The Amnesia Clinic. James Scudamore [Paperback]

James Scudamore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2007

Anti, a quiet English boy living in Quito, Ecuador, strikes up a friendship with flamboyant classmate Fabian, who is everything Anti isn't: handsome, athletic and popular. What's more, he lives with his rakish Uncle Suarez, while Anti is stuck in the dull ex-pat world inhabited by his parents. Suarez, a storyteller par excellence, infects the boys with his passion for outlandish tales, and before long their relationship becomes one conducted entirely through the medium of storytelling. One subject, however, is taboo: Fabian's parents. But when details surrounding their disappearance begin to emerge, Anti decides to console his friend with a story suggesting that Fabian's mother may be living at a bizarre hospital on the coast for patients with memory loss. With confused emotions and reality losing its tenuous grip, the boys embark on a quixotic voyage across Ecuador in search of an 'Amnesia Clinic' that may, or may not exist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This debut, set in Ecuador, mines the rich territory of the secret lives of teenage boys. Anti, an English expatriate, is a student at the Quito International School, where he meets Fabián, a talented and attractive classmate. Fabián takes a surprise liking to Anti, and the two soon develop a language and world of their own, in which the lines between reality and fiction blur. In the compelling stories within this story, Fabián returns time and again to his parents' deaths, convinced his mother escaped the fiery car crash that also killed his father. Anti, seeking to calm his friend's increasingly wild speculations, produces a fake newspaper clipping about an amnesia clinic where victims of memory loss are cared for. The two go in search of the clinic, where they imagine, or pretend, they might find Fabián's mother. Their trip, which begins as a promising and fun escape, eventually goes awry, leaving Anti to patch together a suitable story from the wreckage. Scudamore admirably portrays the braggadocio, sexual fantasies and obsessions of 15-year-old boys. Like his characters, he is a fast, funny, efficient storyteller; he appears more comfortable in the book's lighter first half than in its darker conclusion. Nonetheless, this story is tough to forget. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

For two years, Anthony ("Anti"), 15, has lived with his British academic parents in Ecuador, where his best friend, Fabian, helps Anti see the real stuff behind the tourist stereotypes. The friends tell each other stories about their sexual prowess and local legends, eagerly believing the fictions they create. But why does Fabian never mention his mother, who was killed in a motor accident in the mountains? Her body was never found: is she still alive? To answer this question, Anti invents an amnesia clinic where people who have lost their memories go for treatment. Maybe Fabian's mom is there. The two friends set off to find her. With wit and anguish, Scudamore's debut novel makes the archetypal mythic quest both an exciting, perilous journey and a hard search for truth. But what is truth? What if you lost your memory and you didn't want it back? The story about storytelling is as gripping as the adventure. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA; New edition edition (April 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099494221
• ISBN-13: 978-0099494225
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #942,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Scudamore was born in 1976. His first novel, The Amnesia Clinic, won the 2007 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His second, Heliopolis, was longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Effort!, January 6, 2008

By 

Lulu (Amman, Jordan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Amnesia Clinic (Hardcover)

Although this book gets off to a slow & often complicated start...it really is worth pursuing.

The author is very talented at given different spins on each story to unravel an even more complex web of truth.

Fascinating details are included...not least of which includes shrunken heads & decomposing whales. Quite an adventure.