Constant Reader discussion

Our next story is "Memory Wall" by Anthony Doerr. You can find it in our anthology The Story Prize: 15 Years of Great Short Fiction. It's also in Doerr's story anthology of the same name. We're reading Doerr's book Cloud Cuckoo Land for the Reading List this month. That was published in 2021 and this story was published in 2010. If you are reading both, it will interesting to think about how his writing has changed, if at all. Doerr has a great website and his bio is posted there at this link: https://www.anthonydoerr.com/author/bio

I've read 1 previous novel by Doerr plus a memoir and am currently reading Cloud Cuckoo Land. I have always wondered about his obvious interest in science. In an interview I read with him athttps://fictionwritersreview.com/inte... , he said that his mother is a science teacher and his brother was is an electrical engineer. I think he looks at the world through that lens. There's also a good section there about how his reading of Alice Munro affected his writing which is somewhat connected with the novella form but also a lot more.

What did you think about the process of recording memories so that they wouldn't be lost? I read somewhere about a movie in which they used a process for getting rid of undesirable memories but I can't remember the title. However, finding a way to feed memory back into a mind doesn't seem to me like it would address the fundamental problem of dementia.

I was more interested in the setting of South Africa and the idea that there are more fossils there than any place in the world. When I did a cursory search about it, I did find this article https://theconversation.com/a-fossil-... which makes it clear that there are a great many.

I'm trying to decide if any of the characters seem fully realized. I did have a fairly good sense of Alma as she is seen through her memories and maybe of Pheko.

Barb, just a heads up
I have computer hardware issues which need sorting (graphics card on the blink, and since my configuration will not update to Windows 11 as it is old, I need to source and then set up another PC) which is taking most of my free time over the next few days.)
Upshot is I will be delayed in reading and commenting on this story but fully intend to

I loved this story. Alma’s confusion frequently made me think of my mom…specifically, I would think “I get that. It feels real. Mom could have had a moment just like that.” Mom had her own version of a memory wall - 2 kitchen cupboard door fronts covered in post-it notes - things to do, books to read, music to listen to, shopping lists, etc etc. When she moved to a nursing home, we put together a book of photos of her house and gardens, including her memory wall. Like Alma, she had no recollection of it and didn’t even recognize what it was or how it related to her. I used a translator app to understand the song lyric at the end…”In the things of this world, Amanda and peace, peace to you”. And that is fitting…all the characters reached some form of peace at the end…death, oblivion, relief of extreme poverty, comfort until death. The technology is interesting but more than anything it made me think of a scam or some version of a pharmaceutical industry feeding an opiate addiction in order to make lots of money. It’s interesting to think of memories as currency (“He thinks of Alma’s memories, both those carried inside his head and the ones somewhere out in the city—Cabbage will have traded them away by now.”). Do we do that now - memoirs? businesses like story worth? And what memories are worth preserving? (It’s the rarest thing, Luvo thinks, that gets preserved, that does not get erased, broken down, transformed.”) After all, one lifespan is but an eye-blink of time.

I really liked your observations here, Mary. I think I was identifying with Alma a wee bit, her vulnerability with age, and though I thought what Doerr did in the story was intriguing, I couldn't quite get past that. We made a memory wall for my sister who had dementia as well. She sometimes recognized the people and herself but, when she didn't, she always still found it interesting and a little bit calming.

Okay, read the 'story,' read the comments. Random thoughts:
Very long story. Lets just out with it, it's very nearly a book! Hijacked my morning since I thought I was gonna gulp it down with my coffee, and here we are finally, with the coffee long finished.

Barb, possibly the movie you remember about erasing memories is "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." And I agree that re-experiencing events sounds like a pretty sketchy therapy for dementia. Nothing about that weakens the story, of course, since these people are desperate, and desperate people make easy marks. People with dementia make easy marks in every way, as Roger's actions make clear.

I thought the comparison (contrast?) of fossils and memory clips was successful. I mean I guess I thought that was the point--what is left behind and such. Ending with Alma creating a handprint was maybe a bit too neat in my mind?

I found it difficult to identify with any characters, couldn't really get close to any of them--they were presented serially after all. There was at one point a fleeting thought that we would learn, through these memory cartridges, that there was no real discovery, and that Alma somehow killed her husband or caused his death. She really couldn't abide his idea of retirement, and her simmering resentment was often there. Other than Roger every character was likable enough, I thought, Luvo being pitiable and likable.

As Mary pointed out, the characters all got what was best for them, even Roger got a quick death (presumably escaping his debts?). For me this lack of randomness makes the story feel underdeveloped.

I'm sure there's plenty I'm leaving unsaid, but gotta go!

So over dinner I read the Wikipedia entry about Treasure Island. I never read the book, so all I thought I knew was that it is a boy's adventure story. And so it is. What made Doerr decide to make Alma so attached to that book?

I really believe that if every reference to it were left out, the story would be no weaker, just a little shorter. From the summary I can guess that people who know the details might have feared Luvo dying, his skeletal remains pointing toward the gorgon fossil, echoing a scene from the book. I had no such fear, never having read the book.

It was a long story. I could understand Alma and her dementia, and I found I cared for Pheko and for Luvo. I loved Luvo appearing to be an angel for Pheko's son in the garden. And I grew to care about Alma's late husband, Harold and felt for him in his life with Alma. I enjoyed this story.

Finally got to it! And wow! Loved it. I've only read one book by the author All the Light We Cannot See with my in person book group a few years back and I thoroughly enjoyed it and have been promising myself to read more and I do have CR's current read of Cloud Cuckoo Land on my TBR list.

As I started it I did wonder if this was a story for me, I have a dislike of storylines about old age and memory loss - I have some understanding of what happens, and maybe I just do not want to be reminded of how it may end up being. But what surprised me was the speculative aspect of the storyline - the into the brain jacks, they reminded me of the marvelous Kathryn Bigelow directed , James Cameron written movie Strange Days which has a similar premis about an illicit trade in memories. Also about the purposeful maiming of children to go begging. I really felt for Luvo and his very limited lifespan because of his memory-tapping augmentation paid for by the ruthless Roger. However, his 'work' did open doors to horizons way beyond what his social status woudl have otherwise offered him. I was so pleased he finally found the Gorgon , was able to sell it and did the very honorable thing and sent money to Pheko. Yes, sad that Alma was shunted off to a home for those with dementia but presumably, with no children, she had enough money to afford this, hadn't been that interested in her husband's fossil hunting obsession /hobby, and her end of life may not have been any better for the extra money.

I think this story shows an inordinate amount of writing skill - to merge the highly realistic aspects eg Pheko's care, Alma's deterioration, the Alma and Harold backstory plus a convincing portayal of contrasting environs of the different CapeTown lives, of the Karoo and the fossil record thread with the speculative aspects into a great storyline.

Marvellous writing, marvellous read.

As regards the use of Treasure Island, it is a classic children's novel ( and well worth a read if you haven't Tonya, but may be as a Scot I'm baised :) I grew up with it and re-read it as an adult ) about a boy's adventure and is the story about searching for what is lost ( the Treasure of the title) and also about the boy's search for what he doesn't have in his life back home. So for me it sits well with this not-so-short short story. The Treasure map is a bit like how Luvo sees Alma's Memory Wall and tapes as he hunts for Harold's teasure with a less than perfect map for Roger in parallel to Alma's hunt to reclaim/ reestablish her own memories. Ultimately of course the speculative science doesn't help Alma who is the apartheid dinosaur, but it does help the next generation Luvo in the short term and somewhat justly Pheko and Temba.

Thanks for that Sheila! I must admit Treasure Island seems to add another interesting level to the 'story,' for a more educated reader than me, lol.

Even tho I'll admit I like it better now than when I posted (I was still nursing a little resentment at the loss of the morning to a 'short story) you liked it far more than me. Feelings could still change again I think, since-- with another 100 pages to go in Cloud Cuckoo Land-- I'm wishing that Doerr had a more insistent editor.

Tonya, CCL is a huge book! It seems he always writes long, so yes perhaps he needs to change his editor. I suspect the American childhood equivalent of Treasure Island would be Huck Finn, which I never read till I was an adult. I have to say gve me TI any day!