Amnesia

by Douglas Anthony Cooper, Sara Inga (Translator)

Un anonimo archivista sta per chiudere il suo ufficio. È felice: da lì a poche ore si sposerà. Ma prima che riesca a uscire, quest’uomo senza nome viene bloccato da un estraneo, Izzy Darlow, che inizia a raccontare una storia surreale e ipnotica, una storia dove la vicende della disgregazione della sua famiglia si intrecciano a quelle di Katie, giovane donna posseduta da manie e allucinazioni, e a quelle degli spazi in cui sono immersi i protagonisti, che in Amnesia rappresenta ben più di un palcoscenico dove si svolge l’azione.

Accolto come uno dei romanzi più potenti della sua generazione, Amnesia è un libro che spinge il lettore a interrogarsi sul significato e sull’importanza della memoria, sul ruolo che essa svolge nell’espiazione dei propri crimini e nella possibilità di mantenere i propri amori.

Amnesia ci pone davanti a una domanda: puoi amare qualcuno che non riesci a ricordare?

Genres: Fiction, Canada

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Douglas Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amnesia was my first novel, so I've given it five stars. (Which I've given to my second, third and fourth novels, for similar reasons.) It was a bestseller when it was first released by Random House in the early nineties, but it is now fantastically expensive on paper: vampire bouquinistes who speculate in second-hand first editions are charging hundreds of dollars for less-than-pristine copies. Hence, I've republished the novel myself as a Kindle book.

I'm proud to announce that Amnesia is currently the #1 "Hot New Release" in the category of Metaphysical Fiction. It's exciting to be conquering that particular category: I'm up against some truly fraudulent work. Yes, it's outselling The Celestine Prophecy. (Hm. Wasn't that first released as non-fiction?) Also The Twelfth Insight. And choking in my book's dust, bestsellerwise, is The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight. Perhaps I should subtitle Amnesia "The Thirteenth Insight"? Would that be insightful? Or plagiarism?

The book I'm currently mud-wrestling with in the wacky world of "Metaphysical Fiction" is The Alchemist. I have no reason to believe that this book is fraudulent, although I haven't read it. I am crushing certain commemorative editions of The Alchemist, and I've completely humiliated all but one of the paperbacks: nevertheless, I have yet to topple The Alchemist that is currently the #1 Bestseller in Metaphysical Fiction. (Note, however, that I am much more #1 than this book when it comes to Heat and Novelty.) As far as I can tell, The Alchemist has occupied that spot for approximately a decade.

In general, books seem to sit on the Metafictional Bestseller List for a long long time. Richard Bach is on there, for some uplifting treatise that must be older than I am. I pushed his face into the snow, however: I'm #7, and his book is floundering at #44 and #52. Which leads me to a fourteenth insight: each of these books tends to show up on the bestseller list quite a few times. Once you've entered that Borgesian territory -- The Metaphysical Fiction Bestseller List -- your book multiplies, Fibonacci-like, and assumes various jealous perches on multiple rungs. I am waiting for Amnesia to do this. I can wait awhile: clearly I now have a sinecure, and will be brushing elbows with Metaphysical Bestsellers until the Rapture makes this no longer interesting.

Just musing here. And amused: I'm the only one on the list, as far as I can tell, who has in fact written a metaphysical novel. But perhaps this is taxonomical snobbery. One man's metaphysics is another man's, I don't know, rank tartufferie. Certainly the Hot New Releases list has at least one other echt metaphysical novel -- it is, on the other hand, even less Hot and New than mine: Notes From Underground. The presence of this book, however, redeems the whole tawdry business. It doesn't matter how flaky and amorphous these various categories are -- "hot", "new", "metaphysical" -- I am honored to have written a novel that occupies the same list as Dostoevsky. Since he wrote, arguably, The First Insight.

[Héctor Genta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holden 2.0 (e non solo).

Romanzo stranissimo, complesso e sorprendente, Amnesia è un viaggio ai confini del postmoderno, alla ricerca di nuova linfa per l'albero della narrativa. Una trama ricchissima e ingarbugliata che fin da subito si suddivide in sottotrame che si alternano procedendo in parallelo con ritmo incalzante, facendosi strada tra citazionismo, metaletteratura, metafore, sogni, narrazione per immagini e chissà quant'altro, per poi tornare al punto di partenza.
Un uomo entra nell'ufficio di un archivista della biblioteca e inizia a raccontare la sua storia, da qui tutto prende le mosse, in un crescendo ipnotico che finisce per attrarre il lettore dentro alle pagine del libro. È una frase di Freud, "la mente è come una città", l'idea forte sulla quale è costruita l'architettura dell'opera, una città fatta di vie che corrono parallele, si incrociano, si uniscono e poi si separano, ma anche di stradine, vicoli ciechi, edifici che con il tempo si modificano, si accrescono mantenendo sempre memoria degli strati precedenti, di com'erano un tempo. "Se vi dimenticherete della vostra storia, la casa crollerà su se stessa, vittima delle sue stesse impossibili fondamenta. Ma quando una casa crolla qualcosa fa sì che i ricordi vengano trascinati nella terra. Quando la casa non ci sarà più, ci disse, sarete in grado di leggere la sua storia dalle rovine". Un libro sull'importanza della memoria, dunque. E sui rischi collegati ad una sua perdita. "Trovare la storia e raccontarla,"- dice il protagonista - "raccontarla bene e ricordarla, così da non essere costretti a ritornare, strisciando nella gola", intendendo per gola ciò che è fuori dalla città, il limbo, il regno degli istinti, dell'irrazionale, di ciò che non ha strutturazione logica. La memoria che permette di non fermarsi all'impressione del momento ma di vedere le cose nel loro complesso, in un arco di tempo sufficiente a ragionare in maniera lucida, senza lasciarsi influenzare dalle passioni.
Difficile, almeno per me, afferrare tutti i mille fili di questo libro: Amnesia è anche un romanzo di formazione (seppur molto sui generis), una riflessione sui rapporti all'interno della famiglia e sui rapporti in generale, sullo sviluppo della personalità, sul linguaggio, sulla dicotomia ragione/sentimento, sul tempo… Amnesia è una lettura interessante e stimolante, da far sedimentare e poi riprendere più avanti perché si tratta di un libro che necessiterà di riletture.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglas Cooper, Amnesia (Hyperion, 1994)
[originally posted 10Apr2000]

After a good deal of thought, I finally decided this one gets a **** ½ instead of a five. Why? Because, while it's utterly brilliant, it doesn't quite have the life-changing qualities as The Secret Service or The Diviners did. Ah, well, you can't win 'em all.

Izzy is a very odd person. And on the narrator's wedding day, Izzy shows up at the narrator's place of business (yes, he's there on his wedding day) and begins spinning his life story. The narrator, annoyed at first, soon finds himself becoming weirdly absorbed in the many strange events, which raise questions about both Izzy's mental faculties (as the title of the book would suggest, there is always the idea that Izzy is leaving out some crucial details) and his own-- the narrator also suffers from amnesia, and can't remember anything that happened to him more than two years before the story opens.

Wrapped up in Izzy's life story are the plots of any thousand novels—the coming-of-age novel, the Jewish-experience novel, the living-in-Toronto novel (which, according to Izzy's dry sarcasm, is worse than the other two combined). A basic knowledge of the geography of Toronto is helpful, but aside from a couple of street corners, most of what passes for Toronto here is actually some kind of surreal fantasy-land; don't worry if your knowledge of Canadian geography is nil. Cooper is more than capable of conveying the sense of hopeless bewilderment that comes from living in most large cities.

If you read the dust jacket, you're inclined to believe that the major plot in here is Izzy's relationship with Katie, a girl who's been mentally scarred by the (imagined?) visitations of a "golden lover." In actuality, the story of Izzy and Katie, though it overshadows the whole book, runs less than fifty pages, and other relationships in the book are just as important; Izzy himself is the main character, and everyone else plays the supporting roles in molding him, as is to be expected when one person tells his life story.

One way or the other, Cooper's style of writing is wonderful. The blurbs on the back compare him to many disparate authors (Henry Miller and Kafka are the two that spring to mind first), but actually Cooper has a strong voice of his own, and he's not afraid to use it. The book alternates between humor and horror, with an underlying layer of sarcasm that keeps the whole thing from ever becoming too serious, at least up until the book's climax (which you can see coming from a few pages away, but that makes it no less stunning when it does occur). Very highly recommended, and will no doubt be one of my top reads of the year. **** ½

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Abstract and Disturbing as a Fractured Mind
A man with no memory. A memory with no man. And the broken girl who spans the bridge between them.

There are books that are read and enjoyed, books that thrill, that scare, that anger, that birth hope, renew faith, hint at love. Amnesia is not one of those books. In fact, Amnesia isn't quite like any other book I've read, and now that I've done so, ordering my thoughts and feelings about it seem as herculean a task as understanding all the brilliant nuances and twisting labyrinths found in its pages. But I'll try.

Highly stylized, brutally intelligent, psychotically affecting, this dark tale of a young man's twisted life and identity is gripping and morose, sickly seeping a sense of impending doom as it progresses in fits and starts, sliding forwards and backwards. It's a story boldly told, uniquely told, in a rambling narrative with a shifting focus, a narrative that slaps the reader upside the head with blurry snapshots of crystalline images. Broken family, tragedy, isolation, angst, sexual assault, theft, suicide of the mind, identity, Cooper hits hard with a panorama of confused misery and keeps it coming in this tale that - with its abstract and esoteric fugues - is both hard to follow and impossible to set down.

If I am to be honest, and though it pains me to admit, I can't say I understood all of it. In fact, parts of it left my mind feeling beaten, as if my intellect went to war and came home in a black bag. I can't even say I liked it, really. It's not the sort of book that I consider likable. It's depressing, confusing, and roughly akin to what my imagination would attribute to a bad acid trip. It's also compelling, and irresistible, and more than a little heartbreaking. Whether I liked it or not seems far too pedestrian a question for the weight of my emotional response to it.

If I understood it just a wee bit more, if it were just a small bit less...out there, more concrete, a bit more comprehensible in those sections that, for me, weren't, this would be one of the most significant books I've ever read. I still wouldn't say I liked it, but it sure as hell would've garnered five stars. Perhaps when I reread it...and I will definitely, unequivocally reread it...I'll be able to put together some of those pieces that didn't quite fit for me. I definitely think attacking it with the big picture intact would open up new layers of the telling for appreciation.

There were sections towards the middle and again towards the end that seemed - I'm sorry to say - to balloon out a bit. That seemed to take the dangerous step from abstruse to pedantic, not for the sake of the story being told, but just to be even more enigmatic. Those few passages kept me from waving my hands in the air and stomping my feet in full appreciation. Those few passages were the only ones in this tight, confusing, and deeply sorrowful masterpiece where my attention wavered and my mind shied away.

The rest...well, it's not Milrose Munce, certainly, but it's another side of the mind of an author who, I'm beginning to suspect, thinks so far outside the lines he's in a different parking lot. On a different planet. Visiting, however, always leaves a lasting...memory.

Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the author for the purpose of an honest review. My rating, review, and all thoughts and comments included are my own.

~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

[Antonio Vena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un buon romanzo, un capace camminare in meandri della psiche umana.

[Campuz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro davvero affascinante, con una trama non semplice ma priva di forzature. Mi ha fatto riflettere molto e suggestionato a fondo. Peccato sia tradotto in maniera un po' approssimativa, che traspare in alcune scelte lessicali poco felici e in costruzioni che sono un calco dell'inglese. Avrei anche apprezzato meno pomposità nell'introduzione, ma nessuno di questi elementi è imputabile allo scrittore.

[Victoria McGuigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

God, what a strange book.

I had some idea as to what might happen when I first picked up the novel from the back of a grungy bookstore in New Haven for $2 this past fall. Trauma would most likely work it’s way into what had since become a distorted memory of a past event, but when I decided to finally pick up the novel three months later, I was surprised to find Heidegger mixed in with Calvino all tangled up in Chejov’s The Seagull.

In short, the book was disturbing. But I found some truth in Izzy’s deception of even himself. How we are led to believe that the narrator and the man standing before him are different. How we pacify ourselves with a palatable truth. How even the most normal of us might have egregious and reprimand-able parts tucked away in places that the average eye would not dare to notice.

So easy was it for Izzy to dissociate himself from his most monstrous acts that he was able to cause someone such pain and yet feel no guilt. We build ourselves into monsters I suppose. We lay the foundation in arrogance and substitute self-loathing for empathy, rage for passion, pride for guilt. Because alas a knife, like all circumstances and persons and items, tells two stories: “one of surgery and one of torture.”

It’s so incredibly human that we think to make a future out of both.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story even more so having been written by a man!! It's jam packed with incredible insight. It took my breath away around every corner. Not complicated at all. Yes, amnesia........

Second time around Aug 2024-- was less impressed. Memory is a tricky thing. Depressing, dark, a reach for shock value, highlighting the less positive male traits, an ego trip? I'm not sure what Doug was reaching for. Do men destroy that which they desire?

[Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure where I found this book, but I enjoyed it. About a man recounting this grand tale to another man moments away from his wedding. Quietly engrossing.

[Ronnie Picciotto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro che si legge dentro una vertigine; immersi dentro la vertigine. Perché il tempo si stende in avanti, lentamente ma si ferma spesso e torna indietro. I personaggi, tutti, paiono attori che recitano un dramma. Quello della memoria di un protagonista angosciato che non recupera i ricordi se non a brandelli, tinti di una sostanza simile al sangue.
Una voce suadente canta in sottofondo, la voce di un ragazzino – morto o che morirà - che quando parla ha un difetto di pronuncia ma che quando canta magnificamente riesce a turbare l’intera città. Questa città è popolata di esseri che neppure sanno di fare parte di una macchina gigantesca atta a costruire palazzi e strade sfruttando l’alito vitale di chi fornisce ogni sforzo: marionette al servizio di un Sistema più forte e più grande di loro.
Le macchine: alcune di queste hanno un ruolo all’interno di un meccanismo psico-chirurgico. Sono macchine che possono curare ma anche uccidere, esattamente come potrebbe fare un coltello, un bisturi impugnato con scopi opposti. Le storie di Izzy e la storia di Katie, giovane donna che finisce per spiaggiarsi atrocemente in una struttura psichiatrica per via di un terribile trauma sofferto in gioventù, si ricollegano e si allontanano come gravitando in una costellazione legata all’amnesia e alla rimozione dei traumi psichici, in un modo che ricorda il danno compiuto dalle scosse dell’elettroshock su una psiche violata.
Nella lettura occorre utilizzare una bussola per non perdere l’orientamento: la mèta è capire cosa, come e perché le persone possono perdere la testa, la memoria. E lascia capire che l’amore, le pulsioni primordiali ne sono la base, le fondamenta. La vita diventa come una casa che viene costruita, abitata, dimenticata e infine lasciata andare in rovina. E degli abitanti non ne resta nulla: detriti e foglie morte.
Un libro che genera angoscia ma lo fa permettendo al lettore di immedesimarsi in un meccanismo a spirale dove tutto pare muoversi in un vorticoso disordine ma alla fine i pezzi finiscono per combaciare lasciando un profondo senso di meraviglia per come si è stati condotti per mano. Come quando una compagnia teatrale porta a compimento la recita di un’opera realizzando a sua volta un’opera d’arte. Opera già scritta ma riproposta nel tempo, in un continuo muoversi lungo i sentieri di questo Tempo che porta anche in fondo a profonde e inquietanti gole oscure.
Edizione italiana pubblicata da D Editore Nov.2018.

[Brad Wojak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when it first released, and every few years after. There are a few issues I have found over the years with the book, but each reading brings something new for me.

I really love this book, and writer.

[Guto Ffowc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark gothic and well written. I've read this three times or more

[Maaian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book strated very promisingly, becoming weirder and weirder. The last part of the novel, however, is too philosophic for me and for that I gave it 4 stars.

[Lanae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay first off - I will disagree with those who say that if you read Milrose you must read this as I sent Milrose to my young nephew and even though he sometimes reads "adult" books instead of books meant for a younger audience, this would be beyond him. So while yes this is the same author who wrote Milrose please make no mistake - it's not for everyone who read and loved that book.

Now with that said, for the rest of us, I'm not even sure where to begin. The book itself sort of warns of that straight off, we'll forget. The book is about Izzy. Or a man with no memories struggling to figure out who he is before he gets married. Or a dysfunctional family. Or young girls who ended up going through way more than just typical heartbreak of youth. Or… well I forget.

While most try to compare books, even loosely, to others to give you an idea of what you'll get from lesser known books I'm not sure I can compare this book to another or explain it fairly. The best I can say is that I felt as though I were reading a coming of age flashback story (albeit with more serious issues than the usual rah rah stereotypical who will I take to the prom stuff) if told by Tyler Durden of Fight Club (okay I worked in another novel reference after all). You won't want to pick this one to just read a little here and there and get back to it later - as I said, you'll forget, or get lost, etc. It will mess with you even as you're reading it straight through, and that's a good thing.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book messes with your head big time. I had a very difficult time keeping track of the story as it jumps around a lot. But there were a lot of emotions pulled on throughout the story. Actually I think it pretty much hit on all of them. I think if I was a little more well-read I would have seen/understood more symbolism in the book. The story made allusions to Frankenstein, Hitler (Mein Kompf perhaps?), greek mythology, Judaism, Nietzche, and more which I can't remember. Not that reading the other material was a prerequisite, but it probably would have helped. I must say the ending was quite unexpected and left me feeling rather depressed. I'm not really a fan of depressing books so take that into consideration with my rating.

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book is like trying to unravel a mystery that you know not it's beginning or ending. The story opens with the narrator talking about a wedding he's got to attend in 4 hours. His own wedding. He doesn't love his bride to be- not really. In walks Izzy- and he starts telling him a story about his life- and about Katie- so the story itself is more about figuring who Katie is and how come Izzy and the narrator are so engrossed in her life.
It's more about memory and how important that is for humans. I felt like I was in a maze as I read this book- but it's quite a gripping account, all told by a character that lost his memory-and you are left asking if the whole Izzy idea was created by him in an attempt to remember something important.
It's a powerful read if you ask me.

[Carolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide whether I liked it or not, only that the story will stick with me. Weird turns, and story lines that melt, memory that can't be trusted, stories that can be found in the air and a golden little creature that rapes the most innocent of girls. That's about the best I can do to tell anybody about the book.

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the...???!

[Knightreader Mullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a little complicated. It does not flo like a typical book. Certainly a very intersting read and worth the time.

[Edgar Trevizo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dafuq did I just read... O_O'

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this book at all. I couldn't make any sense of it. I didn't even want to give it "1".

[Adriano Barone]

Boh. Negli anni '90 passava davvero tutto.
Forse sono io che non ci arrivo ma questo parallelismo tra memoria e architettura l'ho trovato forzato e tendenzialmente inutile.
Poi, che ne so, magari a voi piace.