Finished reading it early morning today.Having 48 hours in a day would solve at least some of my problems but lets not get into that.
So coming back to the story...
Maud ,eighty one years old ,is slowly but surely losing her memory.However ,one thing she is sure about is that her friend Elizabeth is missing and in terrible danger despite everyone around being nonchalant about it.Maud doesnt trust Elizabeths son and is desperate to help her friend.However noone takes her seriously,neither her daughter nor her carers.So she decides to take things in her hands and get to the bottom of it.She knows that her memory is failing her and takes help of small handwritten notes which tell her what it is she is supposed to do.This obsession takes Maud deeper into the recesses of her mind where long forgotten memories suddenly come to the fore and lead her to the unsolved disapperance of her sister Sukey who vanished shortly after World War 2.
Sukey gets married to Frank against her fathers approval.Frank is a shady character who deals with black-market goods.Sukey is also friends with a boy named Douglas who she puts up as a lodger in her parents home.There is also a mad-woman who Sukey is terrified by.So the suspicion falls squarely on these three because Douglas seems to know much more than he is letting on.Frank disappears for a brief while and the mad woman always hangs around Sukeys house.Past muddles with the present and the result of this is something very unexpected .
My Views:
I have spent the past few days reading this book and before I begin to tell you how I felt about it, I need to applaud the author for giving us a story which is disturbing ,mind-boggling and impressive at the same time.This is one of the strangest books I have ever read.Strange because it is entirely narrated by Maud who is having a mental-illness.It is not spelt out in clear words about what it is that is making her lose her memory(Alzheimers/dementia) but living in her mind for the duration of this book was frustrating and scary.It requires a bit of an effort on the part of the reader to keep up with the memory loss and sudden moments of clarity because it alternated seamlessly between her past memories and the present and it gets to a point when you are left wondering about what is the truth and what is the memory.I got a bit obsessive when I was reading this book because I wanted to know what's happened.At the same time ,I found it confounding when her past and present memories muddle up.It is a wonderfully crafted plot and undoubtedly was very difficult to write.
I know how painful it can be to deal with patients having Alzheimers and how terribly frustrating it can be for their carers.This book just lets you see how living with Alzheimers can be first hand.It scared me.As it is,its so difficult to make sense of life when you have your wits about you.
It shows us how Mauds memory goes on a steady decline,but she is as feisty as ever.She knows what is happening to her but still wants to maintain her dignity and independence.I got a bit annoyed with her daughter and her carers for being overbearing,but they werent living in Mauds mind.How would they know what was really happening?It does get extremely difficult for carers in a situation like this.Noone takes her seriously because they know that she has no clue of whats happening around her,she cannot remember what happened a few second ago,she has no idea about who her carers are or how they land up at her place,she has her time mixed up.She confuses between the past and present.It gets to a point where she doesnt know who her daughter and granddaughter is.However such patients do have stark moments of clarity about events that occured many years into the past.
We think the whole mystery is about what happens to Elizabeth but maybe this obsession stems from some unresolved issues in her past.Maud is so perceptive that she tries to do things by keeping small notes in her pockets telling her what she should be doing.However they only muddle things up for her.Now ,what was frustrating to me was why the daughter doesnt talk about Elizabeth but that isnt a loophole either because it is mentioned later that they have had this discussion but Maud forgets to tell the reader that.There are lines like 'I pull up a sitting thing,for sitting on'--when she doesnt get the word 'chair' and just two lines down she says chair as if thats the most natural thing to do.You just have to deal with this way of narration throughout.
There is dark humor too in this book and times when you really dont know how to react.It is an accurate depiction of mental illness and just goes to show us that however worse we think the situation might be we need to have empathy and just not tell these people off.
But wait,didnt I tell you that you need to have a lot of patience while you read this book.There is an unexpected twist at the end and I didnt see it coming.
You learn something from each book and though I liked the mystery part of it,this one just taught me the meaning of treating someone having mental illness with all the dignity and care they deserve.I really hope they find a cure for Alzheimers soon.
Excellent for a debut.
I rate this book a 4 out of 5.
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