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The Story of Forgetting: A Novel by Stefan…
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The Story of Forgetting: A Novel

by Stefan Merrill Block

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Showing 1-5 of 114 (next | show all)
Wonderful book! Close to the heart with my family, though their alzheimers is not early onset. Wonderful, touching, interesting, captivating book! ( )
  LisMB | Nov 17, 2011 |
When 15-year-old Seth Waller's mother shows undeniable signs of early onset Alzheimer's disease, he realizes how little he knows of his family history. His mother never talked about her childhood, not even her maiden name or the town she lived in. Seth never knew his grandparents, and never met any other relatives. He begins researching the disease, manages to get his hands on information identifying other patients near his Texas hometown, and tries to discover genetic links between these patients and his mother.

Meanwhile, Abel Haggard lives a quiet, solitary life on a farm he has gradually sold off for new real estate development. Now in his 70s, Abel has lost everyone dear to him, including his twin brother and his brother's wife. Abel's family has also been touched by early onset Alzheimer's. Both Seth and Abel bring the reader into their world, to share the pain of living and dealing with Alzheimer's. Through Seth, you helplessly watch a parent's condition deteriorate, and you share Seth's fear of inheriting the condition. Abel knows he was spared, but like Seth he loved someone who left him far too young.

The link between Seth and Abel is revealed to the reader before the characters discover it themselves. This adds an element of suspense or anticipation to the story, and an extra layer of depth and complexity. Stefan Block developed rich, memorable characters and showed particular sensitivity in his portrayal of older people and Alzheimer's sufferers, making for an impressive debut novel. ( )
  lauralkeet | Oct 6, 2011 |
I really liked how the author blended in the fairy tale (I'm calling it that for lack of a better phrase) of Isidora throughout the story; it provided a measure of continuity to what might otherwise have been a somewhat disjointed book. It's easy to peg the conclusion from the beginning but I still really enjoyed getting through this story! ( )
1 vote ratgoddess | Sep 11, 2011 |
Block's "Story of Forgetting" is a novel of a terrible disease that affects many in our world: Alzheimer's. Yet, Block has managed to weave a beautiful tale out of something extremely ugly. Not only does his novel contain science, but it contains experiences and knowledge from his own life. Throughout the book, the reader is taken through a whirlwind of feelings -- of sadness, of fear, of anger, of happiness... and feels a connection with Abel and Seth that is very real and true. And, by the end of the novel, one realizes that the book is not only about a horrible disease that can ruin families and erodes the minds of its sufferers, but that it is about love.
I, personally, was touched by this book. I would recommend it to all, not only those who know someone, whether friend or family, with Alzheimer's, but also those who do not. ( )
1 vote MCocuzzo2 | Jan 24, 2011 |
I didn't get very far in this book before deciding I'd rather read another of the many books waiting in my Kindle.
  lillieammann | Sep 23, 2010 |
Showing 1-5 of 114 (next | show all)
Mr. Block has found an unusually roundabout, fanciful way of telling the story of one family’s genetic destiny. And “The Story of Forgetting” does not confine its eccentricity to the distant past. Nothing about Mr. Block’s narrative is predictable or even suitably bleak, given the nature of the illness he addresses. Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, made grimmer by the new scientific certitude of genetic testing, is at the heart of this emotional roller coaster of a novel.
 
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I never found a way to fill all the silence.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Book description
Abel Haggard is an elderly hunchback who haunts the remnants of his family's farm in the encroaching shadow of the Dallas suburbs, adrift in recollections of those he loved and lost long ago. Hundreds of miles to the south, in Austin, Seth Waller is a teenage "Master of Nothingness" - a prime specimen of that gangly breed of adolescent that vanishes in a puff of sarcasm at the slightest threat of human contact. When his mother is diagnosed with a rare disease, Seth sets out on a quest to find her lost relatives and uncover the truth of her genetic history. Though neither knows of the other's existence, Abel and Seth are linked by a dual legacy: the disease that destroys the memories of those they love, and the story of Isidora-a land without memory where nothing is ever possessed, so nothing can be lost. (978-0-8129-7982-4)
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"Abel Haggard is an elderly hunchback who haunts the remnants of his family's farm in the encroaching shadow ofthe Dallas suburbs, adrift in recollections of those he loved and lost long ago. As a young man he believed himself to be "the one person too many"; now he is all that remains. Hundreds of miles to the south, in Austin, Seth Waller is a teenage "Master of Nothingness" - a prime specimen of that gangly, pimple-rashed, too-smart breed of adolescent that vanishes in a puff of sarcasm at the slightest threat of human contact. When his mother is diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's, Seth sets out on a quest to find her lost relatives and to conduct an "empirical investigation" that will uncover the truth of her genetic history. Though neither knows of the other's existence, Abel and Seth are linked by a dual legacy: the disease that destroys the memories of those they love, and the story of Isidora - an edenic fantasy world free from the sorrows of remembrance, a land without memory where nothing is ever possessed, so nothing can be lost." "Through the fusion of myth, science, and storytelling, this novel offers a dazzling illumination of the hard-learned truth that only through the loss of what we consider precious can we understand the value of what remains."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)

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Stefan Block is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.

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