Customer Reviews

The Memory Game

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Their first book, I'm told. I don't know why I relate to so many of their main characters. Whatever the reason, they are one of my favorite authors of the past year. Memory Game has eye raising twists and turns throughout. No one seems to be as they appear to be. One downfall...I could not keep all the names straight-- and the first few chapters helped none for me in discerning them. Could be the interuptions of RL.

Whether it be "Memory Game" or "Kim's Game", as the narrator describes them and then confesses to confusing the two, game theory becomes the controlling conceit for this exploration of family solidarity and family secrets. A terrible murder (with attendant ramifications of incest) is disclosed 25 years after the victim, a beautiful and enigmatic teenager, has been buried in a pit right outside the front door of her home. The gruesome discovery of a pregnant girl, who had been thought--by all but the murderer--to be merely missing, becomes the stimulus for the narrator, her childhood friend and rival, to embark on a quest to recover dark hidden memories of a vanished childhood among the "blue remembered hills" of her "land of lost content." The account that follows--with its frequent forays into psychotherapeautic sessions--is gripping, even as mesmerising as the psychotherapist himself seems to be, and the narrator goes through an ominous process of question and answer only to find ultimately that the "truth" of her breakthrough is not truth at all. The only disappointing part of this process comes in the rushed conclusion following her acceptance of the validity of the "false-memory" syndrome (an exposition of which is glossed over far too hurriedly); the denoument seems strangely contrived and much less believable than what has preceded it.
Nevertheless this is an absorbing read. It will please the literary minded as well as mystery lovers. It has certainly left this reader with a taste for more from this spell-binding writer.

Having just read 'The Memeory Game' while I was sick, I can recommend it as a good novel to while away the hours, and an interesting look at issues surrounding repressed memory. It is one of those novels that creeps up on you, and before you know it, you've become engrossed and finished half the book. The one problem that I had with it was that the ending was too abrupt - it felt like the author had reached a word limit and now had to wrap up as quickly as possible, a disappointment after an otherwise good read. Recommended for holidays or plane trips where you want something interesting but light at the same time.

I listened to this unabriged reading during a long drive. I was engrossed with the story, the reader's voice, and the details, until the 11th hour (literally). I found the ending unsatisfying. The author takes us on a painstaking journey through a woman's life & memory, but she did not allow us to journey with Jane to the end. A twist at the end of a story is satisfying, but the way this twist was presented seems like a cheap trick.

In this tight little work, Nicci French manages to intertwine several issues common to any divorcee in today's society (self image, life purpose, dating, children, in-laws), and then weaves in tense strands of controversy surrounding repressed memory retrieval. Which is a true memory suppressed by trauma, and which is a false memory created by therapist or fantastical thinking? How to tell the difference, and what to do with the findings? Who can be trusted? Can we trust ourselves to interpret events in our lives? Does time truly heal all wounds, or does it merely transform them into dreams that can be tolerated?

As heroine Jane Crane unravels fraying threads of memory of the distant summer her best friend Natalie went missing, we watch her deal with her own divorce and search for self identity. Family secrets are revealed that stun not only Jane, but the entire community. French makes all sorts of editorial comment on the nature of mental health treatment in our culture by inserting the subject throughout. As backdrop to the main plot, Jane, an architect, is designing a hostel for the mentally ill. The town reacts negatively, raising the question of who is mental - those receiving treatment, or those who irrationally oppose the hostel's presence and purpose?

As Jane deals with her awakening recall, her feelings for her soon-to-be ex Claud, her father in law Alan, her therapist Alex, and the intriguing philosopher Caspar, it becomes apparent that the true negotiation is with herself and her fresh purpose and path. Imagery is well drawn; I felt as though I were sitting with Jane, eating sandwiches, having a smoke and reviewing the events of her day.

Like so many of the other reviewers here at amazon, I picked this book up at the supermarket while gathering provisions to weather a flu bug that was rapidly taking me over. I read the book in two long sessions and found it entertaining and suspenseful. Others have understandable found the ending abrupt, however, there are clues throughout the book that point to its inevitability.

Their first book, I'm told. I don't know why I relate to so many of their main characters. Whatever the reason, they are one of my favorite authors of the past year. Memory Game has eye raising twists and turns throughout. No one seems to be as they appear to be. One downfall...I could not keep all the names straight-- and the first few chapters helped none for me in discerning them. Could be the interuptions of RL.

The concept kept me going as I kept hoping that something exciting would happen, but the plot was so dull that even the surprise was unexiting and did not involve the reader at all. The writing was beyond dull and seemed to deal with trivial matters that had nothing to do with understanding the characters, the plot or the overall theme. Not Recommended.

This is the first Nicci French book I've tried. It took me every ounce of my willpower to finish it. Totally not a page-turner! I was looking for something a lot more exciting. But instead, this gave me a boring life of Jane, unnecessary/useless details, and a few pages of a murder story told by a person, not even a real-time murder. I didn't like it at all.

I've read nearly everything that Nicci French has published and I have to say The Memory Game was so disappointing I couldn't finish it. I rarely put aside something I've started no matter how bogged down it gets. I think I only had 30 pages to go and I just didn't care how it ended. I found the main character so annoying and frankly, stupid, with her chain smoking and rambling on at her therapist's office. The Martello family was insufferable. I just didn't get it.

I will say this, if you did not like Memory Game DO give Nicci French another try with one of their other books. They are great. I don't know what happened with this one.

A friend gave me four Nicci French novels recently, so I decided to start with her first novel and work my way through them. All I can say is that I hope Ms French's writing has improved since "The Memory Game". I found the novel by turns irritating and downright infuriating, with a promising plotline ruined by poor writing.

The novel deals with the controversial topic of recovered memory. Jane Martello, the book's narrator, has been shaken by the discovery of the remains of her best friend and sister-in-law, Natalie Martello, who disappeared 25 years previously. In order to get a handle on her emotions and disintegrating state of mind, Jane seeks the help of a psychiatrist who hypnotises her and assists her in recovering her memory of witnessing her best friend being murdered. But is her memory accurate, or has she recalled the event incorrectly and accused an innocent man? Pretty promising plot, however, Ms French ultimately did not execute this novel well. There were too many extraneous characters, too much indulgent back story about Jane, too many pointless passages about her boozing it up, chain smoking and baking. Jane is a desperately unlikeable character that is difficult to relate to or feel any sympathy for. Having such an unsympathetic main character is a fatal flaw for the novel. As well, there were a number of glaring inconsistencies. For example, in one passage, Jane talks about recovering her memory of witnessing the murder. She states that the murderer had his back to her, but that he had a medium build, was wearing a dark coat and was clean-shaven. Hello???? How could she know that he was clean shaven if he had his back to her? In another passage, Jane talks about quickly scribbling an apologetic note to a man she had just seen being interviewed on a TV program. She realised she had very briefly crossed paths this same man at a recent function, and was rude to him. She then states that she went and immediately posted off the note. Um, how on earth did she know his postal address? She only had a 10 second run-in with him when she originally met him, and she only saw a brief snatch of him on TV. My other criticism of the novel is its awful dialogue. Talk about a tin ear - the dialogue for the most part was dreadfully written. The novel is also blessed with some stupidly named characters. Jane's maiden name was Jane Crane (????!!!) and her love interest, Caspar (!), had a five-year-old daughter named Fanny (!!!??). Why anyone would purposely, in this day and age, name their daughter after a well-known and commonly used slang term for female genitalia is quite beyond me.

Whilst "The Memory Game" dealt with an interesting topic, it was not well constructed, despite a promising plot. No explanation was ever given for the victim's father's confession, and the false memory aspect of the story was glossed over completely. It was people by irritating, unsympathetic and pompous characters. I will still try and read Ms French's other novels, in the hope that her writing has improved since this debut novel.