Customer Reviews

The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss

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A terrific concept brilliantly executed. The editor has gathered a superb collection of stories and essays that address, directly or otherwise, the subject of memory loss. What is memory? What does it mean to remember, and why does it matter? These are only a few of the questions that are explored from many different perspectives by Martin Amis, Oliver Sacks, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip K. Dick, and many other distinguished writers. This is one book you won't soon forget!

The theme is right up my alley and Lethem is one of my favorite authors. Nevertheless I found the book frustrating, because many of the pieces are excerpts from novels and show it, with abrupt endings that don't resolve anything. I'm grateful for having the chance to get tastes of these (mostly obscure) books, but it detracts from the anthology itself. Nevertheless, thanks to this I've already discovered, purchased and read two excellent novels I'd never heard of before -- Lawrence Shainberg's "Memories Of Amnesia" (first person view of eminent neurologist's mental collapse) and John Franklin Bardin's "The Deadly Percheron" (weirdo '40s noir) -- and in between enjoyed some old classics I hadn't re-read in a while, such as Philip K Dick's terrifying SF short story "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon".

While this book contains many wonderful short stories, it fails at being a cohesive anthology. Editor Lethem has broadly defined 'amnesia' define anything related to the doubt of one's mental state or existence. That's wide net, and the resulting catch is eclectic and disjointed.

I also have a problem with the excerpts from full novels. Although many stand well on their own, I always feel as if I'm not getting the full point. Once I was halfway through I began skipping the excerpts and focused on the complete short stories.

But as I said, there are many gems here. Particulary the Borges, Lethem, and Sacks stories stand out. If you read this with the understanding that most of the stories have nothing to do with the common perception of amnesia, it may be well worth your time.

Are you worried that coughing up the bucks for an anthology will leave you with two or three gem stories and a pile of duds? Well don't worry this time, kids, Lethem delivers the goods. At least eight solid keepers in this one that I will certainly read again at some point. Overall, the theme works very well, and the variety of experiences (from creepy to wacky) is pretty wide. It's not all bumps on the head, waking up in white-walled rooms...

When I saw this at a bookstore, I had to have it, being a big fan of that cheesiest of all literary and cinematic devices, amnesia.
Most of these stories were new to me, except for the Donald Barthelme's "Game," and some are great, such as Philip K. Dick's "I Hope I Will Arrive Soon," Brian Fawcett's "Soul Walker," and particularly a nonfiction entry from Oliver Sacks, "The Last Hippie." I did not care at all for "Sarah Canary," or "The Second Coming." Many of these "stories," are actually excerpts, which now makes me want to read Cornell Woolrich's "The Black Curtain" and "Cowboys Don't Cry" by L.J. Davis. Still, I have to say the best thing in the whole book is Lethem's introduction. After that, the book itself was a bit of a letdown. Still, I'm glad I bought it and I look forward to going through the books listed in his "Incomplete Annotated Bibliography of Amnesia Fiction."

Although a worthy endeavor, the author has, either through negligent research or faulty criteria, neglected to include the work of Nicomedes Suarez-Arauz, Amazonian poet, artist, academic (professor emeritus at Smith College), theoretician and creator of an artistic movement using amnesia as a creative premise in the arts. A seminal work is Amnesis: The Art of the Lost Object (Lascaux Publishers, 1988), Amnesis: The Art of Amnesia and the Lost Object For a partial chronology of Suarez-Arauz's work on Amnesia see [...]. Also, on that website you can find a poetic evocation of his theory in The Amnesis Manifesto (1984). In 1988, Suarez-Arauz gave a lecture on the topic at Boston City Hall and you can view videos on UTube. Just type in his name.
Artists throughout the world have been influenced by his work on amnesia as a creative metaphor. Do a google search with his name and the words amnesia amenesis loen. (Do three different searches.)
No less than Jorge Luis Borges and Buckminster Fuller praised Suarez-Arauz's work.
Recently, Robin Blaetz, professor film studies at Holyoke College, wrote an essay entitled Amnesis Time: The Films of Majorie Keller in the book Women's Experimental Cinema (Duke University Press, 2007).
Suarez-Arauz's creative work on amnesia began in 1973. For anyone interested, there are a multiude of resources to futher investigate the topic. Presently, an anthology of his work over the last 34 years is being prepared for publication in Latin America.
The author seems to have been afflicted with amnesia when preparing his anthology.