At 15, Seth is ill equipped to cope with his mother, Jamie's, early onset Alzheimer's, and is isolated and depressed. He becomes obsessed with her disease, studies it, then begins a search for other relatives with the same genetic mutation. Miles away, Abel is an old man tortured by loss. The tragedy and irony of this story about forgetting is that Abel's pain comes from his memories. As a young man, he was in love with his brother's wife Mae and believes her daughter, Jamie, to be his. After Mae and Paul are killed in a car accident, he becomes estranged from Jamie and is increasingly alone and isolated. Eventually, Seth's search brings him and Abel together, and they trace the origins of the strange stories they have both been told from childhood about the mysterious land of Isadora, where people are free from the pain of memories.
In Seth we see the awkward, spotty teenage boy, agonising over every relationship, fearing being different and alone. Block conveys brilliantly the pain and loneliness he feels, and his desire to disappear, to be a ‘master of nothingness'. His search for the origins of the disease gives him a purpose. We understand the pain he and his father suffer as they watch Jamie's illness.
In the descriptions of Abel's loneliness, there is real insight and pathos, the tragedy of memory contrasted with the tragedy of forgetting. The end of the story is satisfying as Abel is reunited with Jamie.
This book is multi-layered and dense, linking science and narrative from different perspectives. The language is rich with original metaphors and conveys a real sense of place and time as it moves from the present to the past and back again. The voices of the individual narrators are distinct, giving us insight into character and emotion. The subject is tragic, yet much of the narrative has wry touches of humour and observations on family life. It is a moving story, but with a sensitivity and depth that belies the age of the author. It would provide reading groups with much to discuss, and I recommend it.