The Memory Book By Rowan Coleman

The Memory Book is about Claire, a woman in her early forties who is a mother, a daughter and a wife.  Claire has recently been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.   Her family relationships are complicated.  She raised her elder daughter, Caitlin, on her own and has just recently married the love of her life, Greg and together they have a three year old daughter Esther.  Her mother Ruth has moved into the family home to help Claire and to look after Esther.  This poses some conflict as Claire is a free spirit and won’t relinquish her independence easily.   As the disease progresses, the reader goes on the journey with Claire as she forgets the names of simple things.  We feel her awkwardness towards Greg as she forgets how much she loves him.  And we feel her terror when she goes out and forgets where she is.  Greg buys her a beautiful journal in which to write her memories and invites other members of the family to do the same.  In this way, we get to hear the backstory of the main characters.   It is a multi-viewpoint novel, but written in the first person so we get to know all the main character’s intimately.  Claire manages to keep her sense of humour throughout the story and this helps to lift the book from the depressing story it could be.  Ultimately it is a book about relationships.  It was an easy read, despite dealing with an emotive subject.    

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I have been meaning to read this for ages.  This novel won the Costa Novel Award in 2013.  A story based on ‘what if?’ scenarios.  Ursula Todd is born in February 1910 during a severe snowstorm.   In the first scenario the doctor is delayed by the snow and the baby, Ursula, dies.  In the second version, the baby lives, only to die again and again at different times of her life.   It seemed to me like a succession of short stories about the same life/character with different outcomes.  Because of the book’s unusual structure I thought it would be a dissatisfying read, but all the characters are vividly drawn and the fact that a small event in Ursula’s life can be seen in more detail as we progress through her different lives made it a compelling read.   I was interested to read the author’s notes at the end where she said the idea for the story came from asking herself what would have happened if Hitler had been kidnapped as a baby and, having explored possibilities, her belief that this seemed more of a short story than a novel.   It was a reminder of the horrors of war and how brave people were.   It was one of those books that stayed with me long after I finished reading it.  This is the first book I have read by Kate Atkinson and it won’t be my last.