Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Memory Mystery
Review of the Washington Square Press paperback (2018) translated from the Swedish original "Allt jag inte minns" (2015)

Everything I Don’t Remember is a challenging read due to the manner of its presentation by a fictional version of the author Khemiri himself. He is investigating the apparent suicide of a 24-year-old named Samuel by questioning an ex-roommate Vandad, an ex-girlfriend Laide, an artist friend nick-named Panther, Samuel’s mother and grandmother, a neighbour show more of the grandmother, caregivers at the grandmother’s nursing home, etc. Each chapter toggles between two interviews in which the subjects are mostly not identified. You have to determine who is speaking through the various contexts and references. These are usually fairly easy to determine, but it is a regular characteristic throughout the novel which never relents. The reader has to be on their toes constantly, so to speak. Most novels take some time to introduce characters in the early stages after which the reader can relax into hearing the balance of the story without too much extra thought. Everything… requires you to constantly pay careful attention. This may or may not be to everyone’s taste.

The downside to this is that despite the extra attention required, the ending is still ambiguous, so some readers may feel let down by that. Even though I reread some sections, I still couldn’t be sure whether I hadn’t missed anything or whether the so-called “mystery” was ever solved. The book’s synopsis for this WSB paperback edition erroneously describes it as a “murder mystery”, but I never had the sense that anything criminal was involved in Samuel’s death.

The point of it is that memory and the retelling of experiences will always be faulty and/or self-serving. An attempt to define or capture the story of any person will be subject to these human faults in all of the family and friends being asked to provide their side of the story. If you can accept those terms for this experience you will enjoy this novel as much as I did. It is certainly one that would be worth a complete reread in the future in order to see whether further clues or insights will appear. show less

Just because you're paranoid don't mean you're not after them. Eller nåt. Säger mer på 120 sidor än de flesta försök att skriva om erfarenheten att vara annan i svenska samhället lyckas med på det tredubbla.

Fantastic novel from a well-known (in Sweden) writer.

Khemiri uses an unusual style--no one is ever named, they are only named in relation to the others (the daughter who is also a mother; the father who is also a grandfather; the 4-year-old). The paragraphs are long, and the sentences can be.

Many years ago the grandfather who is also a father left his family. He had also left his first family, who are in France. But to keep his Swedish residency, he musty return every 6 months. His son has show more agreed to put him up for the 10 days or so he is there every 6 months. Over time, both have become very frustrated with this arrangement. In how they talk--or don't--to each other, you can see why the son behaves as he does. He is always trying to do things the right way, to the point of being paralyzed and unable to do anything at all. His father insults him constantly (yet thinks he is joking). The father sees there as being exactly one right way to do anything, and the son has never done it despite trying. Yet the father is the man who left 2 families.

Much of this book is day-to-day life, and it is hysterical. The 3 pages on a morning with a 1- and a 4-year-old was perfect. Been there, done that, laughed a lot. Each of the kids also narrates a short section, which is also interesting. Khemiri gives all the different perspectives and the link together so the reader can see what the characters cannot.

Excellent. show less

After Samuel perishes in a car accident, we hear from his friends and family about their relationships with him and what they remember about the days and months leading up to the death of this rather eccentric young man.

I've spent a fair amount of time in Sweden, so it was interesting to read about the Sweden I'm familiar with as well as the Sweden I'm unfamiliar with, i.e., from the perspective of more recent immigrants. I found the presentation style interesting, and I appreciated the show more challenge of identifying whose voice I was currently hearing, but it was also somewhat dizzying and easy to become confused. (I'm clearly not the only one: the most highly-rated review on Goodreads is in error about who the interviewer is.) Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about the experience, and I still have a number of unanswered questions. show less