What you remember you did not forget and what you have forgotten you cannot recall. “We are used to thinking of remembering and forgetting as mutually exclusive. What do we call a memory we know we have forgotten? As Douwe Draaisma states: The poignant question that this novel asks in relation to Wade’s memory: He does not remember who to blame or who is lost. He simply has grief with no home, no place to put it. As his memory fades, Wade feels a sense of loss presumably from the loss of his daughters, but he is unable to place the loss. His family’s history of early onset dementia and his subsequent diagnosis of this illness means he eventually loses himself. Whilst Wade finds love again with Ann, his second wife. This splinters the Mitchell family as Jenny goes to prison and June runs away and is never found again. It starts with Jenny murdering her daughter May. Tragedy seems to abound for the main characters, with almost one thing after another piling up. Through each perspective we learn about love, loss, and sacrifice. Points of view are switched and changed between Wade, Jenny, Ann, May, and June. Reflecting on my time reading the book, I also see how this is one of the novel’s strong points. Not because the story was badly written, but simply because there was so much to understand.
The novel was slow for me to get into at first and I struggled to get through the first 70 or so pages.
The title is also where the book is set and it explores a multitude of themes including loss, grief, dementia, rural life, marriage, love, and sacrifice.
So, I decided to see what it was all about. When I start to see a certain book everywhere I have to question if the book is haunting me for reason. It was popping up in book stores, in my library, and online. What is that old saying again? Anyway, I found myself drawn to the strong yellows and greens and I had also seen this book everywhere. I am not going to lie, the decision I made to read this book was heavily based on the cover.
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