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andrea_gagne 's review for:
The Definitions
by Matt Greene
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This strange, thought-provoking little book is going to stay with me for a long time.
An unnamed narrator finds herself in a re-education center with no memories, no language, and no understanding of the world around her. The center is designed to rehabilitate people who came down with total amnesia after contracting a virus that wipes your past. If they are very good and pass all their classes, they are told their memories will return to them, and they will graduate back out into the wider world.
I am fascinated by the mind of Matt Greene for putting this thought experiment together. It ponders so much that we take for granted: about the inexactness of language, and about the foundations of shared understanding that our society is built on. A thing can be the thing it is, and also another thing. What makes a chair a chair and not a bench? "Batteries died, banks had branches, journeys had legs, and woods had necks. A lake shuddered as a breeze whipped across it. A resting face was an empty stage. Snow fell in asterisks, a million silent caveats."
Classes like English and Ethics were placed alongside Intermediate Subservience, which gave the center an ominous vibe. Was the premise the students were given about the virus the truth? Sometimes, a throwaway line would stir up a whole new line of questioning, like mentioning how everyone knew dogs were mythological creatures that no longer existed.
The writing itself is also unique and strange, in a way that added to the eerie ambiance of the book. The use of italics and capitalizations to highlight a mind forming new neural pathways for understanding language carved a second layer of insight into the story.
There were descriptions that were as odd as they were beautiful: "He smiled in triangles." And there were scenes that felt like revelations despite my not being fully sure what was going on: "He looked back at me and furrowed his brow, then upturned his palms so I could see the creases running like channels of ocean carving rivulets through a beach on their way back to the shore."
If you are looking for a story to be tied up in a neat bow, know that there is a lot of ambiguity you'll have to be comfortable with. If you liked Memory Police, this one may be for you.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for this ARC to read and review.
An unnamed narrator finds herself in a re-education center with no memories, no language, and no understanding of the world around her. The center is designed to rehabilitate people who came down with total amnesia after contracting a virus that wipes your past. If they are very good and pass all their classes, they are told their memories will return to them, and they will graduate back out into the wider world.
I am fascinated by the mind of Matt Greene for putting this thought experiment together. It ponders so much that we take for granted: about the inexactness of language, and about the foundations of shared understanding that our society is built on. A thing can be the thing it is, and also another thing. What makes a chair a chair and not a bench? "Batteries died, banks had branches, journeys had legs, and woods had necks. A lake shuddered as a breeze whipped across it. A resting face was an empty stage. Snow fell in asterisks, a million silent caveats."
Classes like English and Ethics were placed alongside Intermediate Subservience, which gave the center an ominous vibe. Was the premise the students were given about the virus the truth? Sometimes, a throwaway line would stir up a whole new line of questioning, like mentioning how everyone knew dogs were mythological creatures that no longer existed.
The writing itself is also unique and strange, in a way that added to the eerie ambiance of the book. The use of italics and capitalizations to highlight a mind forming new neural pathways for understanding language carved a second layer of insight into the story.
There were descriptions that were as odd as they were beautiful: "He smiled in triangles." And there were scenes that felt like revelations despite my not being fully sure what was going on: "He looked back at me and furrowed his brow, then upturned his palms so I could see the creases running like channels of ocean carving rivulets through a beach on their way back to the shore."
If you are looking for a story to be tied up in a neat bow, know that there is a lot of ambiguity you'll have to be comfortable with. If you liked Memory Police, this one may be for you.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for this ARC to read and review.