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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richie's Picks: MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC, September 5, 2007
This review is from: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Hardcover)
"The first thing he did was kiss me. On the lips. And he didn't ask my permission either.
"I couldn't recall him ever having kissed me before.
"I actually couldn't recall anyone ever having kissed me before.
"So, in a way, this was my first kiss."
It's summertime, but Naomi Page Porter had been at school, meeting with her best friend. The pair are the incoming co-editors of their high school's award-winning yearbook. Remembering, belatedly, that they'd left the school's $4,000 camera sitting out, Naomi had gone back into the school to grab it. Running out, she had tripped on the steps. Fortunately, Naomi saved the camera. Unfortunately, she had landed on her head.
MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC begins with Naomi regaining consciousness on the way to the hospital. She is released after an extended stay. Fortunately, her cognitive skills are perfectly normal. Unfortunately, she does not remember any personal information from the past four years. Naomi doesn't recall such major changes in her life as the development of her body, the messy divorce of her parents, her moving to a new house with her father, that her mother has since had another daughter, her experiences in high school, her friends or, even, whether she has a boyfriend.
Naomi is, thus, in the unique and bizarre position of examining her own life from the point of view of a complete outsider.
"I went through the drawers of my nightstand. The most interesting thing I found was a plastic compact containing birth control pills, which meant I was either a) having sex with someone (!?!), or b) on the pill for some other reason. The second most interesting thing I found was a leather diary. This might have beat the birth control pills for the official title of Most Interesting Thing in Naomi's Nightstand, had it not been a food diary detailing every single thing I'd eaten for the past six months. Sample entry:
August 4
1 Bagel with Cream Cheese, 350 Calories
18 Mini Pretzels, 150 Calories
2 Diet Cokes, 0 Calories
1 Banana, 90 Calories
7 Reese's Pieces, 28 Calories
GRAND TOTAL 618 Calories [smiley face]
"Every entry after that was the same way. Page after page of it. Sometimes there would be a [frown face] if I thought I had eaten too much, or a [neutral face] if I was neither here nor there about my eating for the day. It went all the way until the day before my injury. I tried to toss the useless artifact in the trash, but I missed. I felt disgusted. I mean, really, what sort of person keeps a food diary?
"I wondered if the former Naomi Porter had been, in all likelihood, a complete and total jerk, someone that I probably wouldn't have ever wanted to know."
Gabrielle Zevin takes this terrific premise and crafts an entertaining and thought-provoking story that avoids the cheap laughs. Instead, we get to really know the characters in her life and see, along with Naomi, the shades of gray in each of them. It is certainly a tale that could inspire readers to try and examine their own lives and choices objectively.
Any reader who has ever looked back at what they've done and has wished for a "do-over" will be intrigued by the situation into which Naomi Porter falls headfirst.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Speak, Memory, November 30, 2007
This review is from: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Hardcover)
Gabrielle Zevin avoids the sophomore jinx with this follow-up to the oft-read ELSEWHERE that surpasses her first novel in both depth and sophistication. As stated in the book's first words, this is a love story -- in fact, a love triangle with a twist (only I forget what the twist IS... no, wait a minute -- it's amnesia).
Naomi Porter takes a spill on the high school steps, hits her noggin on marble, and forgets everything after sixth grade. That's right, she's forgotten her divorced parents, her half-sister, even her jock boyfriend, Ace Zuckerman. To further cloud the issue, she awakens to a letter from one Will Landsman -- a kid who says he's her best friend and her high school yearbook co-editor. To complete the three-point confusion, there's this dark and handsome kid named James Larkin waiting by her side in the hospital. All a blank.
The three boys will not remain a blank, however, as each plays a big role during her recuperation period. She continues to date her tennis jock boyfriend, Ace, but falls for the artistic and moody one, James. Meanwhile, there is the voice of conscience, the faithful-as-a-golden retriever Will, coaching her every misstep of the way. A veritable Bermuda triangle of boyfriends -- the sort of thing that confuses girls with a memory, never mind those without.
I was a bit disappointed that this novel didn't explore issues of memory that have to do with judging people, because Zevin touches on this topic when she has her protagonist ask another girl, "Do we like each other? Do we get along?" The girl, who had been kind to the amnesiac hero, responds, "Not since fourth grade." I thought it would be an interesting path to explore -- how cliques and prejudices are learned behaviors often unfounded on actual personalities, but Zevin took it another way.
Ultimately, despite sagging a bit toward the end, MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC proves a satisfying parable on relationships. Zevin's sentence structure, vocabulary, and allusions are all coming along. If memory serves, her writing was much simpler in ELSEWHERE. Overall, I'd recommend it to readers who love to read about love (with all its concomitant trials and tribulations). Four stars (that'd be Naomi and her three suitors).
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book You Won't Soon Forget, August 28, 2007
This review is from: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Hardcover)
It's a great thing to get to know a character as you read about them in a book. It's a phenomenal thing to get to know a character as they get to know themselves.
Such is the case in this book, "Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac", written by Gabrielle Zevin, a writer who has a rare talent. The protagonist, a teenager named Naomi, becomes a victim of (as the title says) amnesia, following an unlucky even involving a camera, coffee, and steps. Naomi, even without her memories, is a fully fleshed out character, making it a joy to see her explore the newness of a life that was once so commonplace to her, to see everything she does different, to see how her amnesia changes every single relationship in her teenage life.
The story is well-crafted in that its structure mirrors life more than the rising action model of a story. Some plot lines climax, and some just fade away like a forgotten memory; which, by the way, is a large theme in this story. What we have here is not the definitive life story of Naomi Porter, but simply a year in the life of a likable, complex, and flawed character who is going through a rough--yet she's not at all angsty/brooding about it--time. Nothing in this book is forced, though the touching and relatable moments are as plenty as usage of magic in a Harry Potter book.
Much like Zevin's previous novel, "Elsewhere", this book has a permanent place on my small shelf of favorites. However, unlike "Elsewhere", I was so swept up in the story that this book has become the first novel in God-knows-how-long that I finished in a single day. This is a book that a reader can truly, truly love.
10/10 Classic.
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