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33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Remarkable Debut, April 1, 2008
This review is from: The Story of Forgetting: A Novel (Hardcover)
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block is one of my favorite reads for 2008. The author's use of words to weave a story of two very different people is absolutely fantastic. Although Abel Haggard and Seth Waller are two very different characters, both in age and in social background, their stories are compelling and I could believe that both these men were real. Amazingly enough, the scientific parts of the book were very interesting to me as I am generally not interested in novels about science.
The Story of Forgetting is about familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease and how it affects those with the disease and those people close to them. Seth Waller is a young teenager losing his mother to the horror of this disease, and losing the balance of the family he once had. Abel Haggard is an elderly reclusive man, living in the old family homestead, passing his days with memories of what he once had and how it was lost. Both characters are completely drawn and fleshed out so that it is easy to picture them in my mind. This story will stay with me a long time.
My mother suffered from dementia before her death and I understand the frustration of trying to deal with someone who is no longer the person you know and love. The Story of Forgetting is a brilliant book, I would recommend it to anyone dealing with Alzheimer's disease and to just anyone who enjoys a compelling, beautifully written story
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A debut worth checking out..., April 1, 2008
This review is from: The Story of Forgetting: A Novel (Hardcover)
For reasons inexplicable, it took me weeks to pick up this novel and read the first sentence, but once I did I was hooked. I don't know what my problem was, but kudos to Stefan Merrill Block, because he drew me right into his story from the first pages.
The structure of the novel is that it jumps back and forth between two different characters, two different stories. The first is 68-year-old Abel Haggard, a modern-day hermit living exactly as he did decades ago on the distant outskirts of Dallas. Abel is basically reviewing his life inside his mind and agonizing over the mistakes he has made. Through his recollections you learn about his one true love, and how he lost everything he had. Now he's waiting for something... and trying to hang on by his fingertips to the life he has.
The second story revolves around 15-year-old geek, Seth Waller. I'm a 39-year-old woman, but I can't tell you how much I related to Seth. My social skills are considerably better, but we're both science nerds and were high school outcasts. Through Seth, we learn the story of his mother's diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's in her mid-thirties. As painful as it is to watch her decline through Seth's eyes, it doesn't touch the sadness of the strained relationship he has with his father. Scenes between the two of them broke my heart, as each tried to deal in his own way with tragedy. Seth copes by embarking on a "scientific study" of his mother's illness.
While these two equally compelling narratives are unfolding, there are two more narrative threads weaved throughout the novel. One is the story of the orgin of the Alzheimer's mutation that plagues Seth's mother. It starts with patient number one and moves forward through history. The other thread is actually what ties the stories of Abel and Seth together. It's a series of tales of a mythological land called Isidora--stories that were told to both Abel and Seth in their childhoods.
It sounds like a lot is going on, but all the threads blend to form a satisfying cloth that is neither too busy nor boring. The novel moves at a fast pace, and I found myself (surprisingly) equally captivated by the tales of both Seth and Abel. They were rich and fully-formed characters with distinctive voices and personalities. When I started the novel I thought the mystery would be: How do their stories intersect? That really isn't it. You just want to see these tales through to their proper conclusion.
One more thing... Reading what I've written, this novel sounds like a real downer. I can't pretend the subject matter is happy, but my personal tolerance for tragedy is incredibly low, and I really enjoyed this promising debut.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
In the end, a worthwhile read, May 2, 2008
This review is from: The Story of Forgetting: A Novel (Hardcover)
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block tells the tale of devastation of a familial form of Alzheimer's from two perspectives: one, seventy year old Abel and the other, the teenaged Seth. In the end, the common thread of their stories is revealed in a quiet, reflective, and touching way.
Surprising to say, given the young age of the author, it is the elder voice which is more convincing. The memories shared by Abel and the descriptions of his current reflective life resonate more genuinely than does young Seth's "empirical investigation" to learn about his mother's disease. The voice of Seth is often too mature in tone and too sophisticated in language (no matter how precocious he may be). In addition, the basis of his "investigation" is a bit of stretch from my perspective. The most credible passages of Seth's occur early in the book, when he describes his mother's first symptoms of illness and the actions and reactions of his which result.
As a physician, it is hard for me to admit, but the passages in which Seth offers summaries of research and scientific explanations detract from the emotional flow of the book. They were a signifciant distraction rather than enhancement. Similarly, some of the first person accounts in Seth's investigation seem stiff and unnatural, created solely to be sure that certain perspectives on the disease are communicated to the reader.
Abel's story is told much more convincingly and lyrically than Seth's. The complexity and human frailty of his story go beyond the center piece disease of the book's theme. It is one aspect of a multi-layered story, though it is a devastatingly important aspect. In fact, it is Abel's description of the final outcome that is most moving, most revealing.
On the whole, it is an affecting description of the profound impact Alzheimer's has upon individuals, families, and generations. It is also more than that, as many families can likely claim something similar in their histories, whether medical or otherwise, that significantly impacts within and across generations. Experiencing those insights was when the book most resonated and was most satisfying.
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