The Memory Artists [Paperback]

Jeffrey Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006

Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Best Novel

Noel Burun has synesthesia and hypermnesia: he sees words in vibrant explosions of colors and shapes, which collide and commingle to form a memory so bitingly perfect that he can remember everything, from the 1001 stories of The Arabian Nights to the color of his bib as a toddler. But for all his mnemonic abilities, he is confronted every day with a reality that is as sad as it is ironic: his beloved mother, Stella, is stricken with Alzheimer's disease, her memory slowly slipping into the quicksands of oblivion. The Memory Artists follows Noel, helped by a motley cast of friends, on his quest to find a cure for his mother's affliction. The results are at the same time darkly funny, quirkily inventive, and very moving. Alternating between third-person narratives and the diaries of Noel and Stella, Jeffrey Moore weaves a story filled with fantastic characters and a touch of suspense that gets at the very heart of what it means to remember and forget, and that is a testament to the uplifting power of family and friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A renegade scientist's pathbreaking memory experiments form the core of Moore's dashing, postmodern debut novel. When young Noel Burun, the son of a disappointed chemist, is taken to see the renowned Montreal neurologist Emile Vorta, the boy is diagnosed with "synaesthesia," a condition in which all the senses intensely trigger one another. The malady, if one can call it that, gives Noel a super-Proustian gift of recollection. It proves a real boon when, years later, Noel must manage Stella, his beautiful widowed mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. As the novel unfolds, Noel, now a University of Quebec psychology grad student, joins Vorta's neuropsych lab. There, he attempts to find a wonder drug to cure his mother, enlisting the lab's assortment of unconventional charactersto help him: the cynical roué and actor Norval X. Blaquière, hell-bent on a performance-art project that involves seducing an alphabet's worth of women, A to Z (he's on S—as in "Stella"); former film star Samira Darwish, who steps into Vorta's amnesia experiments and reinvents herself as Noel's modest muse; and jokey, chemical-happy JJ Yelle, who helps Noel concoct outrageous experiments. Canadian Moore exhibits a nimble, sprightly touch, with understated emotive depths; his rendering of Stella's sadly solipsistic diary is particularly heart-wrenching.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Beset by a neurological condition, Noel Burun has total recall, and words and voices appear to him as bursts of color. Ironically, his mother, Stella, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and her worsening condition has made them virtual prisoners in their rambling Montreal home. Gradually, three eccentric friends--the Byronesque Norval, "swoonworthy" Samira, and excitable JJ--all cosubjects with Noel in memory experiments conducted by the Wizard of Oz-like Dr. Vorta, move in with the Buruns. That frees Noel, a pharmacologist turned alchemist, to concentrate on finding a cure for his mother. Containing handwritten journal entries, Vorta's self-serving endnotes, newspaper clippings, and even sketches, this ingenious novel makes for mesmerizing reading. Even more entertaining than its inventive construction is its blazing humor as scabrous Norval, intent on bedding 26 females in alphabetical order in the name of performance art, engages in scathing banter with childlike JJ, who is overly fond of puns. Just as quickly, though, the novel turns poignant as Stella's journal entries movingly record her diminishing control of her faculties. The witty Moore explores every facet of memory--as both a burden and a blessing--in this delightful and inspired story. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312349254
• ISBN-13: 978-0312349257
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,818,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly creative, and sophisticated, at the same time, July 14, 2006

By 

Alex B. Garton (Allentown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Memory Artists (Paperback)

This novel is truly a delight! At first, I had a hard time keeping the book in my hands, but as I started to become more familiar with the characters, and understand where they were coming from, I could not put it down. The way it blends art, literature, and even music into the story is very much appreciated. I think anyone with a fondness for new ways to tell stories will absolutely love this book. I guarantee you will have trouble convincing yourself this really is fiction, and not a true story. Enjoy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange, wonderful but a little too loose, January 10, 2007

By 

PocketEyes "PocketEyes" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Artists (Paperback)

I loved a lot of this--the eccentricities of JJ's manias, Noel's confusion, Stella's halting recovery--but it didn't all pull together for me. The first 100 pages were slow; it wasn't until the major characters moved into Noel's house and Noel and JJ began to search for the memory remedies throughout history and literature (and Noel's mind) that the book really became alive for me. The ending was also too unstructured, so much so that it left me a bit unsatisfied. Still, even with its faults it's a great read, hypnotic at times.

If you liked this, check out Karen Heuler's The Soft Room and Richard Powers' The Echo Maker, for more journeys into the strange worlds of the mind.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars promising... is about the best thing I can say..., March 12, 2006

By 

CherubChub (Mesa, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Artists (Paperback)

I picked this up because there's a huge David Mitchell blurb on the front cover... and I love David Mitchell and don't think I've ever seen him blurb another novel... so I had to pick it up and was extremely let down... Jeffrey Moore does have potential, though... his characters are interesting and its obvious that he's creative and has writing talent... but what bothered me about the book was that it relies on characters' disabilities and oddness too much... I never felt like they were real people... they lacked substance...