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A review by natashie_f
Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss
4.0
“A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.” – Michael Ondaatje.
But what if what is absent is you – your memory, your identity, the things about you that people love? Man walks into a desert not knowing WHO he is. Man walks into a room not knowing WHERE he is. What happens when man decides it’s best that way?
This debut novel by Nicole Krauss is a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be human - especially among other humans. Like many other readers, I was drawn to this novel after reading ‘The History of Love.’ Although it does not possess the same intensity and addictiveness as the aforementioned novel, the reader is nevertheless subtly challenged to reconsider their notions of identity and what constitutes human relationships.
The ethics and morality of love, forgiveness, and human progress both personal and universal is effortlessly crafted into this story of thirty-six-year-old Samson Greene who suddenly loses all his memories after the age of 12, waking up to a wife he does not recognize and having to resume a life he does not remember living. Samson’s childhood recollections are as intimate as his forgetfulness is alienating, the result of which is that the reader is both empathetic of and unsettled by his experiences.
This novel shows that it is not just sharing in the suffering of others that inspires a human connection. Nor is it sharing in the happiness of others. A delicate balance between self-reliance, self-creation, and experience of the other has to be achieved. Sometimes it takes a desert within you to reach it.
But what if what is absent is you – your memory, your identity, the things about you that people love? Man walks into a desert not knowing WHO he is. Man walks into a room not knowing WHERE he is. What happens when man decides it’s best that way?
This debut novel by Nicole Krauss is a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be human - especially among other humans. Like many other readers, I was drawn to this novel after reading ‘The History of Love.’ Although it does not possess the same intensity and addictiveness as the aforementioned novel, the reader is nevertheless subtly challenged to reconsider their notions of identity and what constitutes human relationships.
The ethics and morality of love, forgiveness, and human progress both personal and universal is effortlessly crafted into this story of thirty-six-year-old Samson Greene who suddenly loses all his memories after the age of 12, waking up to a wife he does not recognize and having to resume a life he does not remember living. Samson’s childhood recollections are as intimate as his forgetfulness is alienating, the result of which is that the reader is both empathetic of and unsettled by his experiences.
This novel shows that it is not just sharing in the suffering of others that inspires a human connection. Nor is it sharing in the happiness of others. A delicate balance between self-reliance, self-creation, and experience of the other has to be achieved. Sometimes it takes a desert within you to reach it.