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A review by shelfimprovement
Everything I Don't Remember by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
4.0
Marketed as comparable to Serial, this Swedish novel examines the death of a young man named Samuel who was killed in a car crash. It’s not clear whether his death was an accident or suicide, and an unnamed writer intrigued by the story decides to interview people who knew Samuel to help shed light on if and why he might have wanted to end his own life.
The impressively structured book is set up almost as transcripts of interactions between the writer and his interview subjects, with each section alternating between two different points of view. It ostensibly follows many people in Samuel’s life, but it focuses primarily on Vandad—self-described as Samuel’s best friend—and Laide—the woman Samuel was in love with. Khemiri does little to help his reader keep track of who’s speaking—he doesn’t provide introductions to any of these characters and they’re often responding to questions from the writer that we aren’t privy to—and yet it’s remarkably easy to follow.
The title of the book comes from two places: one is that Samuel struggles with his long-term memory and is afraid that he was develop the same dementia as his grandmother. The other is that no one telling Samuel’s story seems to have the same memory of various events. Everything is filtered through their own lenses. Was Laide a jealous girlfriend who made Samuel feel small? Was Vandad taking advantage of Samuel’s kindness? Had Samuel ever gotten over his childhood sweetheart, a woman who insisted on being called Panther? This muddy-ing of the layers of the story as multiple perspectives are added is really and truly where Khemiri shines. If you’re looking for a crisp, clear narrative, you’re going to be disappointed. This one’s more about playing with form than conveying the story in a particularly clear fashion. It’s not for readers who dislike ambiguity.
I was fascinated, but this wasn’t a perfect book. I never really got a strong sense of who Samuel was, which I suppose was kind of the point, though it left me mildly frustrated. Samuel’s struggles with memory could have been more fully integrated into the big picture and there were some threads that were left dangling a little too much in the end. But, overall, I found this to be a gripping read.
The impressively structured book is set up almost as transcripts of interactions between the writer and his interview subjects, with each section alternating between two different points of view. It ostensibly follows many people in Samuel’s life, but it focuses primarily on Vandad—self-described as Samuel’s best friend—and Laide—the woman Samuel was in love with. Khemiri does little to help his reader keep track of who’s speaking—he doesn’t provide introductions to any of these characters and they’re often responding to questions from the writer that we aren’t privy to—and yet it’s remarkably easy to follow.
The title of the book comes from two places: one is that Samuel struggles with his long-term memory and is afraid that he was develop the same dementia as his grandmother. The other is that no one telling Samuel’s story seems to have the same memory of various events. Everything is filtered through their own lenses. Was Laide a jealous girlfriend who made Samuel feel small? Was Vandad taking advantage of Samuel’s kindness? Had Samuel ever gotten over his childhood sweetheart, a woman who insisted on being called Panther? This muddy-ing of the layers of the story as multiple perspectives are added is really and truly where Khemiri shines. If you’re looking for a crisp, clear narrative, you’re going to be disappointed. This one’s more about playing with form than conveying the story in a particularly clear fashion. It’s not for readers who dislike ambiguity.
I was fascinated, but this wasn’t a perfect book. I never really got a strong sense of who Samuel was, which I suppose was kind of the point, though it left me mildly frustrated. Samuel’s struggles with memory could have been more fully integrated into the big picture and there were some threads that were left dangling a little too much in the end. But, overall, I found this to be a gripping read.