Judith L. (jlautner) reviewed on + 105 more book reviews
I like memory stories. Our memories are strange and we rely on them so much. I was looking forward to a feeling in this novel that expresses the confusion and horror of not remembering, day after day. I didn't get that.
Christine suffered a trauma that left her without her memory. Over time she regained enough so that she could remember events during an awake time, suggesting that she was capable of using her long-term memory. But then she would go to sleep and wake up not knowing where she'd been for the last 20 years.
But she began to put some things together, thanks to the help from a head doctor she started seeing without telling anyone else. She would wake in the morning, frantic, wondering who she was sleeping with, then later, when she was alone again, get a phone call from the doc. He would explain that she had a journal hidden and she could read up and write more. Through this journal (the bulk of the book) she records each day's events and revelations.
It's a good way to tell the story. I had difficulty with how it seemed that by reading previous entries Christine remembered those events. When we know she didn't, really. The journal gets quite long, too, and I wondered how she read so much every morning. And what was her husband thinking that she did during the day? It was a mystery to me that he would leave her with nothing to do at all except once or twice ask her to pack a suitcase or wash something.
In time, Christine's memory gets jogged by this or that and she notices inconsistencies in what she has been told. Who is lying?
In the end, it is a good plot, I felt, although strange. I just didn't get a real psychological buildup from it.
Christine suffered a trauma that left her without her memory. Over time she regained enough so that she could remember events during an awake time, suggesting that she was capable of using her long-term memory. But then she would go to sleep and wake up not knowing where she'd been for the last 20 years.
But she began to put some things together, thanks to the help from a head doctor she started seeing without telling anyone else. She would wake in the morning, frantic, wondering who she was sleeping with, then later, when she was alone again, get a phone call from the doc. He would explain that she had a journal hidden and she could read up and write more. Through this journal (the bulk of the book) she records each day's events and revelations.
It's a good way to tell the story. I had difficulty with how it seemed that by reading previous entries Christine remembered those events. When we know she didn't, really. The journal gets quite long, too, and I wondered how she read so much every morning. And what was her husband thinking that she did during the day? It was a mystery to me that he would leave her with nothing to do at all except once or twice ask her to pack a suitcase or wash something.
In time, Christine's memory gets jogged by this or that and she notices inconsistencies in what she has been told. Who is lying?
In the end, it is a good plot, I felt, although strange. I just didn't get a real psychological buildup from it.
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