This book was very boring, and I tried very hard to like it, but I just couldn't.

Another well portrayed Alzheimer's story...along with Still Alice and a few others.

The theme of the book is early-onset Alzheimer's, EOA. The main characters are an old man and a teen-age boy, and the story is their journey through the past and then to each other. Amazing story with a little bit of science and a little bit of fantasy thrown in. One of my favorites of the year! ( )

Today I finished The Story of Forgetting, by Stefan Merrill Block (Review written December 2007).

This is a beautiful debut novel, an epic story centered around generations of a family afflicted with Early Onset Alzheimer's.

I usually select books when I feel I can personally relate to their subject matter. At first, since I'd never had any experience with the disease or known any family members who have, I thought it wouldn't interest me, at least not on such a deeper level.

I couldn't have been more wrong. The story was more than a book centered around a disease that the majority of us (albeit, incorrectly) think we are familiar with. The Story of Forgetting is a patchwork of nuances -- memories found and memories lost, that connect those related by both blood ties and love.

Despite my initial reservations, I discovered that the book spoke to me through a universal theme -- one of its main characters had attempted to forever escape her past. This left open the possibility that she would one day need to come full circle and return home. I had always considered the need to return to my home state of Alabama, to come to an understanding of my own past and the parts of it that haunt me. By choosing this seemingly unfamiliar book, I came face to face with my own inner thoughts. ( )

Like most readers, I was intrigued by the premise of the story. Alzheimers runs in my family and I thought, though I'm not an avid fiction reader, it would provide a compelling enough theme for me. However, there's some slow, off, unenrapturing about this book that has made me unable to finish it since I received it as an Early Review book. Perhaps it is because I'm not a frequent fiction reader, but I simply could get through this book.

I found this book to be somewhat unsatisfactory in that it was quite confusing. It was difficult to follow who the narrator was at any given time. This may have been deliberate in order to mimic the thought process of someone with Alzheimer's Disease but I just found it distracting.

Two men struggle with the impact of Alzheimer's Disease on the ones they love. One young man seeks answers during the onset of his mother's illness, while an older gentleman reflects how the ilness shaped his past. ( )

I received this book through the Early Reviewers program a long time ago. I tried to read this book several times. I requested it because it had an interesting premise: love, loss, family Alzheimer's Disease. I was also intrigued that this was the first novel by a very young author. However, as snarky as it sounds, I can't help but write that my reading of 'The Story of Forgetting' is a different tale of forgetting. I would forget everything about it this book regardless of whether it had been a day or two or a few weeks since I had left off. The bookmark could have been inserted anywhere in the book. It isn't fun, and in the end, there just is not enough motivation, to continue to return to a book that doesn't grab you enough to get your through the first chapters. I'd have to add this book to my list of Abandoned books.

I really don't like to post negative reviews, as I realize that others may have a much different opinion than mine, but since this was an Early Reviewer's book, there you have it. A review delivered much later than it should be considering how long I've had the book, but if I haven't found a compelling reason to return to this book in the last year, I'm probably not going to. Maybe at some point in the future I'll return to it again, but for now, it will remain shelved.

Conceptually, Alzheimer's is a disease that affects us all. So in applying the concept to fiction, an author cannot rely upon a general universality to market his book alone.

From the very beginning, we have little understanding of who the protagonist is or what he stands for. All we know is that he covets. And without understanding why, we as readers, have no empathy for his situation. Thus, why should a reader turn the page?

Assuming the writing is good enough to make us turn the page for a cad as a protagonist, the next element a reader needs is tension--a driving forward momentum, anchored in space and time that propels us to turn the page. The Story of Forgetting offers little to no tension, as it immediately retreats to backstory to explain why we, as humble readers, should allow the cad to continue doing the things he does. When an author makes this kind of error, however, he loses the driving force of what makes a book compelling. Relying upon a universal cause to attract readers is not a substitute for character, plot, and story.

The author, Mr. Block, is young. He will be around for a while. The Story of Forgetting was not ready to be published, shame on Random House, but Mr. Block will be back, and he will be better. Don't give up on him. And Mr. Block, keep up your drive to write. ( )

Despite the decades between Seth and Abel, they are sympathetic narrators dealing with the loss of family and the devasting effects of early on-set Alzheimer's. Reclusive outcasts, they have hope for eventual answers. With elements of science, history and fantasy, a sad subject matter is compellingly handled and is a very satisfying debut. I look forward to future work from this very promising young author ( )

This powerfully descriptive book is not one the reader is likely to forget, as it vividly humanizes the lives of two families affected by early onset Alzheimers, among other things. The book follows the stories of Seth, a 15 year old boy struggling to deal wth the illness of his mother, normal teenage problems like puberty, and the withdrawl of his Dad and of Abel Haggard, an elderly hunchback living in a decript farm with only his memories and the hope that his long lost daughter will find him again. The characters are quirky and some of their adventures are quite strange, even disturbing as the author does not shy away from what some might consider vulgar or taboo. There are many fascinating parts to this book--the information shared about early onset Alzheimers and where it came from, the fictional tales of Isadora that are spread among one family with the disease, and the power of love and determination to overcome overwhelming odds. If yourespond like I did you may not like every part of this book, and it may take a while for it to grow on you, but once you get into it you will be mesmorized by it. I would definitely recommend it, and I think it would make an excellent choice for a book discussion group.
P.S. I listened to this on audio and I don't know that that is the best medium for this book. The narrator did a good job, but the transitions between Seth's story and Abel's were not always easy for me to pick up on and I would sometimes get confused. ( )

The Story of Forgetting describes the profound impact of early onset Alzheimer's disease on a family, especially the teen son, Seth. In his search to find out why this has happened to his family, he unravels his mother's past. There is a lot of medical descriptions that I glazed over. ( )

This book was an interesting portrayal of what life with early onset Alzheimer's disease is like. I wish that I could use more effusive words with this review, since I wanted to love this book. The concept was intriguing, the characters started out interesting, and the land of Isadora called to me. Yet, in the end, it felt like Block had to get to his ending, and the characters ran out of development. The length really was slight for a story that could have had such depth, and in the end, I was left wanting more from everything. ( )

This book had me with the first paragraph: "I never found a way to fill all the silence. In the months that followed the great tragedy of my life, I sprang from my bed every morning, donned my five-pound, cork-soled boots and did a high-step from room to room, colliding with whatever I could. The silence meant absence and absence meant remembering, and so I made a racket."

A beautifully told story of Alzheimer's, relationships, love and loss. I loved this book.

This book was great! I enjoyed the medical input regarding EOA and found this to be very enjoyable. ( )

Very well written novel and not the least depressing even though it deals with the subject of Alzheimer's . ( )

The Story of Forgetting is well written, the characters are well drawn and interesting, and the subject matter (early on-set Alzheimer's disease) unusual and well detailed, but I have to confess that I didn't manage to finish this book. I enjoyed the first third of the story, including the excursions into medical history, and I remember thinking what a good book it was as I was reading it. But at some point about a third of the way through, for reasons I no longer remember, I put it down and, well... forgot about it. I hope to return to it some time, but so far haven't felt compelled enough to pick it up again.

This is a story of hereditary, early onset Alzheimer's disease. It is told as interwoven stories: 15 year old Seth Waller, whose mother succumbs to the disease and how he and his father deal with it; and 68 year old Abel Haggard whose family, including his twin brother, are similarly afflicted. We also have the mythical land of Isidora where the thing that makes it so wonderful is the absence of memory. Well written, compelling..... ( )

This book suffers from a lack of focus. It got published because of its subject matter, Alzheimer's disease, and how that subject matter fits in with recent years' infatuation with 'trauma lit,' I think the term is, which blew up with Dave Eggers' 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' and infiltrated both the memoir genre and the fiction genre, with such breakout stars as James Frey and Augusten Burroughs paving the way for even worse knock-offs too numerous to mention. Arguably, Dave Eggers' book was the best of these books, the rest following a marked downward trend.

'The Story of Forgetting,' as I said, seems to be a case of marketability outweighing craft. The plot is okay, it smacks loudly of Foer. But it is dissolute. And the whole thing suffers from a lack of editing. None of Block's children seem to have been sent to the gallows; they should have been. The feeling I get from this book about Block is that he thought it might be fun to get a book published. The book itself is not well written.

He gets a bonus star for being a nice guy, though. ( )

This was a very engaging and well-written book, all the threads of the stories: the sections that covered the story of Abel and Mae, the sections by Seth about him and his mother, and the story of Isadora. I was anxious that it might fall apart near the end, but it did not. Sometimes the details of Seth's Alzheimer's research was tedious, but those parts were brief, and I believe necessary to the story. ( )

The book contains two separate stories. The first is of an old man remembering his life in a love triangle with his twin brother and his brother's wife, and the daughter that he thinks is his. The second is of a teenage boy struggling with his mom's early-onset Alzheimer's. The two stories are connected, although the meeting doesn't happen until the very end. I found this to be a touching, well-written book. The only thing I didn't like was that it reminded me way too much of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which also featured a boy searching for the reasons behind the loss of a parent, and a long-lost grandfather. ( )

Stefan Merrill Block's debut novel ambitiously explores the effect familial Alzheimer's has on one Texan family, revealing both the burdens and freedoms that result from the memory-devouring disease. The novel is a conglomeration of fictional narrative, fable, scientific fact, and historical fiction.

When teenager Seth's mother is diagnosed with familial Alzheimer's, a form of the disease which will take her memory and her life much earlier than usual, he is determined to trace his family's roots in order to uncover all he can about his maternal relatives and the disease they carry. With little information about her past, Seth searches for other sufferers of the rare genetic malady--all of whom are related to each other, however distantly--in hopes of finding a close relative. The only other lead in his ancestral investigation is the stories his mother told of Isidora, a fictional land where the inhabitants have no memory. Armed with a list of names and the memory of his mother's stories, Seth searches Texas for anyone who may know about his family's past.

At the same time as Seth's journey unfolds, we are told Abel's story. An elderly man, Abel has little left but the memories of his life during occasionally happier and always less lonely times. Living in the only home he has known, reminders of the past are both a plague and a comfort. But his quiet life, which has gone unaltered for decades, is threatened when a new neighborhood of high-end homes is planned to be built on his land.

In between the chapters about Seth and Abel, Block tells the the fictitious, often humorous tale of the first carriers of the familial Alzheimer's gene--Seth's English ancestors--and how they found their way to America. Also interspersed throughout the novel are the fairy tale-like stories of Isidora and a bit of true scientific information about the disease. The intertwining of different stories is mostly successful, and Block's two main characters have believable, distinct voices. The chapters that focus on both the fictional and factual history of the disease occasionally feel superfluous, but even when it is not always clear how they connect to the larger story, the chapters are enjoyable to read.

Despite the grave subject of the novel, there are times when the story almost feels lighthearted, and perhaps because Block can write beautifully about everything from the Texas landscape to the bewildering effect Alzheimer's has on the mind, the novel is not as grim as I expected. Although Alzheimer's is a painful, frightening disease, and its shattering effect on everyone it influences is evident throughout the novel, Block also addresses the pain that comes with remembering the past too well. While the title of the novel is The Story of Forgetting, in the end, it does not feel as though the novel is about what people forget (or wish to forget) so much as it is about what remains a part of you despite a deteriorating mind or a troubled past. ( )

This was a pleasant read. The two stories tie together very well in the end. I particularly liked that the setting is in Texas and I recognized most of the geographical references. It made it feel like I was reading about a neighbor. ( )

Impressive first novel by a young author. Block weaves together the stories of Abel (an elderly man) and Seth (a young teenager) with remarkable skill and insight. I loved the way he also planted a third narrative, the common family folklore, as another aspect of the book. It is a very engaging tale about a very terrifying and tragic illness, Alzheimers. He seems to treat the subject with tenderness and care.
Even though Block is only a few years older than his character Seth, I found that character to be the least appealing and believable. At times, he seemed a typical 14 year old boy. Then, he would gain access to people and facts that a middle age professional would find daunting. It is this character's protrayal that prevents me from giving the book five stars. But, I anxiously look for great things to come from Mr. Block. ( )

This was a preview book I received too late to preview- but I'm grateful it arrived. Separate storylines of myth, scientific journaling, and two very human voices intersect, allowing an unprecedented window into the lives of those who suffer early-onset Alzheimer's, and the heartbreak of those who love them. The myth could stand alone-- there is unearthly pathos in the creation of this sacred city, where the people share lives but possess no memory-- but each story holds its own power, and adds its losses and discoveries to the whole. ( )