4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Unique Peek at Human Nature., March 20, 2008
This review is from: Absent Memories: Moving Forward When You Can't Look Back (Paperback)
A facinating book that reveals insights into patterns of human relationships we all learned as children but to which we no longer attend. But what happens if those patterns are suddenly removed?
What if your diplomas and certifications suddenly become meaningless; you can't remember anything you were taught? References to Watergate, Nixon, the Beatles, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in, hold no memories and no meaning. Yet, for a strange reason you can't recall, you have those albums and tapes.
Worse, you're shown a stanger and told the man is your father, but you can't remember him? More mystifying is his emotional attachment to you! Sisters you can't remember seem upset with your past, lost to you, though they obviously remember. And you can't even miss growing up with your father or sisters just like you can't miss the guy or girl you didn't marry at school; because you have no memories of something that didn't happen. How do you grieve over something you can't recall?
For this author, Ms. Propst, all of the above is not only true, but honestly discussed. The author shares her questions at each phase of her sometimes difficult re-education. After all, at 47, she was as inclined to believe there was a "free lunch" as not. She soon found plenty of unscrupulous people willing to teach her.
The writing is tight, the prose short but sprinkled with the occasional verbal garnish. "Crises will march into our lives like Huns bent on destruction," is but one example. The read is shorter than you might think at 120 pages, but very intense as you almost constantly view her world from behind her "new" eyes.
In fact, this story reminded me of the Jason Bourne movies - suddenly you wake up and can't remember who you were. And Ms. Propst found adult reality and re-education almost as fast, difficult and sometimes cruel as the CIA trying to reel in a rogue agent. Inspiring, insightful and ultimately optimistic, this book deserves a home in most libraries.
Brad R. Leach
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absent Memories: Moving Forward When You Can't Look Back, August 30, 2007
This review is from: Absent Memories: Moving Forward When You Can't Look Back (Paperback)
I enjoyed readiang Absent Memories. I am always amazed when I learn about a unique obstacle someone has had to face. Beki's story is a moving testament as to how such obstacles can be overcome. It makes one look at one's own life obstacles and how they can be dealt with in a more positive way. Absent Memories is a good reminder that persistence and faith in oneself can overcome most any difficulty.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absent Memories-Moving Forward When You Can't Look Back, August 26, 2007
This review is from: Absent Memories: Moving Forward When You Can't Look Back (Paperback)
Absent Memories
What would it be like to wake up one morning and discover that the door into the memories of your past was closed to you...not just closed, but locked? It is hard to imagine such a thing.
"Absent Memories" is a profile in courage. It is the chronicle of one woman's effort through tenacity and force of will to "just get on with it" when there was no foundation of experience to build on.
It is a march done in fear and trembling; but done with humor and joy at each new find. There in lies a tale with lessons that all of us can learn.
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