My Name Is Memory

This post first published on June 25, 2011.

Author: Ann Brashares
Published: June 2010
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
324 pages (hardcover)
 
I wanted to read a book that I’ve heard nothing about before. When I went to the library, I ended up taking out this book by Ann Brashares. It turns out she’s the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series as well, which I’ve never read but am under the impression that it’s quite popular, so I had high hopes for this book to turn out good.

This is a love story that literally spans multiple lifespans. It begins with a high school girl named Lucy who has a crush on the aloof Daniel Grey. On the night of prom, they have a private conversation where Lucy discovers Daniel is not really who he seems. He calls her Sophia and insists they used to know each other, which scares and confuses her. They don’t speak again after that night, but their feelings for one another continue to linger and haunt them.

Daniel does know Lucy though, from his past lives. His soul continually reincarnates and over the span of over a thousand years, and he has, time and time again, fallen in love with the same girl, the same soul. We are able to see the story of Daniel and Sophia/Lucy unfold over the many, many years. Unfortunately, it seems that every time he somehow manages to meet up with her, fate somehow pries them apart, or simply present unfortunate circumstances.

I thought the story premise sounded very intriguing. When I actually started reading it, it took me a while to really get into it though. Especially when Daniel starts narrating about his and Sophia’s relationship right from the beginning. I guess I didn’t really get how he fell in love with her — it’s more or less explained as a love at first sight thing. I guess I’m just a cynic, or nit-picky, whatever. Love at first sight is my least favourite reason as to how two characters fall in love with one another, personally. Especially in this case, it’s supposedly the foundation for why he decides to pursue Sophia’s soul over fifteen hundred years! Not to mention that in that first lifetime when he first met her, he saw her for maybe like … ten minutes. And never even spoke to her.

But once I got into the story, and got over the flimsy love-at-first-sight reasoning, I found I really, really liked this story. It’s not a dramatic, intensely passionate romance story though. It’s more slow-paced to me, and mellow, but a very sweet, almost cute, romantic story.  As Daniel continues to narrate his story of how he meets Sophia in every lifetime of his, the love between them builds up slowly but strongly. Despite the love-at-first-sight concept, the relationship between them slowly comes into being, giving it something of a natural feel. My favourite is his lifetime from during the World War I period when he was a soldier and she was a nurse. It’s a little bit cliche I suppose, a little Atonement-like, but I still thought it was romantic, and Atonement is one of my favourite books anyway ;)

At the same time Daniel narrates, there is a second plotline that takes place entirely during the present time, with Lucy trying to deal with her feelings for Daniel even years after graduating from high school. It had very small mystery elements, what with Lucy trying to figure out what her feelings with Daniel are really all about, since she can’t seem to get over him years later, not to mention a slightly creepy fortune telling session and mysterious hypnosis session. I can’t decide which plotline I liked better — they eventually meet up at the end of the book — but I thought they meshed together very well.

The ending is left kind of ambiguous, the kind where you can debate with someone else as to what you think really happened at the end. I didn’t really like that, to be honest, and I’m not just saying that because I wanted a definite ending. It just kind of left the story feeling anti-climatic.
Regardless, I really loved this story and would definitely recommend it to people who like a good ol’ love story. It’s easy to read, accessible and is a very solid book to me.

My Rating: 4.5/5