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A review by kate_in_a_book
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
4.0
The story is set in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, post civil war, pre Ebola, so approximately when it was written (this book was published in 2010 so presumably written in about 2008). The civil war is a scar for the native characters, creating a distance that can never be breached by the primary non-native character, a white British doctor.
Adrian Lockheart is a psychologist on secondment to Sierra Leone. It is his second assignment to Africa, and he spends much of the novel dwelling on his reasons for being there. He has a wife and daughter back home in England, but his marriage is failing and over the years he has lost the feeling that he is actually helping his patients.
But at least at home he had patients. At first, his only regular patient in Freetown is a dying man. Elias Cole just needs someone to talk to and Adrian is happy to comply. The old man’s memories form a second thread through the novel. Cole tells the tale of how he met the love of his life, Saffia, who unfortunately for him was married to a colleague of his at the university. The story of his love begins in 1969, with the Apollo missions key early events. But slowly the reality of living in a military dictatorship intervenes, and the tale of Cole’s love for Saffia is inextricably linked with political and moral choices that Adrian doesn’t fully understand.
See my full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2016/10/22/he-would-name-classify-and-diagnose-every-nuance-of-the-human-soul/
Adrian Lockheart is a psychologist on secondment to Sierra Leone. It is his second assignment to Africa, and he spends much of the novel dwelling on his reasons for being there. He has a wife and daughter back home in England, but his marriage is failing and over the years he has lost the feeling that he is actually helping his patients.
But at least at home he had patients. At first, his only regular patient in Freetown is a dying man. Elias Cole just needs someone to talk to and Adrian is happy to comply. The old man’s memories form a second thread through the novel. Cole tells the tale of how he met the love of his life, Saffia, who unfortunately for him was married to a colleague of his at the university. The story of his love begins in 1969, with the Apollo missions key early events. But slowly the reality of living in a military dictatorship intervenes, and the tale of Cole’s love for Saffia is inextricably linked with political and moral choices that Adrian doesn’t fully understand.
See my full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2016/10/22/he-would-name-classify-and-diagnose-every-nuance-of-the-human-soul/