The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss

by Jonathan Lethem (Editor, Contributor)

Jonathan Lethem is perhaps our most active literary voice mining the genre margins of our culture.  In this unique collection he creates an anthology that no one else could.  He draws on the work of such unforgettables as Julio Cortazar, who presents a man caught between the ancient and modern worlds unable to say which is real; Philip K. Dick, who tells the story of a man trapped on a spaceship of the somnolent, unable to sleep and slowly losing his mind; Shirley Jackson, who takes us on a nightmarish trip across town with a young secretary; and Oliver Sacks, who presents us with an aging hippie who possesses no memory of anything that has taken place since the early seventies.

What Lethem has done is nothing less than define a new genre of literature-the amnesia story-and in the process he invites us to sit down, pick up the book, and begin to forget.

Also including: John Franklin Bardin, Donald Barthelme, Thomas M. Disch, Karn Joy Fowler, David Grand, Anna Kavan, Haruki Murakami, Flann O'Brien, Edmund White, and many others.

Includes:

Dream science by Thomas Palmer
The night fave up by Julio Cortazar
Other people by Martin Amis
Nightmare by Shirley Jackson
Memories of amnesia by Lawrence Shainberg
Warm by Robert Sheckley
Soul walker by Brian Fawcett
Cowboys don't cry by L.J. Davis
The second coming by Walker Percy
Funes, his memory by Jorge Luis Borges
The black curtain by Cornell Woolrich
The third policeman by Flann O'Brien
Five fucks by Jonathan Lethem
Forgetting Elena by Edmund White
Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler
The last hippie by Oliver Sacks
Notes toward a history of the seventies by Geoffrey O'Brien
Ticket to ride by Dennis Potter
The fall of the Roman Empire, the 1881 Indian uprising, Hitler's invasion of Poland, and the realm of raging winds by Haruki Murakami
Geoffrey Sonnabend's obliscence: theories of forgetting and the problem of matter-an encapsulation by Valentine Worth
I hope I shall arrive soon by Philip K. Dick
The zebra struck by Anna Kavan
The squirrel cage by Thomas M. Disch
Louse by David Grand
Game by Donald Barthelme
The affirmation by Christopher Priest by Kleinzeit by Russell Hoban
Days between stations by Steve Ericson
That in Aleppo once by Vladimir Nabokov
Carnation, lily, lily, rose by Kelly Link

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Essays, Anthologies, Psychology, Brain, Literary Fiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer.

His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller.

In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rarely do I find an anthology of stories as consistently enjoyable as this one. The fiction varies in genre and style, some of it quite innovative, some of it excerpted from longer work. I don't have the book with me to cite, but I remember stories by Philip K. Dick, Samuel R Delany, Kelly Link, Shirley Jackson (I loved hers!, not one I'd read anywhere else) among others. Recommended for those who like stories that are eerie and inventive, resonant and memorable.

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific concept brilliantly executed. The editor has gathered a superb collection of stories and essays that address, directly or otherwise, the subject of memory loss. What is memory? What does it mean to remember, and why does it matter? These are only a few of the questions that are explored from many different perspectives by Martin Amis, Oliver Sacks, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip K. Dick, and many other distinguished writers. This is one book you won't soon forget!

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I endorse Shirley Jackson's "Nightmare," Oliver Sacks's "The Last Hippie," and Philip K. Dick's "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon." I skipped the novel excerpts, and also "Five Fucks" by Jonathan Lethem, because I don't believe in including one of your own stories in an anthology you're editing.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some excellent stories in here as well as some stories that I don't think would have made the cut if they hadn't been on-theme. Also, some of the stories felt as though they were pulling the same tricks to enact the feeling of amnesia, forgetfulness or elided time. Singly, the stories might have been more impressive. I think that they were less powerful as a group.

So—great concept, some great stories, but this volume just isn't a go-to for me.

[Natalie]

A wide range of short stories dealing with the theme of memory. Some of them were quite enjoyable, including Philip K. Dick's "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" and Jorge Luis Borges' "Funes the Memorious". Not all of them were winners though. You have to pick your way through this one.

[sarah]

I got this at the ever wonderfully extraordinary Museum of Jurassic Technology, which gets 17 stars just on its own.

[Karl Kronlage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories are quite good. And some of these are parts of novels. A couple of them got me interested enough to read the entire novel. Overall, I say the collection is OK.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been named "A personal selection of short stories based on my personal weird taste, where you will find weird not fully developed characters, hallucinations, madness, mixed with memory loss now and then, with some stories related to science fiction, most of which will end in an incomprehensive way that would leave the reader unsatisfied at the most". Also, it is not right to take a chapter from a book and brand it a "short story". NO, it is a chapter of a book that has had a beginning and has an end away from the readers' possibilities, unless you go and buy the whole books, which I will not. I gave it 2 stars only because I am generous, it deserves none. After closing the book I could only remember 5 stories, the ones by J.L. Borges and J. Cortazar, which I knew from before, they are difficult to forget and the only 2 I would personally have added to a short stories' selection because they are truly masterpieces with everything in it, a beginning, a middle and an end. The other three that were new to me that I consider having the structure of a short story which I still remembered after closing the book, are "Nightmare" by Shirley Jackson, "Saul Walker" by Brian Fawcett and "I hope I shall arrive soon" by Philip K. Dick. However I would not recommend this book, I would say to people 'hey go and buy the short stories collections by Borges and Cortazar instead!'

[Michael Bartolone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection, and Lethem is very much a personal fave, so I liked reading about what he was trying to do here. Standout stories for me were Borges (claro que sí, moved to tears with his entry), Cornell Woolrich's, and Karen Joy Fowler's striking story about a very bizarre mental institution patient. The latter two were snippets of books I will definitely want to read. I started to lose interest about 75% of the way through and put it down, as the stories felt too thematically repetitive.

[Lara Blasberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

What could be more appropriate for an era of confronting the past while the pathway into the future is frozen? The editor took great care to not present a collection on amnesia as only the literal, medical definition; but rather the works spread wider into what it is like to lose oneself in time, space, empathy, and to struggle with invisible (or visible) walls blocking escape. Gave it a three because naturally I liked some of the stories more than others.

[Abeer Hoque · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard enough to review an anthology, and this one has over 30 stories that run the gamut from science to science fiction and everything in between. I picked this book up as research for my novel (about memory loss and identity) and it was the perfect vehicle to get varied takes on this theme.

I'll mention the bits I liked best (there's a lot) starting with Mr. Lethem's sharp and conversational introduction where he talks about amnesia in fiction operating at the level of the narrative itself - so it's not just about loss of identity, but how that blank slate makes the reader a part of the narrative, affecting how we hear and tell stories.

I liked the tone and the main character in Martin Amis' story "Other People." Shirley Jackson's "Nightmare" is impressively gripping and light footed at the same time. I couldn't tell if Lawrence Shainberg's "Memories of Amnesia" was nonfiction (a la Oliver Sacks) or fiction, but either way, his story of a neurosurgeon losing his mind in the course of a surgery is great, although there are some name shifts (typos?) I couldn't quite explain within the excerpt.

I loved Robert Sheckley's "Warm" for its trippy breakdown of consciousness and perception. Walker Percy's "The Second Coming" has one of those heroines you root for with her endearing lost manner, and it's a bit of a love story, which I always like. Borges' "Funes, His Memory" about a cripple with a perfect memory is fantastic and one I've read before. Cornell Woolrich's "The Black Curtain" about a man desperately trying to find himself was tense and thrilling. Lethem's own "Five Fucks" was a bit too disorganised for me, but it's well written, as is Edmund White's story (didn't grip me, but pretty writing). And Sarah Canary's "Karen Joy Fowler" is taut and traumatic.

I loved Oliver Sacks' "The Last Hippie" and not just because I love everything he writes, but also for his scrupulous and compassionate manner. Dennis Potter's "Ticket to Ride" about a man who loses his past in one heartbeat while on a train is fabulous and beautifully written (which made me realise that there wasn't enough lyrical writing in this anthology).

I loved Philip K. Dick's funny wry story "I hope I shall arrive soon" which is about a ship trying to help out a passenger in cryo. Ditto on Donald Barthelme's "Game" which has a repetitive and hypnotic writing style and a cowboy attitude. Steve Erickson's melancholic "Days Between Stations" made me want to read the whole book, as did John Franklin Bardin's mini novella "The Deadly Percheron."

And last but not least, the story I read first: Nabokov's "That in Aleppo Once" because I love him so much. This story proves no different with its elegant prose and biting narrative and characters immediately life sized.

All anthologies are uneven, but on the whole, this is an excellent collection and one I highly recommend.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oliver Sacks' essay here, based on neuroscience, differs from most entries in the book. The editor, who apparently created the genre, wrote in his five-page introduction that the thirty-one examples here include amnesia fiction, science, cryptoscience and reverse amnesia.

I wanted to read "The Last Hippie," by Sacks before seeing "The Music Never Stopped." DVD special features included Sacks talking about the story and music therapy when it was new. The film brings the essay to life. Sacks writes as a neuroscientist. The film moves through the science early on before deepening the story and characters.

Sacks' story tells about Greg, born in the early fifties, who loved rock 'n' roll of the mid-sixties. An undiagnosed brain tumor crowded out his memory, which froze him in the late sixties. He has no memory of events after 1970. Sacks, a neuroscientist, met Greg in 1977, a year after removal of the huge tumor. In 1991, Sacks took Greg to a Grateful Dead concert at Madison Square Garden, where Greg came out of his time-warp shell and seemed normal for a few hours. After the concert, he could not remember going to it.

Sacks' essay in this anthology and the film that followed may pair well with Alive Inside, a documentary about dementia patients who come alive when music they like and remember plays through their iPod. That film released last month. …

I wanted this book for the thirty-page Sacks essay. But, getting the book for that alone easily led to reading other pieces in here, including ones by Jorge Luis Borges and Philip K Dick.

A five-page bibliography of amnesia fiction includes The Trial by Kafka, 1984 by Orwell (a cultural amnesia), The Manchurian Candidate and A Canticle for Leibowitz. Three and a half stars.

I experienced amnesia twenty-one years ago as the result of multiple concussions and traumatic brain injury following repeated knockouts during a strong-arm robbery by thugs, who I sent to prison. After the event, I kept asking my girlfriend to tell me what happened while I saw stars. … In the aftermath I could recognize familiar faces but could not remember the names. Also, I could recognize rock 'n' roll tunes, but could not remember the names, dates or artists. I was the best at that. The damaged neural connections rewired in time, but only of the people and tunes I saw and heard after the event.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say that I read every single story, but the opening essay by Lethem is pretty interesting. He wanted the book to be about amnesia as a literary device, not just a psychological state. So there are lots of stories in which no one has amnesia, but pieces are missing in some way. I especially liked the Borges story.

Side note: I really recommend Lethem's book The Fortress of Solitude if you like comics, a little bit of fantasy in the real world, music, and coming of age stories.

[Whit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amnesia is possibly one of the most interesting topics to use as a centerpiece for an anthology. This anthology is expansive and contains new writers as well as old ones, from Oliver Saks' intriguing essay on medical amnesia to Nabokov's poetic prose on the topic of forgetting.

[Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories by Cornell Woolrich and Shirley Jackson are worth the price of the whole book.

[matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm gon' get it on the kindle!

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot I had this. Working my way to it.

[Clint]

I would add a star rating and a written rating as well, but I forget what the book is about.

[Alex]

The Vintage Book of Amnesia : An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss (Vintage Original) (2000)

[Biogeek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great stories in here, but I only remember the one by Shirley Jackson, and the intriguing, as always, chapter by Oliver Sacks.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I read this book. I just don't remember anything about it...

[Sylvia Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lethem as editor for essays on memory from Borges, Oliver Sacks, Murakami, PKD, AND Barthelme (and STEVER ERICKSON?!)...great introduction to literary expressions of human memory...

[Nik Kane · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest I don't remember much about this book.