Forget Memory

I ran out to Harry Schwartz bookstore this morning (just as it opened) to pick up the new novel by Stefan Block, The Story of Forgetting, but it’s not due in the store until April 1st - no joke. Block’s book received a great review today in the NYT’s. Block’s novel playfully stretches into the past, future, and fantasy world simultaneously. He portrays a wayward Lord who spreads his damaged genes far and wide; a planet on which no one remembers anything; and a young man (Seth) whose mother leaves him all too early with early on-set.

Janet Maslin writes:

Eventually, in a novel that has a strong scientific component, Seth begins conducting research into the EOA-23 gene. He wants to understand not only what has happened to his mother but also how long a shadow her fate casts. He wants to know why, if his parents thought he was doomed to Alzheimer’s, they ever wanted Seth to be born.

Yet “The Story of Forgetting” is as true to the anguish of these questions as it is ablaze with love and vitality. In the end, without false optimism, Mr. Block taps into the life force that gives Seth a human, heart-wrenching answer.

“The Story of Forgetting” is a fresh, beguiling novel in what is sure to be the rapidly expanding genre of Alzheimer’s literature. As medicine alters life expectancy and genetic testing for the disease predicts destiny, these subjects invite new attention.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have young people turning their creative energy toward the issues/concepts/realities of dementia. The press will undoubtedly ask WHY? like they did with Sarah Polley, when she selected Away From Her for her directoral debut at age 28.

But why wouldn’t young artists and writers be drawn toward the topics of love, family, and country in the time of forgetting? The legal, emotional, spiritual, economic, and physical ramifications of dementia in an aging population are enormous.

I can’t wait to read this book.