about. This is considerably more plot-intensive than The Exes, an earlier novel, and slightly more focused, but the writing style remains similar and the book is incredibly enjoyable to read, if moderately depressing.
June 19, 2015
I like it. It's a great read and I'll keep it in me forever.
It gives you a new perspective about time traveling and shows how human sorrow is shared by everyone. It gives you a sense of hopelessness sometimes by reminding your youthful enthusiasm and postivity during our youth and then we find ourselves lost during this our present self.
It gives you a new perspective about time traveling and shows how human sorrow is shared by everyone. It gives you a sense of hopelessness sometimes by reminding your youthful enthusiasm and postivity during our youth and then we find ourselves lost during this our present self.
January 16, 2008
This book was totally mesmerizing. It weaves spellbinding plot and soulful prose in a way I've rarely seen accomplished. I blew through it in a week, despite an insanely busy schedule. I can honestly say it's the best book I've read in the last two years.
April 6, 2008
Coming from the 60's I couldn't not read this book. I had a lot of fun and fortunately it did not go where I expected it to. Introspective, sensitive and surprising. Highly enjoyable and an esay read.
May 16, 2010
Fabulous concept, weak execution, disturbing cover. The author seems to dislike most of her characters intensely, and it's hard to figure out their motivations. An interesting book club discussion on the meaning of memory, but not a great book.
July 5, 2010
I enjoyed this book immensely until the last couple of chapters. It's an enveloping story of self-medication covering lost dreams and relationships. I think the author eased way up at the end of the book and took the easy way out, but all in all, I'm glad I read it.
April 11, 2007
SNOOZEFEST. skip it.
January 31, 2008
Pretty good. Engaging, but not engrossing. Interesting take on memory and what it does to us.
February 10, 2008
Interesting, but I can't wrap my head around people who are constantly wanting to live in the past and have no idea how they got where they are today.
February 28, 2008
I found this book to be so very interesting.
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