Customer Reviews

Amnesiac

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Amnesiac by Sam Taylor is the story of James Purdew, a 30-year-old Englishman living in Amsterdam, who after breaking his ankle decides to write the story of his life in order to try and capture three years that are missing from his memory. But as he probes those missing years, pieces of his life gradually start to slip away: his girlfriend, job, apartment, and eventually his own idea of self. The tighter James tries to cling to world he knows, the less real it seems to be. Packed with stories within stories, this multi-layered story evokes Sartre's Nausea. Warning: reading this book can seriously mess you up! Turn off the TV, find a comfy chair, and retreat from the world to completely immerse yourself in this debut novel. What is the nature of memory? How much of what we remember is truly accurate or is it a construction of stories, pictures, and daydreaming? And if we lose part of our memories, do we lose a part of ourselves? Does it change who we are? Does memory mark us indelibly? Taylor asks all of these questions and more about the nature of hope and fear. Hope is fear unrealized, and fear is hope unrealized. They are opposite sides of the same coin. James is a tragic character of his own creation who is too afraid to face his own past giving him no future; his fear keeps him from hope. A novel like this is a precarious thing. If the author doesn't balance things just so and create a flawless ending, the entire book collapses upon itself. But Taylor writes this slippery, illusory novel with panache, and the ending (which I read twice) is perfect. This book was so good, it was difficult to pick up another book after it. I am spoiled by reading a book that so utterly engaged my mind.

Reading Sam Taylor's The Amnesiac is like experiencing someone trying to remember a dream. The book's protagonist, James Purdew, who's just turned 30, realizes in a vague way that he's forgotten things. He starts having flashbacks--or perhaps he's had them all along and forgot--of events he otherwise doesn't remember. There are several years of his life that he can't account for in any clear way. He kept journals during that time but for some reason locked them away in a box to which he doesn't have the key, and which can only be opened otherwise by explosive. He starts to investigate his past, haltingly, because sometimes time just slips away from him. And various clues start to coalesce. Eventually he and the reader come to suspect that someone is playing with him, controlling the clues, engineering his rediscovery of his past or attempting to prevent it. And certainly at least one person is watching him: our omniscient narrator sometimes surprises us by alleging that he is actually in the scene he's describing.

Taylor's story is both ingenious and confusing. Having finished it, you'll find yourself rethinking the complex plot, trying to fit pieces of the story into the puzzle. The novel is just shy of 400 pages, not unusually long, and yet it's one of those books that seem to take an inordinately long time to read. I don't mean by this that the book is dull: it's not (except for one chapter towards the end, which purports to be a biography James is reading and which slows the story down considerably). Perhaps the feeling of slowness is due to the story's complexity, or because reading it one feels some of the frustration of the protagonist, for whom understanding is tantalizingly near but elusive.

The book, both detective story and gothic romance, is at the same time an exploration into the nature of memory. (Be sure to notice the disclaimer on the copyright page, the one that usually reads, "Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.") It is in fact the very sort of book that James imagines might be written about his predicament:

"Someone should write a true-to-life detective story, James thought bleakly; an existential mystery in which the answer is not to be found, clear and logical, at the book's end, but only to be glimpsed, half-grasped, at various moments during its narrative; to be sensed throughout, like a nagging tune that you cannot quite remember, but never defined, never seen whole; to shift its shape and position and meaning with each passing day; to be sometimes forgotten completely, other times obsessed over, but never truly understood; not to be something walked towards but endlessly around."

As you can see, the author plays with blurring the boundaries between reality and text.

The Amnesiac is challenging and intriguing and would, I think, make a good film--part Memento, part Posession. It will be interesting to see if filmmakers show any interest in the book.

-- Debra Hamel

Thomas De Quincey wrote, "...All-powerful memory is able to exhume any impression, no matter how momentary it might have been, if given sufficient stimulus." But just how much stimulus is necessary to recoup three years of lost memory? And how accurate will those memories be as they are restored piece by piece, clue by clue? When all is said and done, what will it mean to the identity of James Purdew? Is he really willing to face what he thinks he seeks in this blank period of his so far meaningless life?

By his own description, this wandering, lost soul named James Purdew is looking back on his life as a "self-destructive party animal, the boring, self-righteous sub-editor, the depressed English supporter" and more in order to fill an existentialist gaping hole in his life that swings him toward alternating feelings of intense, almost maniac happiness and sadness. Breaking up with the love of his life, Ingrid, he is determined finally to return to the city of H in England to see if there is a past link that connects to the briefest of flashback memories terrorizing his psyche.

Memoirs of an Amnesiac is a text James finds that leads him to write his own memoirs - backward - in an effort to stimulate his search. Hired by an anonymous employer to restore an old house on the familiar Lough Street, who might or might not be a former acquaintance, James finds an account entitled Confessions of a Killer as well as later coming upon a philosophy text that seem strangely similar to some vague thoughts and feelings he knows he has lived. James will also undergo traumatic meetings with a psychologist, neurologist and other unsavory characters who will bring him closer than ever to the devastating truth.

Words cannot possibly convey the intelligence, wit, twists and turns of this most memorable work of contemporary fiction that defies classification as mystery, thriller, literary account, psychological and philosophical treatise or fictional memoir.

The Amnesiac is a brilliant, creative, superbly-crafted, thrilling work of fiction sure to delight those who love a good murder mystery, near sci-fi futuristic tale or fiction that yields a unique life perspective. Sam Taylor is a master artist who deserves the highest praise for this unusual, novel approach to writing fiction! Stunning!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on July 3, 2008

I must admit that when I started this book, I almost put it down - it reminded me of what a bad trip on LSD would be like. But the story slowly pulls you in and I thought the author walked the fine line of effectively blurring reality and fantasy with excellent writing.

I finished the book today after reading it over two weeks, I think I didn't want to miss a detail or a clue - but it is less than 400 pages. I am still not sure what exactly happened and I don't think I like the ending. But as I titled this review, I will be mulling this one over for a long time, which for me is the perfect book.

I have to say as I began this read I wasn't quite sure where it was going. I met James Purdew, a young man who definitely had a dark secret in his life that he desperately needed to expel, but what was it? Three years of his life are missing, what darkness is there to be found? When James returns to England from Amsterdam he finds himself employed fixing-up an old house, but one that holds a key to his own past. We have a phone ringing that no one may answer, visions, real or unreal, dark figured people all whirling around James. Finding an old manuscript that talks of a murder, James wonders is this fiction or is it part of himself. James begins to write his own memoirs in hopes of finding the memory he has lost.
I found this read to be difficult, yet entertaining. Illusive, yet drawing. The reader has to know why James stopped 'remembering,' what horror caused his mind to withdraw, and what part does this house and the found manuscript play in that discovery? A creative, twisted tale, with characters and events that at times are chilling yet fascinating. Thriller mystery readers will truly enjoy this work. One of a kind.

The use of a novel within a novel too often distracts the reader, and in this story it becomes more complicated by the use of a Victorian mystery within a contemporary dilemma. In this book 29-year-old James Purdew, after breaking his ankle and remaining virtually homebound for six weeks, begins to recall his past--except he cannot remember three years.

He returns to the city where he attended university, where he finds both strange and familiar sights and fleeting glimpses of the past. He is fortunate when he is selected to live in and rehabilitate a house in which he had lived when in school. It is filled with tragic memories.

This is a haunting tale, and it is well-written. However, many readers no doubt will be overwhelmed by the prose and plotting, much less the above mentioned technique. Nevertheless, the book is more than worth the effort of plodding through all the metaphysics and philosophy and parables, and is recommended.

I read this book in a long coast-to-coast plane flight. Thank goodness I had the time. I would NOT have wanted to be interrupted and read this book a bit at a time.

I did find it a page turner and not slow at all. One clue to what is going on in this book is that he starts with a quote by Jorge Luis Borges and follows it with a quote from Phillip Larkin. This pretty much gives you the tone of the book.

Labyrinths play an important role in this story. By sheer coincidence (or not???) I have been reading Borges' Labyrinths a story at a time. I had in fact just finished reading Funes the Memorious the night before I started this. That story plays a role in the book. If you've read Labyrinths, you will feel right at home in this book. I confess I am unfamiliar with Larkin but I suspect that a familiarity with his work would also increase your pleasure in what Taylor has done here. According to the book they are each other's opposites. One might argue that one is the hope and the other the fear although which author you assign to which emotion depends largely on your outlook in life.

I am so ever delighted that I found this book and the way it blends the mundane with the dreamy. I have a long TBR so I am actively resisting the urge to spend the weekend rereading this book to see how it looks differently to me this time. I suspect I would get even more out of it.

I finished reading the Amnesiac last week, and I'm left with two abiding images. The Magus and 2001: A Space Odyssey. After the first 50 pages I knew the book was reminding me of something, when I realized it was John Fowles' work. I went to the (very helpful) influences section at the back, but no Fowles. However, Nicholas Urfe, the anti-hero of that book is mentioned. Unlike the Magus, the rest of the book does not rise above the 50 pages, but rather meanders and then resolves itself in a rather annoying way. The painting of everything white reminded me of the final scenes from Stanley Kubrick's film, only this time the resolution was a little more obvious. Now that I'm writing this, I realize that the story within a story has a hint of French Lieutenant's Woman about it. Just a thought.

So my overall view was interesting rather than entertaining, derivative, but a good effort. I will read his next book, but not this one again.

For the first three-quarters of its length, "The Amnesiac" is a compelling and genuinely disturbing novel. The morbid introspection, deep loneliness, and dreamlike blurring of fantasy and reality are reminiscent of Kafka -- or, more recently, of Paul Auster. The odd situations are interesting in themselves, and it would have been fine for Taylor to end the book without explaining much of anything.

Unfortunately, Taylor introduces the running device of a Victorian "roman à clef" that comes close to derailing the entire book. These tedious interludes go on forever and become increasingly irritating as the book progresses. Worst of all, the thinly-veiled meaning of these sections is painfully obvious and stands in stark contrast to the wonderful ambiguity of the rest of the book.

Despite the gothic Victorian hoo-hah and the weak ending, most of the book is so strong that it still earns a four-star recommendation. I'm looking forward to Taylor's next novel.

Part part 'High Fidelity' (Hornby), part 'Total Recall' (Schwarzenegger), part 'Sherlock Holmes', part that philosophy of self college course that kinda blew your mind.

James Perdew looks to piece together his life story, and his self image, by investigating a blacked-out 3 years of his life from 10-odd years ago while in university. Most of the story unfolds with a 30-something James clumsily sleuthing through his past in a nondescript university town in England. But he does so with charm.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it is a little uneven at times in its tone and pace.

It is a mixed bag: contemporary British adult coming-of-age, mystery-thriller, scifi, existentialism, theory of self and memory...

But I cared about James thoroughly throughout, and really rooted for him to get to the bottom of whatever the hell happened during those years in the 1990s, and therefore get to living his life again as an adult.

I picked this up on the recommendation of Very Short List.