Memory and Identity in Fiction

Sounds like a boring thesis topic, but fictional explorations into memory and identity are so much richer than those papers you wrote in English class.
Still Alice (Pocket, 2009), a recent first novel by neuroscientist Lisa Genova, is a moving portrait of a Harvard cognitive psychology professor's tragically fast descent into early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes was also a university professor's first novel, but was published back in 1966. The diary of Charlie Gordon, a mentally handicapped young man who participates in a science experiment that rockets him to the other end of the intelligence spectrum, but only temporarily, is another moving investigation into the brain and self.
Then there's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco about an older man who wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and can't remember his childhood, his wife, his children, his grandchildren, but retains an encyclopedic knowledge of facts up to a certain year. A wonderful audiobook narrated by George Guidall.

How much of your memory can you lose before you are no longer yourself? How much of identity is related to intelligence? There are a lot of neuroscience books out there where you may find some answers, but novels like these will lead you to ponder the questions.

Nine Dragons and the State of Crime Fiction

I'm on the library "holds" list for Nine Dragons, Michael Connelly's latest book in the Harry Bosch series, but in the meantime -- if I don't run out and buy it over Thanksgiving weekend -- I might check out one of the many other crime fiction authors recommended in The State of the Crime Novel, a recommendation-filled interview by author Jason Pinter with various book reviewers on, yes, The Huffington Post's Books blog. Here's an excerpt:

Oline Cogdill: Michael Connelly is perhaps our most consistent living mystery author and his novels are about moments in our time, how the changing LA copes in the 21st century. Laura Lippman continues to amaze me with how she can so precisely tap into the issues of women. Laurie King's Mary Russell novels would have been the kind I would have loved to have as a young teenager. I think they will be timeless. Val McDermid continues to be one of my favorites and I am looking forward to Dennis Lehane's next novel, especially with the buzz I've been hearing. I also always look forward to novels by Peter Robinson and Ian Rankin and S.J. Rozan, Charles Todd. For breakouts: Michael Koryta is an amazing writer and so young. We'll be hearing a lot more from him. I feel the same way about John Hart, that he will be a novelist with a long career. Linwood Barclay has been around for a while but his family thrillers put him in league with Harlan Coben and may finally put him over the top with American audiences. Some upcoming novelists I think you'll be hearing about are Bryan Gruley (Starvation Lake), Attica Locke (Black Water Rising) and Paul Doiron (The Poacher's Son comes out in April) These are major talents. I loved Harry Dolan's Bad Things Happen and I want to see what he does next.

Thanks to Becky, a library book blogger at RA for All, for pointing this interview out. Subscribe to her blog for great reading advice.

Same Old Story - Best Books List Snubs Female Writers

This blog post at Politics Weekly is a good addition to the flap in the blogosphere about the Publisher's Weekly list of 10 Best Books of 2009 that didn't include a single book by a woman. The people at PW said it just happened that way...they were as surprised as anyone!
The Women in Letters and Literary Arts have started a wiki where excellent 2009 books by female authors are being listed. You might want to check out some of the suggested titles there, as well as the books on the Publisher's Weekly list.

A Gate at the Stairs

Lorrie Moore’s first novel in many years is worth the wait. A Gate at the Stairs, like much of the author’s writing, can make you laugh out loud in places, bring you to tears in others, and sometimes makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Tassie Keltjin, a half-Jewish Midwestern farm girl turned college student, is studying random humanities courses in the made-up Midwestern town of Troy when she is jolted from a childlike passivity into a sad adulthood by a series of unexpected shocks.
Though a typically self-absorbed college student, Tassie is also a sharp observer of others. As she is looking for a babysitting job:

“One forty-ish pregnant woman after another hung up my coat, sat me in her living room, then waddled out to the kitchen, got my tea, and waddled back in, clutching her back, slopping tea onto the saucer, and asking me questions. “What would you do if our little baby started crying and wouldn’t stop? Are you available evenings? What do you think of as a useful educational activity for a small child?” I had no idea. I had never seen so many pregnant women in such a short period of time—five in all. It alarmed me. They did not look radiant. They looked reddened with high blood pressure and frightened.”

Tassie -- the narrator of the story -- is a musician, a songwriter, and a lover of language. Some reviewers complain that too many jokes and too much wordplay detract from the seriousness of A Gate at the Stairs. But sometimes you have to laugh or else you’re just going to cry all the time.

Check availability in Old Colony Library Network.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

At age 17, Quentin has gone through the Brooklyn school system, sorted and separated by smarts into the “nerdiest of the nerds” group, and is unenthusiastically headed for Princeton when he finds himself taking an entrance exam for an entirely different kind of post-secondary education—at a school of magic.
A secret lover of the children’s series about the magical land of Fillory (a Narnia-like place that human children can only find at the most unexpected times), Quentin knows all the stories by heart but never expected to find real magic existing in the world, hidden from all but the most gifted and singled-out of humans.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman (author of The Codex) is the perfect novel for anyone who, like Quentin, ever wished as a child that magic was real and is, still, maybe even a little disappointed not to have been the one selected to go through the looking-glass, to travel to the land inside the wardrobe, or to find the Indian in the cupboard. But be forewarned. The Magicians is no light-hearted frolic into fantasy, a la Terry Pratchett or Jasper Fforde. Talented Quentin Coldwater has a depressive streak that even his wildest dream coming true doesn’t erase, and so does this novel.
Readers of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke should enjoy this completely different take on magicians.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

A creepy one for October, Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box is one you won't want to sit up alone at night reading. When an aging heavy-metal star makes the impulsive online purchase of a ghost to add to his collection of oddities and perversities, he gets more than a dead man's suit in a heart-shaped box. Instead of getting ripped off as he expected, he gets well and truly haunted, as his past comes homes to roost.
The son of horror master Stephen King, Joe Hill inherited his father's talent for telling a scary story. The New York Times called Heart-Shaped Box "a valentine from hell."

Blame by Michele Huneven

Blame -- Michele Huneven's third novel -- grips you with its guilt-laden plausibility, especially if you've ever known a smart, capable addict whose self-destructive behavior seems unstoppable.
Patsy MacLemoore is a smart, functioning alcoholic -- a professor at Hallen College in Altadena, California -- known for loud, lascivious behavior at faculty parties and for missing the occasional class after a night of drinking and pills. She plays the odds, partying when she knows she shouldn't, until her luck runs out. Patsy, who has a suspended license, is arrested and jailed for killing a mother and daughter – Jehovah’s Witnesses -- in her own driveway. She remembers nothing about the accident, but has to live with the guilt and remorse, facing the bereft husband and brother in court.
The hard, manual labor and indignities of almost two years in jail come as a relief to Patsy, but the desire for a drink never leaves her.
If you like literary novels by authors like Sue Miller or Ian McEwan, you should discover Michele Huneven ASAP.
Michele Huneven talks with Publishers' Weekly here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6671669.html&