I will state in the very beginning of this review that I am unsure whether I loved or really Everything I Don't Remember by Jonas Hassen Khemiri. I know it seems like an odd way to start a review, but I want to be honest with the reader.

The marketing states that this book is told in a Serial type style. For those that do not know, Serial is a podcast where a story is told for 12 weeks or so, but from different perspectives which makes the listener change his or her mind about the story. I would say it is more of a Rashomon type of narrative- different perspectives, but still and unknown truth.

It is the story of an unnamed investigator looking into the death of Samuel. Samuel dies in a car crash, but there is a question as to whether or not it was a murder or a suicide. The investigator seeks the truth by interviewing several people in Samuel's life- Panther- Samuel's childhood friend, Vandad- Samuel's roommate and current friend, and several other people like neighbors and other contacts.

Samuel falls for Laide, hard. After a disastrous first date, although is it because others have a different perspective, Samuel and Liade continue their romance. Things become difficult when the friendship between Vandad and Samuel breaks due to Laide or was it just fine and Vandad was just jealous of Samuel's new love? Maybe Panther is involved somehow too as Samuel may or may not have gotten over their childhood fling. It depends on who you ask.

I will say first why I didn't like the book because it is very simple- the format of the book. It is told with pure dialog and each chapter is a different person's perspective. It is also told in very tiny chunks of dialog without letting the reader know who is speaking. Often, I had to turn back to the beginning to remind myself who was talking. The dialog also will shift back and forth from the present to the past without any sort of warning. There is a just a simple break in these chunks with a star (at least my reviewer copy had it that way). This format made it very difficult for this reader to follow.

This leads me to why I might love it. The book is meant to be a puzzle that the reader has to put together. Unlike Serial, the reporter doesn't butt in to give a- here's what we know so far type of summary. This is what makes Serial so good Sarah Koenig will reflect the listener's confusion. There is none of that. You get the dialog and it is up to you, as reader, to put together what happened. One must figure out who to believe and who not to believe. Maybe both are right and wrong at the same time. As stated- Rashomon. The reader is supposed to be a bit confused because the reporter is confused as are all the speakers. They can only see things from their perspective and may never know the truth of what happened to Samuel. Only someone knows the truth, but I am not telling.

I gave this one 3.5 stars. I see the brilliance in the book, but it was not a pleasant reading experience simply due to the presentation. It makes sense as to why the author chose this presentation style, but it just didn't work for me. There will be some who love it though and I can see people loving it.

I received this book for review purposes from NetGalley. I do not have to give a positive review, but do have to notify the reader how I received the book. ( )

3.89 stars. Unique way of writing. Slow reveal of what happened. More style points than story/plot points. ( )

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 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. ( )

3.5 stars. The unusual narrative structure is wonderful. This book really drives home that everyone remembers one particular thing completely different than someone else who was there. We have a conversation. There's what was said, there's what I thought I said, they're a what you thought you said, what I thought you said and what you thought I said. Not to mention the other assumptions, judgments and conclusions reached before the moment shared is over. It makes you wonder: when everyone had their own perspective, how do you define truth? What are the facts, if any?

I do wish the ending wasn't so open ended.

And who totally didn't catch on to Vandad's feelings from way early in the book? Crazy grandma is a keen observer. ( )