The Story of Forgetting

by Stefan Merrill Block

In Stefan Merrill Block’s extraordinary debut, three narratives intertwine to create a story that is by turns funny, smart, introspective, and revelatory. Abel Haggard is an elderly hunchback who haunts the remnants of his family’s farm in the encroaching shadow of the Dallas suburbs, adrift in recollections of those he loved and lost long ago. As a young man, he believed himself to be “the one person too many”; now he is all that remains. Hundreds of miles to the south, in Austin, Seth Waller is a teenage “Master of Nothingness”–a prime specimen of that gangly, pimple-rashed, too-smart breed of adolescent that vanishes in a puff of sarcasm at the slightest threat of human contact. When his mother is diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s, Seth sets out on a quest to find her lost relatives and to conduct an “empirical investigation” that will uncover the truth of her genetic history. Though neither knows of the other’s existence, Abel and Seth are linked by a dual the disease that destroys the memories of those they love, and the story of Isidora–an edenic fantasy world free from the sorrows of remembrance, a land without memory where nothing is ever possessed, so nothing can be lost. Through the fusion of myth, science, and storytelling, this novel offers a dazzling illumination of the hard-learned truth that only through the loss of what we consider precious can we understand the value of what remains.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Family, Adult Fiction, Novels, Literature

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Stefan grew up in Plano, Texas. His first book, The Story of Forgetting, was an international bestseller and the winner of Best First Fiction at the Rome International Festival of Literature, The Ovid Prize from the Romanian Writer's Union, the 2008 Merck Serono Literature Prize and the 2009 Fiction Award from The Writers’ League of Texas. The Story of Forgetting was also a finalist for the debut fiction awards from IndieBound, Salon du Livre and The Center for Fiction. Following the publication of his second novel, The Storm at the Door, Stefan was awarded The University of Texas Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, as well as residencies at The Santa Maddalena Foundation and Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo in Italy. Stefan's novels have been translated into ten languages, and his stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker Page-Turner, The Guardian, NPR’s Radiolab, GRANTA, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Stefan's third novel, Oliver Loving, is forthcoming from Macmillan/Flatiron Books. He lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely impressive debut novel centred around the science of memory, and the history and genetic truth of Early-Onset Familial Alzheimer's. Block manages to interweave two main stories, whilst relating a huge amount of history on the condition in this often heart rending, and also vital story. 8 out of 12

2012 read

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some books are easy: they engage your head with strong characters and/or good storytelling, but somehow miss connecting with your heart. That's not necessarily a bad thing--I'm wholly in favor of reading for the sheer fun of it, and every book isn't going to connect with every reader.

But some books...some books are hard. They hit you in the gut, and once they have you, they don't let go. You can still get the strong characters and the good storytelling, but this time they're wedded to a plot or situation that grabs you by the heart and squeezes till you can hardly breathe. The experience isn't always enjoyable, but when it's all over, it feels right, somehow. Necessary.

The Story of Forgetting is about a family devastated by a genetic variant of early onset Alzheimers. We spend our time alternating between Abel, a hunchback who lives with his twin brother Paul and Paul's wife May in the 40s, and Seth, a modern day teenager whose mother is suffering from the disease. The connection between these two threads is a family story of the golden city of Isadora, where there is no sorrow because there is no memory.

Maybe it hit me so hard because, like most people passing 40, Alzheimers is the biggest Boogeyman in my personal Anxiety Closet. Diseases of the body are bad, no doubt. But in most cases they can be fought, and even if they can't, you don't lose who you are in the process. You will be changed, certainly, but not lost. With Alzheimers, you can lose everything: friends, family, security. Worse, your shell is still around, but none of the people who care about you can connect with you.

Maybe it hit me so hard because I was thinking about my own mother, who passed away a few years ago. Her problems were physical, to start with, but soon her mind began to go, too. We were luckier than many--she lost track of time, but she still recognized us till right at the end. Still, her confusion was heartbreaking.

So yeah, this book was difficult for me. But having gone through it and come out the other side, I feel a little bit better about it all. Don't get me wrong--there are no easy answers. But sometimes, it's enough to spend some time with someone who understands.

[Gregory Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Could there be anything more sad and more lonely than remembering what terrible things the future will bring?”

In his ambitious debut novel Stefan Merrill Block shows off the wide range of his talent. “The Story of Forgetting” combines elements of science, history, and fable into four storylines that weave together to tell a single story. And it works, for the most part. I can see how some may have been turned off by the quirky nature of Block’s storytelling or grown bored with the genetic history storyline, but I have a feeling that the majority of literary fiction fans will enjoy Block’s novel just as much as I did.

The first storyline concerns Abel, an elderly hunchback living in isolation and haunted by the ghosts of his brother and sister-in-law and the daughter that ran away from home never to be seen again. He bustles around his dilapidated house in his failing body, desperately filling the void around him and trying to avoid stillness that might lead to reflection on how he got to this lonely point and whether or not it is deserved. The modern world is creeping up on all sides of his property, showing Abel just how little use the world can make of an outdated person like him, and his neighbors are trying to force him out so they can raise their property values. But Abel is holding onto the hope that someday his daughter might come looking for him, and he wants to be waiting when she does.

Second is the story of Seth, your typical gawky, angular teen and a stereotypical nerd and social outcast. His mother has recently been placed in a home after a nasty fall and a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease – an extremely rare genetic disorder that Seth, who may someday be a victim of the same disease, becomes obsessed with researching. In truth, his research is equal measures avoidance and an attempt to get closer to his family. All his life, Seth’s mother was careful not to reveal anything about where she came from or even why she felt the need to be so secretive, and his research allows Seth a unique opportunity to finally find out just who his mother is. At the same time, it allows him to escape the nightmare of his social life, visits to the home where his mother is by far the youngest resident, the paralyzing fear that he too may suffer her fate, and lonely nights where his father drinks too much and watches the History Channel, unable to bear the burden of disappointment and sorrow.

The third storyline introduces us to the mythical world of Isidora, a “land without memory, where everything one needed was at arm’s length, where there was never reason to be afraid, where nothing was ever possessed and so nothing could ever be lost.” Isidora provides a curious link between the stories of Seth and Abel, because both of them were raised on fairy tales of the fabled city. While one may question whether or not Isidora is actually as utopian as the author would like you to believe, the charming element of fable that it brings to the novel and the creativity and passion of its creation will win you over in the end.

And finally is a storyline concerning the genetic history of Seth’s family and how the genetic variant that created the early-onset Alzheimer’s disease got started and spread, tracing the lineage all the way to Texas, where Seth and his family reside. If it occasionally feels superfluous and not that consequential to the plot, Block imbues it with the same charming element of fable that makes you forgive the excess in the end.

The main attractions here are Abel and Seth, and they make “The Story of Forgetting” well worth your while. And if the link between their two storylines is painfully obvious about sixty pages in, it is still a heartfelt journey seeing how their lives converge in the end. As for Block, he proves to be a remarkably thorough and creative writer, as well as a literary talent to watch in the coming years.

Grade: A-

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been reading poetry almost exclusively for about three years running, so I was both excited and a little wary upon picking up The Story of Forgetting, Stefan Merrill Block’s debut novel. It had been so long since I’d read so many words at one go…I guess I’d forgotten how one can become immersed in a story, carried effortlessly along by fictional devices like plot & character. Luckily, Block’s novel provided an immediate reminder of such pleasures.

The novel’s strengths lie in the clear, compelling voices of the two main characters, Abel Haggard and Seth Waller. Block moves seamlessly between these two narrative threads. Abel Haggard, a 68-year old hunchbacked hermit, is constantly haunted by memories of his now-absent family. Seth Waller is an awkward adolescent, who strives for what he hopes will be an impenetrable protective wall, or “Mastery of Nothingness”, but manifests more as “weirdness with nothing to compensate for it…nothing greater or more profound than its zit-encrusted, slouching, skittish, Too-Smart surface.” (pg. 225) These two main characters are simultaneously repulsive and endearing, and my fondness for them kept me reading.

The plot is relatively simple: Seth embarks on a research project to uncover his mother’s mysterious family history in order to fully understand her familiar curse of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The plot also propelled my interest for the majority of the book—a genetic mystery novel!—although the final discovery is not particularly surprising or unexpected, which was a little disappointing.

The main storyline is intercut by two different threads: textbook-ish and scientific information about Alzheimer’s disease, and a fable about Isidora, a mythical land of forgetting. I enjoyed the science more than the myth; the Isidora chapters come across as too broad, and a little heavy-handed in terms of the allegory and “memory loss” symbolism.

Perhaps my poetry-bias caused me to be particularly charmed by the sharp & well-defined details throughout the book. Block is deft at setting the scene and fleshing out even the most minor characters: Abel’s horse (Iona); Abel’s truck (humorously dubbed The Horseless Iona); and Seth’s classmate Victoria Bennett, nicknamed The Sloth, as her movements are “slouching and sluggish…her hair was a long brown tangle…whenever possible, she avoided predators by disappearing into the trees.” (pg. 79) Block offers many lovely moments such as the description of the game that Seth plays with his mother, before her illness: “My mom & I also had another game…one of us would start to pretend to be the other…” (pg. 125) I felt that the story was the most interesting and original in these moments, and the interactions that Abel and Seth have with the more minor characters best reveal their foundational human-ness.

In the end, I wanted a little more of these elements—and less of high-concept historical mystery and scientific theory—but enjoyed the journey nonetheless. I’d definitely recommend this engaging book for its solid engine and warm heart.

[Mirela · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Într-un loc dominat de Întâmplare timp de 4 – 5 miliarde ani-lumină în toate direcţiile, dirijat de Memorie patruzeci de mii de kilometri în toate direcţiile, reuşise oare Dragostea, aflată la vârsta adolescenţei şi închisă în cămăruţa ei, să pună la cale o revoltă şi să-şi spună cuvântul?”

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I didn't really like this book, I'd hate Stefan Merrill Block. The kid – and yes, I mean kid – was born in 1982, as his book jacket brags. He's still in his 20's. And this book is good, not good like macaroni art is good, or good like that time that your 12-year-old cooked you pancakes and forgot the eggs, it's bona fide good. Maybe it's not great, but jeez, he's gotta have something to shoot for, right?

Block creates a familial mythology that is interwoven with a genetic disease, an imagined variety of early-onset Alzheimer's. On his website, stefanmerrillblock.com, he details the personal origins of his fascination with Alzheimer's:

When I was a small child, my grandmother was diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease. At that time, I hardly knew what the disease was (I thought the word was "Old-Timer's"). For the first year or two of her decline, her symptoms were subtle and I was too young to notice anything unusual. By the time my mom invited my grandmother to come stay with us, however, the disease was in its middle stages, and I was old enough to understand that something was deeply wrong. Just before my grandmother arrived, my mom explained to me what I should expect: cognitively, I was now more advanced than she. Difficult as it was to comprehend, I would now have to think of myself as more mature than my grandmother. I would have to watch out for her, like a brother would for his little sister.

Like the disease, the myth of Isidora is carried from parent to child, from one generation to the next. The Isidorans start out unable to remember anything – this is not considered a flaw, but key to their bliss.

Complicated are his ideas on memory, but they are ideas, not permutations of characters at play, but actual ideas. He could have been more coy with his ideas, weaving them seamlessly into stories, but he states them outright, with poetry and grace, and I, for one, am glad he does. Take his ideas of DNA as Memory, birthed of its parent, Chance:

...Chance also created some astoundingly complex and resilient successes, and memory didn't miss a chance to take these opportunities as far as it could. Eventually, with higher domains of complexity, Memory took on new responsibilities. Once Chance and Memory devised the nervous system, for example, Memory found work for itself beyond its endless, monotonous transcription. Chance interred Memory in their mutual creations, allowing, for example, a simple fish to remember not to eat a bluish alga, or swim too close to the coral. Chance encouraged Memory's new work, and in new organisms new forms of memory were invented all the time: instinctual memory, procedural memory, sensory memory, short-term memory.

Perhaps the ending, which carefully leaves some laces untied, is still a little too perfectly assembled. I can't say that I understand how you strike that balance between order and potential, though. Maybe in the next ten years, either Block or I will get there.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first thought, one might say who wants to read about the depressing subject of Alzheimer's, especially the genetic early-onset kind that is so tragic? In contrast, the book is a compelling tale of love and making sense of love in the face of loss, on the one hand by a boy whith a mother with the disease and on the other by an old man whose one love of his life was afflicted. The author Block engagingly weaves their tales together, interspersed with fables about Isadora, a land where memory loss erases suffering, handed down across the generations from the original (fictional) English nobleman to acquire the mutation. A sad, sweet tale with characters that I believe will linger in my mind long after the book ends. The other lasting impact will be a holding of an empathy and human perspective on a disorder we all fear and tend to push out of our minds (in my case, avoiding thinking about how my grandfather and his children--my father, uncles, and aunts--handled my grandmother's Alzheimers).�

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE Story of Forgetting is a very underrated story. A young boy discovers his mother is struggling with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. She is placed in a home for care and the boy sets to work discovering the family history to determine whether he will be the same as his mother when he reached 35. This book is really well-written and although it didn't amaze me, I definitely felt something. It's an easy read and the story of family and uncovering the past is lovely. However I am in no hurry to recommend it to people- it was good, but there are other books you should read before this.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful debut novel. Can't wait for his next one!

[Gaetano Laureanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un argomento non facile da affrontare è alla base del romanzo di esordio del giovane Stefan Merril Block: si parla di una particolare forma di Alzheimer che colpisce la madre di uno dei due protagonisti, Seth, un adolescente americano alla cui storia si alterna quella del vecchio Abel, l’altro protagonista, senza alcun apparente legame.

Nel mezzo troviamo intriganti intermezzi storici e racconti fantastici tramandati da generazioni, sentimenti dirompenti e personaggi complicati, ben descritti con uno stile essenziale ed emozionante da un autore che appare già maturo nonostante l’età in cui scrive (25 anni).

Un libro doloroso, ma così bello e coinvolgente da lasciarti quasi senza fiato.

Con l’affascinante storia del regno di Isidora che ci rende meno doloroso il percorso mentale dei malati, facendoci immaginare un luogo della memoria per chi la memoria l’ha perduta.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems strange to describe a novel about early-onset Alzheimer's as a compelling read, but there you go: it is.

I have to confess that Alzheimer's ranks right up there among Diseases I'm Petrified That I Might Get--I can't imagine anything more terrifying than to slowly lose my mental faculties. And it so happens that I'm vaguely acquainted with a family in which the mother experienced this terrible disease beginning when the youngest of her children was still in high school.

The novel strikes a delicate balance between two interweaving stories and the science of Alzheimer's research: Block notes that the strain he discusses in the book is fictitious, as is the researcher, but that in my mind makes it pretty masterful. Michael Crighton comes to mind as an example of an author who can be exceedingly ham-handed in using science to present a story; here everything weaves together in a way that contributes to the final result.

Speaking of which, everything doesn't tie together neatly in the resolution, which is another point in the book's favor.

[Denise K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a complex read. Yet I finished it in just one week, because I was just so completely fascinated by the story and the sheer work that author Stefan Merrill Block must have put into it. Part magical realism, part scientific study, part family drama - there's no way I could accurately describe what all I loved about this novel. Of course the writing is fantastic, but I was also enchanted by the magical tales of Isidora, the familial ties that bind the characters, the notions of a secret past, the accurate portraits of dealing with grief ...just all of it. And to top all of this off, the book manages to have a happy ending! ...well, perhaps bittersweet is the better word. The suffering is not to be ignored or forgotten, it's true, but I still found myself wiping tears of joy at the final pages. And no, this is not a book for everyone. It's tedious and scientific, and, like many masterpieces, the plot is not swift. But it was nevertheless wonderful. My sincere respect goes out to this author. He's obviously in a rare and gifted class.

[Nojood Alsudairi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative novel about a unique kind of alzahimer that attacks young people. It is inherited, thus young people see their future downfall in the lives of their fathers or mothers. How parents comfort their children with an imagenary world, which goes in parallel with reality, that begins as enchanting, develops to be chaeotic and ends with hope, is a brilliant idea.
I wonder why such unheard of diseases are emerging out of no where. One cannot but wonder whether they are man made!

[Heather Marsiglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although before starting this book I was emotionally involved in its subject matter, having lost an uncle to Alzheimer's Disease, I still think this is one of the best books I have ever read. I would recommend this book to just about anyone. I will admit the ending had me wanting a firmer resolution. I wanted everyone to be ok- but true to life, that's not how stories end. I loved the mix of “true life”/fiction, science, and fairytale. The writing is excellent.

[Angela Serban · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cartea spune povestea unei familii ce se confruntă de multe generații cu o boală ereditară, o variantă mai rar întâlnită de Alzheimer. Diferența este că boala se declanşează foarte devreme, iar singurele amintiri ale celor loviți de ea sunt cele ce spun o veche poveste a unui tărâm necunoscut, Isidora, unde oamenii nu cunosc durerea sau suferința deoarece nu au niciun fel de memorie sau amintiri, o variantă a faimosului El Dorado.

[SensationDaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per me è difficilissimo parlarvi di questo libro perché l’ho vissuto come un’esperienza molto intima e dolorosa. Sento però in qualche modo di “doverlo” fare, perché quando a 6 anni mi sono ritrovata davanti una nonna che non mi riconosceva più, e quando a 14 dopo anni di “lotte”, sia sue che nostre, l’ho persa avrei decisamente avuto bisogno e voluto sentire parlare dell’Alzheimer da qualcuno che non fosse un medico. Mi sarei sentita meno sola. Se quindi questo mio commento può servire a far sentire meno solo qualcun altro, sono ben felice di soffrire per parlarne.

Seth è un adolescente come tutti gli altri, fino a che scopre che la giovanissima madre è affetta di Alzheimer, di una variante generica che colpisce precocemente chi ne è affetto. Da quel momento realizza che non sa nulla della storia famigliare della madre e si immerge completamente in testi scientifici, esperimenti e colloqui che fa lui stesso con i pazienti per rintracciare l’origine di questa “deformità genetica” che colpisce i ricordi. Questo dà all’autore l’espediente perfetto per insegnare al lettore l’origine, le caratteristiche e lo sviluppo di questa malattia senza cadere nella pedanteria nozionistica ma rimanendo sempre sul livello discorsivo della narrazione.

È un’opera di fantasia e alcuni aspetti sono inventato a scopo narrativo, ma ha solide basi scientifiche dimostrate dall’approfondita e interessantissima bibliografia presente nelle note dell’autore a fine romanzo. Materiale che io stessa mi sono subito procurata per approfondire l’argomento. Ma torniamo alla nostra storia.

Abel è oramai nel pieno della vecchiaia e ci racconta la sua storia in prima persona. Una storia che sembra non avere nulla a che fare con i ricordi, se non per le storie che sua madre gli raccontava riguardo un luogo fantastico chiamato Isodora in cui tutto è fatto di oro e in cui le persone non hanno ricordi: a Isidora si vive il presente, passato e futuro non esistono.

Le vite di Set e Abel si incontreranno in un intreccio famigliare e doloroso che mi ha fatto piangere tutte le mie lacrime. “Io non ricordo” è un romanzo che fa commuovere, divertire e tanto arrabbiare. Forse è il mio background famigliare che mi rende sensibile all’argomento, ma credo si possa essere tutti d’accordo sul fatto che si tratti di una tematica molto delicata, a tal punto da essere trattata alla stregua di un tabù, di qualcosa che si deve dire a bassa voce, con discrezione e distaccamento. E invece qui questa storia urla in faccia al lettore l’importanza dei ricordi, i meccanismi neurologico, le relazioni famigliari, la frustrazione. Credo sia questo il sentimento dominante.

Oltre alle vicende famigliari e storiche connesse a questa malattia, l’autore descrive benissimo il Texas. Le ambientazioni fanno capolino dietro le spalle dei protagonisti, descrivendo paesaggi e società attraverso le loro azioni.
Questo romanzo ha tutti gli ingredienti per essere una storia che fa riflettere, crescere ed emozionare, e io ve lo consiglio moltissimo!

Ringrazio con tutto il cuore Sam e Marta del gdl #unannoconleacienze perchè se non ci fosse stata questa challenge probabilmente non avrei avuto, ancora, il coraggio di leggere qualcosa riguardo questa storia. Quindi grazie, davvero.

[Cheya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can read and love a book but completely forget everything about it in a year or two. That's the case with The Story of Forgetting. (Ironic, yes?) When I first read it I gave it a 5-star rating which I very seldom do. It's one of a handful of books that I held onto when I downsized last year. Seeing it on the shelf a couple months ago I decided I should reread it, refresh my memory, and see if I would still rate it 5 stars. One of the great benefits of forgetting books, movies, tv shows, etc. is that they can seem like new the second time around. I, again, rate it 5-stars. Here's what I wrote about this book when I first read it in 2009:

This is one of my two favorite books for 2009 - the other is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Of course, they are totally different stories, time periods, settings, characters and writing; but both memorable and masterfully told.

The Story of Forgetting is told from two different perspectives. Abel, a 70-year-old twin, tells his story looking back at the past while he waits for the return of his daughter. Seth is living a mystery that he is trying to solve and he narrates alternating chapters revealing his teenage struggles and his goal to solve his mother disease.

Each chapter ends with a remembrance by one of the narrator's of the story they both know about the imaginary land of Isodora.

I don't want to tell you very much of the storyline because so much of the goodness was in being surprised and/or predicting what was coming. I was surprised more often than correct. I finished the book with a big sigh of satisfaction. Then today I discovered this was Stefan Block's first book. Oh, goody - more to come. I hope.

This is a drama. I wanted to make that clear since I did hint to Seth trying to solving a mystery. More accurately he wants to learn all about his mother's disease in the hope of finding a remedy and he wants to solve the secrets of his mother's past.

The Story of Forgetting is a book that will stay with me. I have marked several passages with bookdarts so I can pick up this book and read through those parts and bring back some of the feelings I had as a I read. And someday I will reread this book.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author graduated from PSHS before I started teaching here. I’m not sure how he tied family, fantasy, and science together the way he did, but I’m glad he did.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I was powering through it to return it to the library in time. Then I saw I had a renewal left so I slowed down. It kept me interested. I just realized that there are four major plot/history lines happening simultaneously but it doesn't feel like too much, it feels like the way the story should be told so you understand it all.

[Oana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poveste frumoasa și bine scrisa, chiar dacă este și despre boala și moarte

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of a family with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's. Fifteen year old Seth's world falls apart when his mother is diagnosed with the disease, although to be honest, the signs were there long before the diagnosis but both he and his father had been ignoring them. As it is a genetic failure he wants to know more about her family; the family he has never met and knows nothing about, not even her maiden name. The story is very raw and is certainly not to be read for entertainment or escape (which is why I usually read). A heartbreaking story of truth and lies, facing life and running away from it, past, present and future possibilities.

[ka fi de · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is nice.

i didn't think this was going to turn into a dementia book. especially not from the first chapter. i thought it was going to be this blossoming but wrong love story between this farmer and his brother's wife. then we meet seth and his mother is a little funky in the brain.

but i did like this book. i can't say that i personally enjoyed it. i don't know if it's my own bias because i work in healthcare and i see a patient with dementia more times than i would like.

it's really a terrible disease and i appreciate that it's highlighted in this book in this way because i found it all too real. i haven't read any book that had a character with dementia but from other types of media that i've seen it's always just represented as someone being old and forgetful. you don't really fully understand what comes with it. yes there's the forgetfulness but there's also that loss of inhibition, the aggression, the helplessness and so so many more. it's truly is the death of a person while they're still alive. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

i thought that the book was written so well. this is my interpretation but i loved the duality of meaning in the title just based on the two characters. that abel is trying to forget his life, his love for mae, or that his brother is doing ungodly acts to him because of his condition, or that his kid is jaime, or his family situation which explained why he moved out, or his whole history just based on selling the family farm. then we have seth who is entrenched in research about his mother who has dementia and her condition, and doing every effort he can so he won't forget his and her history. it's probably wrong but i think that's what i took out of that. the whole POV was good. i liked that they pretty distinct. i think it did help that we were set up so well that i did have a separation between the old times and abel was in that and modern times and seth was in that. the only thing i didn't really like was the whole scientific parts of it. it was a bit of a break from the emotional flow that the story was building on. something devastating happens and next chapter is genetic sequences and collections of letters and number that mean nothing to me. lol.

the plot goes back and forth on different timelines so i might just chronologically go through it because i can't be bothered going back and forth. we start with abel. he lives in a farm with his twin brother paul and his wife mae. abel is in love with mae. he spies on her which is pretty creepy. one night she catches him masturbating to her outside of a tree. she confesses that she likes him too. paul then goes off to war. abel and mae immediately just go ham for each other. she gets pregnant. paul comes back. since they don't want paul suspecting anything, mae has sex with her husband to pull off the lie on why she's pregnant. jaime is born. little do we know was that jaime is named after this man that paul fell in love with i think during the war. paul is a little fruity. anyways. abel does his best to be a good secret father/uncle to jaime. paul succumbs to his disease and he starts thinking that abel is jaime. so he tries to do the nasty with him. the whole situation was confusing for jaime so abel moves out. one night paul escapes and goes out to try and find "jaime". mae finds him out and about and she drives the both of them into a tree because she didn't want him to get so bad that he's fully consumed by his condition. so she does a murder-suicide moment. jaime and abel are devastated. jaime moves out and goes to new york. abel moves back in and vows to wait for jaime for as long as he can. as the years go by, he does slowly give up on this hope that she'll come back and he starts selling parts of his land to the government or the bank. he gets to a point where he fully going to fuck off and live the rest of his days out of his farm. we'll leave that for now. jaime moves to new york and meets her future husband. they soon move back to texas (forgot to mention that the farm is also in texas) and they have seth. seth grows up and slowly notices her mom's idiosyncrasies. she gets worse and she jumps off of their indoor balcony? shatters her head. and she gets moved into assisted living. seth goes into all this research about his mom's condition and where she came from and he meets lots of people until he gets a breakthrough through this one lady who shared the same story that his mom used to tell him. this story about isidora. it's this magical place where people have no memory, they just live. he figures out where his mom lived and him and his dad have this long anticipated reconnection. jaime escapes from the facility. seth and his dad find him and instead of taking her back to the facility, they head to high plains texas and they find the old farm and wouldn't you know it, abel still lives there. abel and jaime reunite after yearssssss. he soon sees that she's inherited her brother's condition. he comes to the realisation that maybe jaime was paul's. but he does't mind because his family's back and he has a grandson who he can pass on the family's history to.

how wholesome and yet i butchered it. soz.

i don't have too many notes but there's enough to run through them...

the whole "i'm in love with my brother's wife" i thought there was something going to that that would be sweet and romantic but the 180 turn of this book just blew my mind now that i've finished it

Because, under the rules of my dad, forgetful and selfish were synonymous,

... she had grown to understand that the basic transaction of married life was sabotage, that the basic transaction of life itself was a sad, endless amalgam of public endurance and private indulgence.

i may have to prematurely end a couple of bookmarks further on if it highlighted this. the fact that my perception and observation of my parents' marriage is exactly the marriage of jaime and her husband, pre-fall. the one with my mom being the brains of the couple and my dad being the limbs. both co-existing, not with love, but merely by default.

i did feel a bit sad when he was going to sell his land or that he was even considering it. it seems to me like such a loss. not only for pure nostalgia reasons but if it's in shambles, it can be restored and if you sell it then other people would reap the benefits of your ancestors hard work of actually acquiring and tending to the land. plus i would love to live on a farm and hearing from how urbanised his area is getting, if i get decent internet access, i'll be happy.

when seth volunteered to look after his mom after she's discharged from hospital. it's self-less, yes, but careless??? definitely. maybe it's the cynicism in me and from working in healthcare i think i've observed it quite a lot that a lot of the time carer's fatigue is one of the reasons old and disabled people get dumped at the hospital and just left there. i get a lot of excuses from carers as to why they aren't fit to go home when i think they're too scared to admit that they're done. maybe it was love at the start, then it became noble of them to do such hard work then it becomes a chore until later on it becomes a burden. this might've been a controversial take.

i wish i could collate all the isidora sections. i love what i read and i wish i could go back and just have the whole thing in full and in order. i can't for the life of me recount the whole thing but i know that it's a great little story and gem that's just in this book.

what's really sad was seth's interactions with her mom and the facility. it sucksssss and it's too real. especially when you experience it first hand. lying to my patients and telling them that we're just waiting for a taxi and they just sit on a chair next to the nurses' station for hours and telling them at the end of the day that the taxi called in to let us know that they'll get picked up tomorrow and repeating the whole process the next day but in truth there was no taxi, they're stuck in hospital while the family looks for aged care homes and no one has visited them for days and they hold my hand wondering when their are gonna come pick them up. it's sad.

I used to think that the sadness of my life was as invisible as I was. I believed that I had made myself the Master of Nothingness, but it turned out I'd only been the Master of Freakishness all along.

i was gagged with the jaime reveal

seth realisation that it was irresponsible for his parents to even have him knowing that the dementia would be passed onto him was devastating, i imagine, to get as news. but if you know then you know that jaime did kind of live with a semblance that she doesn't have it purely because of her history. but also plot twit as well that she truly was paul's kid and therefore got the disease.

paul's behaviour!!!

Genetic History, Part 4 was probably the only science-y part that i like because it told this narrative between chance and memory. the genetic stuff i skimmed through (lol) but the prose bits i really enjoyed.

awww to when seth's dad finally came through and allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of his son. i love that.

the reunion was building up to something so climactic but it just ended up with jaime bursting to the house like old times was funny. i actually liked this ending. no fluff with these two characters running into each others arms outside after years of separation. it was kind of funny that it was so casual and i guess that's realistic because that's what the book has been doing, be as real as possible and if this happened in real life i think it would go exactly as it played out in the book.

those are the end of my notessss

i would recommend this. it's a bit depressing but i think if you keep an open mind then you'll enjoy it. you might even learn a thing or two about someone's lived experience with family who's going through this condition. it's honestly a good perspective to have.

i can breathe a little bit and move on with lighter books hahaha

[Katherine Marple · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Story of Forgetting" is told from nearly four perspectives:

-The first is an elderly, disfigured Abel recounting on the love of his life (also his twin brother's wife) and his mom.
-The second is the "teenaged" version of Seth, telling in present tense what he researched and felt while his mom was developing early onset Alzheimer's disease at her age of 35.
-The third perspective is all of the medical jargon- the back history that scientists and researchers discovered to find the earliest version of Alzheimers (named after Dr Alzheimer) to find the genetic link so that they could suppress it... or cure it (though more likely the first).
-The fourth is the story of Isidora- little snippets of a love story that Abel and Seth's mom told to them.

I loved Abel's story. How he found out that he was in love with his brother's wife nearly at the beginning of the story. He was a lonely, tragic character- yet also very smart and sometimes very funny. His inner dialogues with himself (as he lived alone quite a bit) were sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek.
Seth's story was interesting, but I didn't feel all that much for him. I want to say that I didn't feel "connected" to his character as much as I did to Abel's.

The biggest issue I have with the novel is all of the medical background. Whether it's made up for the story's sake, or if it's actually true... it seems to be more appropriate to have it in the appendix of the book... or in a second "medical" edition. There was just too many stories going on at once that many times I had to flip back a few pages to find out who was telling their story on the page that I was reading.

It became very confusing and seemed to completely dilute the entire story that I was trying to unveil.

The story of Isidora was also very interesting. The reason I'm not pointing it out as much is because Block kept those pages to only one between each chapter. The story was short, sweet, and broke up the Abel/Seth stories nicely.

If it weren't for the pages and pages of medical history (though interesting), I would have given this book a 4 star rating instead. Because of the work and frustration I had to put into reading it... it's a 3 star from me.

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel - it was a quick read and it really flew by for me. I really liked the way Block unveiled the story from points of view that wouldn't normally have a voice - the uncle and the son of the Alzheimer's sufferer. This gave the book a completely different feel than what I would have expected (a main character who was the person suffering the disease and their story of how it affected their life). I have not read Block's website yet so I don't know about his personal experiences with Alzheimer's, but I felt like Seth came right from his heart and his experiences. I felt like he was the teenager in the story and that he had these experiences, so this made the whole thing very believable to me. I have to admit though that the whole Isadora storyline was a little beyond me. I get how it related in the end, but I didn't completely fall for it being interspersed throughout the book. Oh, and I have such a soft spot for Abel - what a sad, sweet character. Overall, this was a sad story but I actually think it was extremely well put together and a great first novel.

[Bucket · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story that hits pretty close to home for me, and I was very moved by the multiple ways that the author tries to understand, and accept, the tragedy of early-onset Alzheimer's.

I found the writing a little slow and labored (and I don't often find stories too slow) but because of the subject matter, I absolutely forgive this. I really felt part of the author's personal journal to come to terms even more than I felt lost in the story itself.

He uses the voice of an old man, an outcast but one who really hit the jackpot in his family, he didn't get early-onset Alzheimer's. He also uses the voice of a boy, a loner with an inquisitive nature who sees his mom get the disease and knows it very well might be coming for him. And then he uses a fable-like tale about the land of Isadora where there is no memory and this is a very, very good thing. It's a world created in desperation to try and see a tiny good side of Alzheimer's, and it succeeds in the sense that it doesn't feel desperate or tragic in the novel, but real and wonderful.

All in all, a well-thought-out and very emotional novel.

Themes: early-onset Alzheimer's, memory, family, tragedy, loss, hope, fable

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fine, fine, all right, I haven't finished it yet so maybe the five stars is premature.

As the daughter of two people who had dementia, I can't help seeing them (and maybe me) in the story. But even without that startlingly affecting and familiar part of the book, I like the language and the structure and the characters. If the story goes south, I'll have to change the stars but it'll take a huge shift to make me do that.

UPDATED: I didn't think the end was as strong as the rest of the book. The structure didn't hold up as much as I hoped and Isadore thread didn't do as much for me toward the end. But damn. The book is STILL FIVE STARS.

Calling it YA is beyond stupid. Honestly, the need to classify any book featuring a teenaged character "young adult" is annoying. I don't have a problem with YA books--I love some of them. But the label seems to limit books' appeal. I'd shelve this one with fiction or literature.

[Huda Fel · Rating 4 out of 5]

هذا الكتاب غريب نوعا ما
ينقلنا بشكل متقطع بين مشهدين
الأول هو لـ آبيل ؛ الأحدب الذي يعيش مع أخيه وزوجة أخيه
وابنته من (زوجة الأخ)، التي تقرر فجأة -بعد أن تسوء ظروف العائلة - أن تترك المنزل بلا عودة
وبين المشهد الثاني لـ سيث ؛ المراهق الذي أصيبت والدته بمرض الزهايمر المبكر
ورحلته العلمية في فهم مايجري لها بعد أن نقلها والده إلى دار رعاية
كنت مشتتة قليلا في البداية بين المشهدين ولكن سرعان ما اكتشفت الرابط بينهما

امم بالرغم من أن قرائتي لهذا الكتاب كانت على عجل إلا أنها أثارت فضولي للتعرف عن قرب على الزهايمر
المرض الذي ظننت أنه يصيب الكبار في السن فقط
واكتشفت لاحقا أنه يصيب جميع الفئات العمرية
بعد قرائتي عن جيمي (والدة سيث) ورؤيتي -في أحد المواقع- لأحد الأطفال المصابين وهو رضيع في عامه الثاني

ثم، مامدى تأثير معاناة أحد الوالدين من هذا المرض ، أو غيره من الأمراض المزمنة على واقع العائلة

الحمدلله على كل حال

Ps.Thanx Dr.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to second the Guardian's cover quote, "A compassionate, wildly inventive novel." The story is about one family's epic struggle with Familial Early-Onset Alzheimer's, told in a fractured style by two seemingly unrelated narrators (Abel a hunchback who is in love with his fraternal twin brother's wife and present-day teenager Seth who is researching his mother's illness). These narratives are interspersed with meandering magical mythical subplots about a fantasy world called Isidora, medical jargon, and even a lyrical fictionalized account of a Patient Zero named Duke Mapplethorpe of Iddylwahl. Although the fantastical bits weren't my cup of tea, The Story of Forgetting is partly autobiographical and who am I to disparage what could actually be somebody's family treasure?

[Susan Henn · Rating 4 out of 5]

5/10 A talented young author's first book. The story is told flipping back and forth through the eyes of two characters. One character is an old man who has experienced a great deal of loss in his life including the loss of his brother and mother to early onset familial Alzheimer's. The other character is a precocious teenage boy whose mom is dying from the same disease. The boy sets out to discover the mysteries of his mom's past by pretending to compile information about the disease for a leading researcher. The book is well written, however, I question if the characters, as they are presented, would have the high level thoughts and vocabulary the author attributes to them.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this book. it was fascinating and heart-wrenching and not overly depressing, if that can be said of a story (really, a number of stories) about incredible loss. i love the way the two major narratives came together, but even moreso, the sideline stories, the historical tone, the interweaving of myth, and the artful integration of science made this novel a unique, compelling, and unforgettable read.