Challenge Tuesday – 5

This week’s novel hit a little close to home in some sections.

Book 5 – The Story of Forgetting, by Stefan Merrill Block. This book follows two stories, connected through time. The first story belongs to Abel, a man in his late 60’s reflecting on his life and all the losses he has suffered and the mistakes he has made. The second story belongs to Seth, a boy of 15 whose mother is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. Seth realises how little he knows of her and her family life, and starts investigating his own past.  As the stories develop, you begin to understand the relationship between the two protagonists.

Interspersed with these stories are little sections of fairytale about a place called Isidora, which links them to each other and to their shared heritage.

This was an unusual novel. Abel’s unremitting misery, and Seth’s constant feelings of humiliation meant the book was seeped in a sense of loss and distress even before the Alzheimers was introduced.  The inability to fight the change Alzheimers causes was particularly affecting for me on a personal level and the frustrations suffered by Seth – trying to reason with someone who no longer reasons in the same way – felt very authentic.

The Abel story was intriguing because it led you to believe one set of truths and then turned them on their head – Abel spent his life wanting things he couldn’t have, regretting things he didn’t do and believing things that couldn’t be true.  He didn’t have the ‘family curse’ but he was cursed, anyway.  Meanwhile Seth’s story showed how someone can know nothing about their background, can barely know the people closest to them.  It also showed that life isn’t fair, or reasonable, but is simply a mix of things you can control, and things you can’t.

There were unexpected twists in the storyline, and moments I wished weren’t there, as well as a lot about the history of the specific form of Alzheimers, and a few notes on neuroscience.

The elements I liked most consistently were the tales of Isidora, the sense that forgetting was ok, and remembering was when the problems began. The fairytale nature of it worked for me.

Block’s own experience inspired this book. In Seth’s sections, when he railed against this knowledge and feared knowing the truth, it really rang true, and I can imagine a lot of Block’s personal fears and distress were reflected in Seth.

This is the type of book you can imagine ending up on an English literature syllabus, explored line by line for meanings, motifs, contextual elements.  I don’t know if that’s a positive or a negative point, but it’s what I thought as I finished it, and it’s the only conclusion I have for you.

Happy reading,

EJ

🙂