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The Amnesiac
A gripping literary thriller from an exciting new voice in fiction
Hailed as ?one to watch ? by the UK?s Telegraph , Sam Taylor is one of the most imaginative and innovative young writers at work today. With The Amnesiac , his United States debut, he incorporates a murder mystery and a forgotten manuscript into an exhilarating and intelligent novel. When twenty-nine-year-old James Purdew returns to England from his home in Amsterdam, it is to discover what happened during three earlier years of his life that he cannot recall. What he finds, in an old house with a tragic history, is a nineteenth-century manuscript that begins to seem less and less like a work of fiction?and more like the key to his own lost past. Memory and amnesia, fiction and reality, destiny and randomness, heaven and hell?all converge to form an engrossing gothic story that is sure to appeal to fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafon?s The Shadow of the Wind .
Hailed as ?one to watch ? by the UK?s Telegraph , Sam Taylor is one of the most imaginative and innovative young writers at work today. With The Amnesiac , his United States debut, he incorporates a murder mystery and a forgotten manuscript into an exhilarating and intelligent novel. When twenty-nine-year-old James Purdew returns to England from his home in Amsterdam, it is to discover what happened during three earlier years of his life that he cannot recall. What he finds, in an old house with a tragic history, is a nineteenth-century manuscript that begins to seem less and less like a work of fiction?and more like the key to his own lost past. Memory and amnesia, fiction and reality, destiny and randomness, heaven and hell?all converge to form an engrossing gothic story that is sure to appeal to fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafon?s The Shadow of the Wind .
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
29 people are currently reading
504 people want to read
About the author
Sam Taylor
152 books72 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
SAM TAYLOR / BIO
Novelist. Literary translator. Journalist.
Born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1970, Sam Taylor began his career as a journalist with The Observer.
In 2001, he quit his job and moved to southwest France, where he wrote four novels, learned French, and raised a family.
In 2010, he translated his first novel: Laurent Binet's HHhH.
He now lives in the United States and works as a literary translator and author.
SAM TAYLOR / BIO
Novelist. Literary translator. Journalist.
Born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1970, Sam Taylor began his career as a journalist with The Observer.
In 2001, he quit his job and moved to southwest France, where he wrote four novels, learned French, and raised a family.
In 2010, he translated his first novel: Laurent Binet's HHhH.
He now lives in the United States and works as a literary translator and author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
January 26, 2010
pre: Found in a rain-wilted box on the curb, and I don't know one single thing about it. Very exciting!
post: Holy shit this book is great. Given that it is all about amnesia, intentional and unintentional memory suppression, the existence or non-existence of consensus-based reality, the possibility or impossibility of coincidences, etc., I am stunned and delighted that it came to me so anonymous, so unknown. I still know not a thing about Sam Taylor (though I plan to learn more once I finish this review), but for such a book-obsessed nerd like me, that is so refreshing & awesome. To go into a book with no expectations, no popular "wisdom," no snobbery or elitism or pre-hate...well, it's fucking great.
And so rewarding – in this case, anyway. Before I do too much delving, I'd like to let this otherwise not overly meta book give you a description of itself:
Someone should write a true-to-life detective story, James thought bleakly; an existential mystery in which the answer is not to be found, clear and logical, at the book's end, but only to be glimpsed, or half-grasped, at various moments during its narrative; to be sensed throughout, like a nagging tune that you cannot quite remember, but never defined, never seen whole; to shift its shape and position and meaning with each passing day; to be sometimes forgotten completely, other times obsessed over, but never truly understood; not to be something walked towards but endlessly around.
I know that might be off-putting, especially for those who had an aversion to, say, House of Leaves, so let me assure you that, while this book is tricky, and slippery, and seems always to cycle itself away from the truth, refusing to reveal its secrets, which seem so tantalizingly close to the surface...while all that is true, it is much, much more satisfying than the preceding description would indicate. It has a clear narrative structure, interesting and consistent characters, lots of surprises, and a totally satisfying conclusion. So, to summarize: trickery, yes; obnoxious, no.
Let's go back a bit. The Amnesiac is the story of James, who lives in Amsterdam with Ingrid, but who is haunted not by his memories, but by his lack thereof. He can't recall anything that happened to him for about three years, not the last three, but some time ago, in college. This drives him to such eventual confusion that he lets Ingrid leave him, and returns to London to figure out his past.
Thick with real and metaphorical labyrinths, clouded windows, and mirrors reflecting mirrors, James's journey back to his past is slippery and very cleverly done. Everything seems at once pre-determined and also too absurd to be continuable. As his fragmented memory begins to reassemble, things get weirder and weirder, then pull back into normalcy, then slip off into absurd dreamworlds, then switch again to comprehensibility. But it is all so carefully controlled, you have full faith in the author's ability to let James (and you) untwist slowly and, eventually, clearly.
I should mention that there are strong correlations to a certain somewhat recent upstate New York movie, also about memory and its insistence on recurring, no matter how hard we try to repress it, and though I was a little bit bothered by this, it was only because it made some of what should have been gasping surprises a little bit predictable. But no matter; Sam Taylor is masterful and brilliant, meshing James's present life in modern-day Amsterdam with a long snippet-ly revealed Victorian murder mystery, with also a longish research paper about an imaginary philosopher, plus of course James's fragmented and splintery distant past and recent past and close and overtaking future. All beautifully counterpointed, intricately woven, creating an eventually terrific and complete whole.
Highly highly recommended.
post: Holy shit this book is great. Given that it is all about amnesia, intentional and unintentional memory suppression, the existence or non-existence of consensus-based reality, the possibility or impossibility of coincidences, etc., I am stunned and delighted that it came to me so anonymous, so unknown. I still know not a thing about Sam Taylor (though I plan to learn more once I finish this review), but for such a book-obsessed nerd like me, that is so refreshing & awesome. To go into a book with no expectations, no popular "wisdom," no snobbery or elitism or pre-hate...well, it's fucking great.
And so rewarding – in this case, anyway. Before I do too much delving, I'd like to let this otherwise not overly meta book give you a description of itself:
Someone should write a true-to-life detective story, James thought bleakly; an existential mystery in which the answer is not to be found, clear and logical, at the book's end, but only to be glimpsed, or half-grasped, at various moments during its narrative; to be sensed throughout, like a nagging tune that you cannot quite remember, but never defined, never seen whole; to shift its shape and position and meaning with each passing day; to be sometimes forgotten completely, other times obsessed over, but never truly understood; not to be something walked towards but endlessly around.
I know that might be off-putting, especially for those who had an aversion to, say, House of Leaves, so let me assure you that, while this book is tricky, and slippery, and seems always to cycle itself away from the truth, refusing to reveal its secrets, which seem so tantalizingly close to the surface...while all that is true, it is much, much more satisfying than the preceding description would indicate. It has a clear narrative structure, interesting and consistent characters, lots of surprises, and a totally satisfying conclusion. So, to summarize: trickery, yes; obnoxious, no.
Let's go back a bit. The Amnesiac is the story of James, who lives in Amsterdam with Ingrid, but who is haunted not by his memories, but by his lack thereof. He can't recall anything that happened to him for about three years, not the last three, but some time ago, in college. This drives him to such eventual confusion that he lets Ingrid leave him, and returns to London to figure out his past.
Thick with real and metaphorical labyrinths, clouded windows, and mirrors reflecting mirrors, James's journey back to his past is slippery and very cleverly done. Everything seems at once pre-determined and also too absurd to be continuable. As his fragmented memory begins to reassemble, things get weirder and weirder, then pull back into normalcy, then slip off into absurd dreamworlds, then switch again to comprehensibility. But it is all so carefully controlled, you have full faith in the author's ability to let James (and you) untwist slowly and, eventually, clearly.
I should mention that there are strong correlations to a certain somewhat recent upstate New York movie, also about memory and its insistence on recurring, no matter how hard we try to repress it, and though I was a little bit bothered by this, it was only because it made some of what should have been gasping surprises a little bit predictable. But no matter; Sam Taylor is masterful and brilliant, meshing James's present life in modern-day Amsterdam with a long snippet-ly revealed Victorian murder mystery, with also a longish research paper about an imaginary philosopher, plus of course James's fragmented and splintery distant past and recent past and close and overtaking future. All beautifully counterpointed, intricately woven, creating an eventually terrific and complete whole.
Highly highly recommended.
December 21, 2008
what an odd book. it's kind of like a detective story crossed with a gothic novel, both borgesian and kafkaesque (yeah, i'm evidently now one of those douchebags who uses adjectives based on authors' names) with a strong dose of "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind." note, however, that even if all of those references appeal to you, you might not be crazy about this novel, which somehow adds up to less than the sum of its parts. it's about an english guy who realizes, after he turns 30, that there's a three-year period of his life of which he remembers nothing, and he goes about attempting to gather clues regarding what happened. as such, the book meanders fuzzily through flashbacks, discovered manuscripts, and philosophical meditations. some of the ponderings on the nature of memory i found to be interesting -- the author really nails that feeling where you're not quite sure if something you remember really happened or if it was part of a dream or something you read once. and there's a pleasantly creepy atmosphere of surrealism. but taylor's prose is, well, prosaic and boring, and the themes are overworked. honestly, i'm also more than a little annoyed that i still can't figure out what happened at the end, or who the hell was narrating the thing. overall, somewhat interesting but not a book i'd recommend.
October 6, 2008
I got the feeling, as I read this, that I was supposed to think it was The Coolest Book Ever - impossibly clever, stunningly original, blah blah blah. And for the first two thirds, I was sufficiently dazzled by the tight pacing, crisp prose, ominous overtones, and all of the hairpin twists and turns in the plot. But then it devolves into murky psychology, bizarre scenarios that seem shoehorned in for no good reason, and an ending that's not nearly as much of a shocker as it would like to believe. I'll keep an eye on this author - he shows a lot of promise. But I'm not signing on the dotted line just yet.
July 29, 2008
Only two stars because the main character, James, pissed me off. He can't remember three years of his life, and decides to do a little investigating to figure out what happens. But every time that punk gets a clue, instead of following it he decides to go drink beer. I hate him so hard. The story was decent, a little existentialist for my tastes. I did learn what solipism is. Still can't spell it though.
March 27, 2014
Actual rating 2.5 stars .
The Amnesiac is a hard book to write about. It starts off well, is intriguing and interesting and the writing draws you in. And then about 200 pages in it starts to become....weird. Just plain weird. And the writing loses its shine and you start getting bored, so you force yourself to read it because you can't just stop ANOTHER book halfway through. And then when it ends it all makes sense but it's kind of boring and predictable anyway, despite the fact that you didn't really predict it.
So. I wouldn't recommend reading it.
The Amnesiac is a hard book to write about. It starts off well, is intriguing and interesting and the writing draws you in. And then about 200 pages in it starts to become....weird. Just plain weird. And the writing loses its shine and you start getting bored, so you force yourself to read it because you can't just stop ANOTHER book halfway through. And then when it ends it all makes sense but it's kind of boring and predictable anyway, despite the fact that you didn't really predict it.
So. I wouldn't recommend reading it.
July 10, 2009
This is a deeply disconcerting book that really penetrates your psyche and will stay with you for weeks. It is about a man who has lost three years of his life and tries to find out what happened. It has a very original format and is basically a detective story written backwards ...and only at the end do we find out what crime was committed. Utterly brilliant!
December 30, 2008
Fittingly, I have no recollection of where I heard about The Amnesiac, and I only have the haziest remembrance of purchasing it. Weirdly, it's as if the little sucker just magically *appeared!* on my bookshelf, where it then sat, gathering dust for ages. And it may have continued to gather dust for quite some time to come, however I spent a lot of time on the road this holiday season and the book I had been reading just wasn't doing it for me. I needed something else, something readable, something fun and something preferably in paperback.
Enter The Amnesiac.:
After breaking his leg on the stairs of his Amsterdam apartment, James Purdew suddenly finds he has time to do something he hasn't done in a long time: think. And as tends to be the case, the more he thinks, the more trouble he finds. His life in Amsterdam starts to fall apart as James becomes increasingly obsessed with three years of his life that have become lost to his memory, those being the years he spent as a college student in the town of H. An avid journaler, James has three journals detailing his life during those missing years, but, for some reason, those journals are locked up in a black safe he keeps under his bed, and he has no idea where the key could be. Clearly, something very bad happened in H., something he once chose to forget, but something he is now hell-bent on remembering.
In an attempt to unlock the mystery of those missing years, James must become the detective of his own mystery. He returns to the British town of H., gets a job fixing up the crumbling remnants of the house where he once lived, and starts unearthing clues to who he was and what happened to him there. The deeper James digs, the stranger things get, as the plot takes a bit of a Gothic turn, where suddenly a 19th century manuscript becomes a key to unlocking the mystery of James' own past.
To paraphrase the blurb on the back of the book, The Amnesiac is described as a time travel book without a time machine, a science fiction book without the aliens, and a murder mystery without the murder. This description is pretty apt, and is a large part of why I liked it so much, despite the fact that it wasn't the most original premise for a book. (At times, the plot felt quite similar to films like Vanilla Sky and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.) But even if similar stories have been told before, Taylor sprinkled heavy references to Borges, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Freudian psychology, Heaven and Hell, and Descartes' solipsistic brand of philosophy (i.e.: "I think, therefore I am.") into his story, using them as clues that continued to keep me thinking and guessing until the end. In The Amnesiac, Taylor has created something more original and intelligent than your average dimestore mystery novel, while still managing to craft a tale that was a whole lot of fun to read.
After skimming some other reviews of this book, it seems as if many folks didn't like it as much as I did, complaining that the ending wasn't very satisfying and that Taylor was a little heavy-handed with the references to Borges and Freud. And those are complaints that I can certainly understand. The Amnesiac is hardly a perfect novel. However, I thoroughly loved it, warts and all. While reading, I, like James, became a detective - underlining clues, scribbling in the margins, and working the story over in my mind long after finishing it.
In short, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book. I'm not sure whether or not I fell in love with The Amnesiac, but I certainly thought about it a lot when it wasn't around.
Enter The Amnesiac.:
After breaking his leg on the stairs of his Amsterdam apartment, James Purdew suddenly finds he has time to do something he hasn't done in a long time: think. And as tends to be the case, the more he thinks, the more trouble he finds. His life in Amsterdam starts to fall apart as James becomes increasingly obsessed with three years of his life that have become lost to his memory, those being the years he spent as a college student in the town of H. An avid journaler, James has three journals detailing his life during those missing years, but, for some reason, those journals are locked up in a black safe he keeps under his bed, and he has no idea where the key could be. Clearly, something very bad happened in H., something he once chose to forget, but something he is now hell-bent on remembering.
In an attempt to unlock the mystery of those missing years, James must become the detective of his own mystery. He returns to the British town of H., gets a job fixing up the crumbling remnants of the house where he once lived, and starts unearthing clues to who he was and what happened to him there. The deeper James digs, the stranger things get, as the plot takes a bit of a Gothic turn, where suddenly a 19th century manuscript becomes a key to unlocking the mystery of James' own past.
To paraphrase the blurb on the back of the book, The Amnesiac is described as a time travel book without a time machine, a science fiction book without the aliens, and a murder mystery without the murder. This description is pretty apt, and is a large part of why I liked it so much, despite the fact that it wasn't the most original premise for a book. (At times, the plot felt quite similar to films like Vanilla Sky and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.) But even if similar stories have been told before, Taylor sprinkled heavy references to Borges, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Freudian psychology, Heaven and Hell, and Descartes' solipsistic brand of philosophy (i.e.: "I think, therefore I am.") into his story, using them as clues that continued to keep me thinking and guessing until the end. In The Amnesiac, Taylor has created something more original and intelligent than your average dimestore mystery novel, while still managing to craft a tale that was a whole lot of fun to read.
After skimming some other reviews of this book, it seems as if many folks didn't like it as much as I did, complaining that the ending wasn't very satisfying and that Taylor was a little heavy-handed with the references to Borges and Freud. And those are complaints that I can certainly understand. The Amnesiac is hardly a perfect novel. However, I thoroughly loved it, warts and all. While reading, I, like James, became a detective - underlining clues, scribbling in the margins, and working the story over in my mind long after finishing it.
In short, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book. I'm not sure whether or not I fell in love with The Amnesiac, but I certainly thought about it a lot when it wasn't around.
April 23, 2011
The Amnesiac begins as a possible existential meditation on loss and lonliness but smoothly slides into a creepy little mystery without ever losing sight of the emotions that haunt and drive the main character, James Purdew. We first meet James after breaking his ankle on a flight of stairs while rushing to answer the telephone which seems to ring with an underlying urgency. Once laid up in plaster James doent have much to do but sit alone and ponder life when not spending time with his girlfriend Ingrid. This pondering leads him to become obsessed with a three year period of his life that he cannot seem to remember, and while investigating this lapse, mysterious and intriguing occurences begin to slowly unfold as flashbacks, possible delusions and a mysterious manuscript guide us along.
All in all I was completely hooked and couldnt put this book down but unfortunately the ending left me feeling a bit frustrated. Its not that it was predictable or anticlimactic, but it does share similar themes that were beautifully realized in a certain Charlie Kaufman film which happens to be one of my favorites. I still however think the journey is pretty fantastic and have no problem giving this book a solid four stars, and if that film wasnt at some point in your Netflix queue i think you will find the ending highly rewarding. Either way though, you will indeed keep turning the pages and wondering who exactly owns the house at 21 Lough Street, whats up with those allergy pills and just who the hell is Malcolm Trewvey anyway.
All in all I was completely hooked and couldnt put this book down but unfortunately the ending left me feeling a bit frustrated. Its not that it was predictable or anticlimactic, but it does share similar themes that were beautifully realized in a certain Charlie Kaufman film which happens to be one of my favorites. I still however think the journey is pretty fantastic and have no problem giving this book a solid four stars, and if that film wasnt at some point in your Netflix queue i think you will find the ending highly rewarding. Either way though, you will indeed keep turning the pages and wondering who exactly owns the house at 21 Lough Street, whats up with those allergy pills and just who the hell is Malcolm Trewvey anyway.
April 22, 2012
I think what you should know before reading this is this is all about memory and the fallacies of memory, the details of why and how we choose to forget things we obviously don't want to remember.
It gets really philosophical at times (something that I don't exactly mind but it makes my head spin when it extends for pages) and brings us deep into the dark depths of a "sinned" soul.
How could we be sure that a memory that no one but us remembers has really happened, or at least went the way we think it did? It's kind of scary when you think about how unreliable memory is, and how hazy it gets with age.
So many strange, unlikely incidents happen that make me doubt the credibility of the narration and make me wonder if they really happened or if it was a figment of the character's imagination. There's also the narrator, who from the beginning made us believe he was the author (I mean Sam Taylor) before he starts to inject himself in the narration -- using "I" and mentioning following and seeing James (and at the same knowing his innermost thoughts). So the mystery of the narrator's identity was more interesting to me than the rest of the supposed mystery of James' past.
The ending was a bit of a let down because I kind of pieced together the details over the whole book, but I'd never get a chance to think about them in my mind because Taylor would cleverly toss us around and give us other things to think about. So, I don't really think the mystery of James' past three years (anybody thinks it's weird to suddenly remember that you have no memory of three years of your life?) was the purpose of writing this book. Like I said, it's more a philosophical examination of memory...
Note: The author has no reserves to using drama and overwritten prose (the purpley kind).
It gets really philosophical at times (something that I don't exactly mind but it makes my head spin when it extends for pages) and brings us deep into the dark depths of a "sinned" soul.
How could we be sure that a memory that no one but us remembers has really happened, or at least went the way we think it did? It's kind of scary when you think about how unreliable memory is, and how hazy it gets with age.
So many strange, unlikely incidents happen that make me doubt the credibility of the narration and make me wonder if they really happened or if it was a figment of the character's imagination. There's also the narrator, who from the beginning made us believe he was the author (I mean Sam Taylor) before he starts to inject himself in the narration -- using "I" and mentioning following and seeing James (and at the same knowing his innermost thoughts). So the mystery of the narrator's identity was more interesting to me than the rest of the supposed mystery of James' past.
The ending was a bit of a let down because I kind of pieced together the details over the whole book, but I'd never get a chance to think about them in my mind because Taylor would cleverly toss us around and give us other things to think about. So, I don't really think the mystery of James' past three years (anybody thinks it's weird to suddenly remember that you have no memory of three years of your life?) was the purpose of writing this book. Like I said, it's more a philosophical examination of memory...
Note: The author has no reserves to using drama and overwritten prose (the purpley kind).
June 15, 2010
I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars and have chosen 3 only because the author used the word "labyrinth" so many times that it really left me wishing that there were more words to describe such a thing.
That being said, this story is definitely one filled with labryrinths and the basic premise reminded me of the the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", although the overall story is different and in the book, more complicated. It's an amalgamation of multiple genres - part mystery, part sci-fi, part love story, part tale of betrayal, part philosophy - all with a focus on searching for the meaning of existence and individual purpose through memories and dreams and the hope and fear associated with, and/or caused by, them.
Even though I was a bit frustrated that the main character took so long to figure out the main "mystery" behind his "amnesia", I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found Sam Taylor's imagination to be unique and thought provoking.
That being said, this story is definitely one filled with labryrinths and the basic premise reminded me of the the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", although the overall story is different and in the book, more complicated. It's an amalgamation of multiple genres - part mystery, part sci-fi, part love story, part tale of betrayal, part philosophy - all with a focus on searching for the meaning of existence and individual purpose through memories and dreams and the hope and fear associated with, and/or caused by, them.
Even though I was a bit frustrated that the main character took so long to figure out the main "mystery" behind his "amnesia", I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found Sam Taylor's imagination to be unique and thought provoking.
March 12, 2009
Loved this one, I was sucked right in by it. It freaked me out, played with my mind a bit - had a surreal quality to it which I'm always a sucker for. I thought it was remarkably similiar to Jonathan Coe's "The House of Sleep" which I had coincidentally just finished; I wasn't looking to read a similiar book. It actually had some similiar elements to Jonathan Barne's "The Somnambulist" as well. All three deal with dreams, memories, and all three read fast......
Highly recommended unless you're not given easily to suspending your disbelief, in which case why are you reading fiction in the first place?
Highly recommended unless you're not given easily to suspending your disbelief, in which case why are you reading fiction in the first place?
August 4, 2008
I read a brief review that was critical; this sort of book has been done before. So I added the book mentioned to my list. But I still liked this one. Seems a bit like the movie Memento, though without the anxiety. A bit of a mystery like Calamity Physics (but a bit shorter). Nice book and I recommend it for those interested in fiction about memory.
November 25, 2008
Quite similar to Kafka's The Trial, The Amnesiac is indeed written the same gothic fashion with an interesting meld of existential philosophy from Descartes and the like. The plot is somewhat onerous although the writing style is simple. All in all an average read for me.
August 8, 2008
Started out with promise, engaging build-up, disappointing climax.
November 22, 2022
This book made me so irritated that I burned it in the fire pit the day after I read it. I am on vacation and I brought a stack of books to read, and this one was the first, and I am so mad I cannot even start another book. This book made me mad at books IN GENERAL. A true feat.
This ridiculously self-indulgent mess promises to be so much more than it turns out to be. A treatise on thought and memory and sense of self? An investigation into mental illness, paranoia, time travel, medical experimentation? NO. NO.
It's the story of a whiny perpetual adolescent who ends up ruining scores of lives because he had Big Feels that a woman he wanted to fuck exclusively also wanted to fuck other guys. ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?
HOW do men keep writing this same story, that women owe them something, that their lives are ruined if they won't give it to them, that it's fair to ruin the lives of other people out of their pathetic desperation and THEN and THEN the author has the absolute nerve to use ANOTHER WOMAN ENTIRELY as the main character's "salvation" and he is no doubt going to proceed on to continue to screw up her life with his immature antics. In my head, I wrote a post-script where she saw him coming back to her and called immigration on his ass.
What an entire pile of pants. I feel completely enraged that I wasted a full day and half of my life caring what happened next to this whiny bag of dicks. No more books by men about men. No more.
Also the ending makes no sense with a giant time travel plot hole, except the time traveler was a figment of the main character's imagination, but then how did he have actual money? What a mess.
This ridiculously self-indulgent mess promises to be so much more than it turns out to be. A treatise on thought and memory and sense of self? An investigation into mental illness, paranoia, time travel, medical experimentation? NO. NO.
It's the story of a whiny perpetual adolescent who ends up ruining scores of lives because he had Big Feels that a woman he wanted to fuck exclusively also wanted to fuck other guys. ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?
HOW do men keep writing this same story, that women owe them something, that their lives are ruined if they won't give it to them, that it's fair to ruin the lives of other people out of their pathetic desperation and THEN and THEN the author has the absolute nerve to use ANOTHER WOMAN ENTIRELY as the main character's "salvation" and he is no doubt going to proceed on to continue to screw up her life with his immature antics. In my head, I wrote a post-script where she saw him coming back to her and called immigration on his ass.
What an entire pile of pants. I feel completely enraged that I wasted a full day and half of my life caring what happened next to this whiny bag of dicks. No more books by men about men. No more.
Also the ending makes no sense with a giant time travel plot hole, except the time traveler was a figment of the main character's imagination, but then how did he have actual money? What a mess.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2017
I definitely gave this book a 5 star because I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
The journey of memory lost, regained, and then lost again set amongst picturesque settings and intricate storylines was very gripping.
I most definitely enjoyed the solitary tone and settings, and Jame's character was quite interesting. His love for solitude yet his helplessness when he's suddenly aware of his now "loneliness" seems relatable.
However, the 5 star rating does NOT reflect the excellenece of the story overall. The ending left me quite baffled and unsatisfied at the so many unanswered questions. I dont like to be left guessing and I do understand that storytellers like to leave some things for the readers' imaginations to fill in, but not to that extent.
For example:
- What really DID happen on 21 Lough street, in real life?
- Where is Anna now, if not dead?
- Who keeps calling everyday?
- Is time travel a solid option? Is the narrator the time traveller from the future?
- Did James really at one point resort to medically inhibiting his painful memories?
- Why was Graham Oliver so hostile towards him?
- What do James parents know about him that they were always tiptoeing around him?
- What really happened in the final chapter, Ingrid gave birth to a baby? Where did that come from?
As you can see, there are too many scenarios the story dives in. It is a bit disorienting. But that does not affect that the quality of writing really does absorb you as soon as you start to read. I would like to discuss the above questions with anyone with an explanation or a convincing theory.
The journey of memory lost, regained, and then lost again set amongst picturesque settings and intricate storylines was very gripping.
I most definitely enjoyed the solitary tone and settings, and Jame's character was quite interesting. His love for solitude yet his helplessness when he's suddenly aware of his now "loneliness" seems relatable.
However, the 5 star rating does NOT reflect the excellenece of the story overall. The ending left me quite baffled and unsatisfied at the so many unanswered questions. I dont like to be left guessing and I do understand that storytellers like to leave some things for the readers' imaginations to fill in, but not to that extent.
For example:
- What really DID happen on 21 Lough street, in real life?
- Where is Anna now, if not dead?
- Who keeps calling everyday?
- Is time travel a solid option? Is the narrator the time traveller from the future?
- Did James really at one point resort to medically inhibiting his painful memories?
- Why was Graham Oliver so hostile towards him?
- What do James parents know about him that they were always tiptoeing around him?
- What really happened in the final chapter, Ingrid gave birth to a baby? Where did that come from?
As you can see, there are too many scenarios the story dives in. It is a bit disorienting. But that does not affect that the quality of writing really does absorb you as soon as you start to read. I would like to discuss the above questions with anyone with an explanation or a convincing theory.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2018
This is a real mind-warp of a book that reads like you’re trapped in a confusing, not-so-pleasant dream that’s based off a memory you’re trying to simultaneously forget and remember. The main themes are memory, identity, solipsism (that the only thing you can be sure of as real is your mind’s interpretation of reality), and hell. Scenes flicker in voice, time, and subject, just as a dream does.
People seem to have a real problem with the last two pages — and I’ll admit it was an odd way to end things — but I think it was an homage to Larkin and his “f*** it, I’m probably wrong and who cares anyway” attitude. The thing the author is probably wrong about is that our self/identity is kept together through memories, and not our genetic mass. I also think it was an open door to a debate sunk into a mid-novel footnote on the concept of hell. Sartre’s “hell is other people” is contrasted with T. S. Eliot’s view that hell is loneliness. That hell is realizing that you can only understand others through projections of your own identity, and in this, you can never truly connect to another and are always alone. The end reminds you that the protagonist is trapped in “hell”, and what that means is all part of the mystery.
I thought the writing was original and I loved it.
People seem to have a real problem with the last two pages — and I’ll admit it was an odd way to end things — but I think it was an homage to Larkin and his “f*** it, I’m probably wrong and who cares anyway” attitude. The thing the author is probably wrong about is that our self/identity is kept together through memories, and not our genetic mass. I also think it was an open door to a debate sunk into a mid-novel footnote on the concept of hell. Sartre’s “hell is other people” is contrasted with T. S. Eliot’s view that hell is loneliness. That hell is realizing that you can only understand others through projections of your own identity, and in this, you can never truly connect to another and are always alone. The end reminds you that the protagonist is trapped in “hell”, and what that means is all part of the mystery.
I thought the writing was original and I loved it.
May 10, 2018
James is on a mission to uncover the truth about himself. But what makes him HIM? What makes each of us ourself? Hopes, fears. Memories. These things belong only to us. Or do we share them with others, i.e. our past and future selves?
I enjoyed this story for feeding my brain some philosophical existential themes to chew on. It really did get me thinking deeply and affected my moods and thoughts. That’s how you know it’s good writing. It even weirdly and intimately reflected a brief period of my life where I was living a kind of, ha, Labyrinths and Through the Looking Glass dream-like reality. Weird how I just happened to pick this up off a communal library in my workplace...knowing nothing about it, but connected to it anyway.
As other reviewers note, the ending is predictable even though you somehow didn’t really predict it. And yes it’s not the most original. At times you want James to just GET it already. But I think that’s intentional. If we each had a narrator and could view ourselves from the future or the outside, we’d want to say “how did you not see this coming? How can you not get it?”
I enjoyed this story for feeding my brain some philosophical existential themes to chew on. It really did get me thinking deeply and affected my moods and thoughts. That’s how you know it’s good writing. It even weirdly and intimately reflected a brief period of my life where I was living a kind of, ha, Labyrinths and Through the Looking Glass dream-like reality. Weird how I just happened to pick this up off a communal library in my workplace...knowing nothing about it, but connected to it anyway.
As other reviewers note, the ending is predictable even though you somehow didn’t really predict it. And yes it’s not the most original. At times you want James to just GET it already. But I think that’s intentional. If we each had a narrator and could view ourselves from the future or the outside, we’d want to say “how did you not see this coming? How can you not get it?”
February 19, 2021
I felt like this author was playing with me with all the whimsically dropped homage. A scene pulled right out of Paul Auster, yet another from Wilkie Collins. In one way or another we are brought back to Borges, HG Wells, Dr Who, the movie "Primer", Aldous Huxley, et al in a parade of disjointed episodes. At times the story bordered on plagiarism - but then, no one thread was followed long enough for serious condemnation.
Ultimately my problem with the book is that it doesn't follow through to any fresh geography. It remains mired in well-trod tropes. I move through the book thinking, Not only has that been done, it's been done in exactly that same way in another book/movie, which included such a scene as part of a longer more cohesive story. This book? Not so much. A scene is included whether it connects to the rest of the story, or not.
The reveal is a revelation more than a reveal. While some might be tempted to give it high marks for originality - gee it doesn't follow a normal chronology does it? I can't quite go there because too much of the book was taken from straight from other sources with shameless abandon.
Ultimately my problem with the book is that it doesn't follow through to any fresh geography. It remains mired in well-trod tropes. I move through the book thinking, Not only has that been done, it's been done in exactly that same way in another book/movie, which included such a scene as part of a longer more cohesive story. This book? Not so much. A scene is included whether it connects to the rest of the story, or not.
The reveal is a revelation more than a reveal. While some might be tempted to give it high marks for originality - gee it doesn't follow a normal chronology does it? I can't quite go there because too much of the book was taken from straight from other sources with shameless abandon.
February 4, 2018
What a labyrinth of a book! It’s not all that long but it wanders in time and space to feel maze-like. My crappy memory made me pick up the book - the title just screamed at me.
The slow meandering journey he makes through our poor memories and the unreliable stories we tell ourselves, is at times throw-the-book-out-the-window frustrating. James and his other narrators made me want to shout ‘get a grip, man’ on a few occasions. But the beautiful woven fabric of the tale that unravels to lead to loose threads and untied endings kept me reading until the very end. There is an elusiveness to the story that by the end I feel like Taylor has somehow written a book that exactly mirrors the elusiveness of our memory-scape.
The back of the book says it all - part detective, part haunting gothic, mind-bending but captivating. I need to read more Borges.
The slow meandering journey he makes through our poor memories and the unreliable stories we tell ourselves, is at times throw-the-book-out-the-window frustrating. James and his other narrators made me want to shout ‘get a grip, man’ on a few occasions. But the beautiful woven fabric of the tale that unravels to lead to loose threads and untied endings kept me reading until the very end. There is an elusiveness to the story that by the end I feel like Taylor has somehow written a book that exactly mirrors the elusiveness of our memory-scape.
The back of the book says it all - part detective, part haunting gothic, mind-bending but captivating. I need to read more Borges.
December 27, 2018
Sam Taylor’s The Amnesiac has potential, but I feel like it underperforms. It is the kind of novel that could be put down early and forgotten about, but also had some interesting symbols that grow in complexity as the narrative continues. There are moments in this novel that I love, but I find James as a protagonist and the narration in general feels more bland than other places. The only reason I am giving this a 4 star rating is that I feel that the text may offer more on an additional reading. I definitely wanted so much more from this text than what Taylor provides. I feel that a few more drafts with more vivid descriptions could have made this text receive an easy 5-star rating from me.
October 26, 2019
I found it difficult to connect emotionally with the main character in this rather rambling tale of a man trying to recover the memories of three years of his life that seemed to have disappeared. Although I enjoyed some of the writing, especially when the main character was ruminating on the nature of memory, nostalgia and the passage of time, I felt the book would have benefitted from some heavy editing. I found the story slow to get going, and didn't find it interesting until around page 135. This would have been a much more gripping read if it had been around 100 pages shorter. I also found the ending confusing, but maybe by the time I had reached the end I had stopped caring and wasn't paying enough attention.
August 7, 2018
The Amnesiac by Sam Taylor is a dark tale that defies classification. It is a science fiction novel, a mystery or perhaps even the ramblings of an unhinged mind. While it is a compelling read, I didn't really enjoy the experience. The main character, Andrew Purdew, appears to have a memory disorder and it is often difficult to determine what is his imagination and what is memory. The narrative spans different time periods and characters with a dream-like quality.
December 7, 2020
This book is so boring it literally took me forever to read. I started and stopped so many times. There are some interesting points, but overall when you get to the end you feel like you just read an entire book about nothing.
March 3, 2021
Starts out quite good, then gets a little weird and disorienting. I enjoyed this but it was heavier and more depressing than I thought it'd be. It's much less about the mystery and much more about the protagonist's mental state and the struggles he's having moving on because of his amnesia.
May 22, 2023
Absorbing, mysterious. But not everyone's cup of tea.
From the beginning, it feels like a love letter to The Stranger by Albert Camus. But no one can write a perfect 330 page love letter. By the middle of the book, I already knew where it's taking me to.
I did like where I ended up at.
From the beginning, it feels like a love letter to The Stranger by Albert Camus. But no one can write a perfect 330 page love letter. By the middle of the book, I already knew where it's taking me to.
I did like where I ended up at.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2025
This is the strangest, most confusing book I have ever read and I loved every single minute of it! It was all I could think about during the week I read it, and the ending will have me theorizing forever.
I will now be forcing everyone I know to read it because I NEED TO DISCUSS IT!!
I will now be forcing everyone I know to read it because I NEED TO DISCUSS IT!!
March 12, 2019
So good and so confusing. Simultaneously profound and just... wtf?
January 28, 2020
I read it. Was rather confused at times.
March 27, 2020
Qarışıq kitabdır. Amma yaddaşımızın etibarsız olduğunu göstərməyi maraqlı idi.
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