Memory

This novel examines two aspects of memory through the main characters, 19 year old Jonny and an elderly woman, Sophie, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Jonny has been haunted for the last five years by the experience of witnessing his elder sister's death. His life has been derailed into booze and getting into fights, and on the anniversary of Janine's death he goes looking for the other witness, Janine's best friend Bonny, wanting to check whether his memory is really accurate. However, he encounters Sophie instead and soon finds himself becoming her caregiver despite his better judgement, especially when it seems she is being swindled by someone who is posing as her landlord.

As with other Mahy fiction, the characters are well show more fleshed out. The portrayal of Alzheimer's is all too convincing. A touching relationship develops as Jonny finds someone who needs him and in caring for her he gradually moves away from obsession with his own troubles, ironically finding answers to those along the way.

The book would be a good way of explaining this form of dementia to its original age range audience, but I think they would probably find the 1980s teenage trappings - a tape-based Walkman that Jonny relies on to blot out his surroundings being chief among them - and the lack of today's mobile phone culture too dated, which is a pity. I also found the story dragged a bit in the middle before it built up steam for the ending chapters, and I'm not convinced by the mild results of Jonny's dramatic action.

As far as the authorial decision to make two of the character names Jonny and Bonny, perhaps this is meant to drive home the way he has projected so much of his own fantasies onto his sister's friend so that she is almost an aspect of himself, but that could be reading too much into it. But if not it is an odd naming choice. On balance, a 3-star read. show less

'Memory' is a pretty short novel about a pretty messed up kid, Jonny, who's now not a kid any longer but cannot move on from his sister's accidental death, which he witnessed and suspects he's responsible for, somehow. To puzzle together what happened that day in the cliff, he sets off to look for Bonnie, his sister's best friend and finds Sophie, instead, an old woman with advanced alzheimer's. Sophie and Jonny sort of adopt each other, since Jonny cannot seem to leave Sophy to her disastrous life and sticks around to help her out.

It's a wandering plot, in fact, not much happens outside Jonny's head, but Mahy has a gift for making the everyday strange and new, rediscovering for us the world we inhabit and the descriptions of a true show more storyteller. show less

Brilliant.

"New Adult" before the term NA was invented. Full of the complex ideas that college age kids are often eager to ponder, and able to explore before they have the demands of their own families & careers... but too complex for younger teens. Also good for parents & educators of same... what is it like to be hung up on a memory of one's childhood and unable to move on?

Adults will also develop a better sense of what it's like to have Alzheimer's, and how important it is to encourage young people to train as caregivers and to establish residences.

'Memory' is a pretty short novel about a pretty messed up kid, Jonny, who's now not a kid any longer but cannot move on from his sister's accidental death, which he witnessed and suspects he's responsible for, somehow. To puzzle together what happened that day in the cliff, he sets off to look for Bonnie, his sister's best friend and finds Sophie, instead, an old woman with advanced alzheimer's. Sophie and Jonny sort of adopt each other, since Jonny cannot seem to leave Sophy to her disastrous life and sticks around to help her out.

It's a wandering plot, in fact, not much happens outside Jonny's head, but Mahy has a gift for making the everyday strange and new, rediscovering for us the world we inhabit and the descriptions of a true show more storyteller. show less

I can see why I didn't enjoy this when reading it as a kid. I liked Mahy's fantasy/sf novels, and the fantasy content in this is subtle to ambiguous. My tolerance for non-genre has increased in my old age, however, so this was a decent read even though now it's perhaps a bit young for me. :-) Sophie seems likely to have been inspired by Mahy's own aunt (to whom she used to tell secrets, knowing they'd be promptly forgotten). The ending was just a little happy-happy for my taste but not ultimately satisfying.

This novel is part of my senior Applied (low-literacy) curriculum. As both a teacher and a reader I find this book powerful, accessible, and worthwhile. I highly recommend this to any teacher who wishes to connect with students who have difficult lives.