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juliechristinejohnson 's review for:
The Forgetting Time
by Sharon Guskin
It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. Sir Winston Churchill
Sharon Guskin's debut novel The Forgetting Time is a layered, multi-faceted exploration of motherhood, loss, the impermanence of death and the mutability of consciousness.
Janie conceives her son Noah during a brief interlude of mindless passion with a man whose last name she forgets to ask for. But the child who results becomes her every breath, her true love, her reason for believing that she serves a purpose greater than her solitary, work-driven life.
Noah is an articulate, intelligent, physically healthy four-year-old. But something is going terribly wrong inside his fragile soul. He is inexplicably terrified of water and suffers every night from nightmares that leave both mother and son weak with fear. Perhaps worst of all are the daily moments he looks into Janie's eyes—his mother, the woman he calls Mommy-Mom—and asks her, "Is my other mother coming soon? I want my other mother. When is she coming? When can I go home?"
Noah's strange behavior seeps into every corner of their life. He has intimate knowledge of things that Janie has never brought into his life: Harry Potter, guns, reptiles, and a brother named Charlie. When Noah's teacher expresses concern that Noah is being abused at home—after he claims to have been held under water until he passed out—and tells Janie she's ready to call Child Protective Services, Janie starts on a journey that leads her to the darkest of places and possibilities in search of healing for her son.
In clear, evocative and intimate prose, through characters so rich with life and feeling, Guskin presents a wholly original take on the possibility of reincarnation. She weaves the paranormal it into an intelligent, grounded thriller that uses character, not plot twists, to explore the unknowable.
A page-turning, profound, outstanding debut.
Sharon Guskin's debut novel The Forgetting Time is a layered, multi-faceted exploration of motherhood, loss, the impermanence of death and the mutability of consciousness.
Janie conceives her son Noah during a brief interlude of mindless passion with a man whose last name she forgets to ask for. But the child who results becomes her every breath, her true love, her reason for believing that she serves a purpose greater than her solitary, work-driven life.
Noah is an articulate, intelligent, physically healthy four-year-old. But something is going terribly wrong inside his fragile soul. He is inexplicably terrified of water and suffers every night from nightmares that leave both mother and son weak with fear. Perhaps worst of all are the daily moments he looks into Janie's eyes—his mother, the woman he calls Mommy-Mom—and asks her, "Is my other mother coming soon? I want my other mother. When is she coming? When can I go home?"
Noah's strange behavior seeps into every corner of their life. He has intimate knowledge of things that Janie has never brought into his life: Harry Potter, guns, reptiles, and a brother named Charlie. When Noah's teacher expresses concern that Noah is being abused at home—after he claims to have been held under water until he passed out—and tells Janie she's ready to call Child Protective Services, Janie starts on a journey that leads her to the darkest of places and possibilities in search of healing for her son.
In clear, evocative and intimate prose, through characters so rich with life and feeling, Guskin presents a wholly original take on the possibility of reincarnation. She weaves the paranormal it into an intelligent, grounded thriller that uses character, not plot twists, to explore the unknowable.
A page-turning, profound, outstanding debut.