The Memory Artists
The Memory Artists
Author: Jeffrey Moore
Desc: Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Best Novel Noel Burun has synesthesia and hypermnesia: he sees words in vibrant explosions of colors and shapes which collide and commingle to form a memory so bitingly perfect that he can remember everything from the 1001 stories of The Arabian Nights to the color of his bib as a toddler. But for all his mnemonic abilities he is confronted every day with a reality that is as sad as it is ironic: his beloved mother Stella is stricken with Alzheimer's disease her memory slowly slipping into the quicksands of oblivion. The Memory Artists follows Noel helped by a motley cast of friends on his quest to find a cure for his mother's affliction. The results are at the same time darkly funny quirkily inventive and very moving. Alternating between third-person narratives and the diaries of Noel and Stella Jeffrey Moore weaves a story filled with fantastic characters and a touch of suspense that gets at the very heart of what it means to remember and forget and that is a testament to the uplifting power of family and friendship.