Play Book Tag discussion

Memory Wall - Doerr
audio performance by multiple narrators
5 stars

Anthony Doerr published four books before the phenomenally successful All the Light We Cannot See; one novel, one memoir, and two collections of short stories. Memory Wall is the collection that was published in 2010.

There are six stories in this book. Not one of the six is even mildly disappointing. The stories differ in characters and setting. Memory Wall, the title story, is a about an elderly, white, dementia patient and takes place in South Africa. It is speculative,science fiction that proposes a chilling ‘what if’ scenario in memory reclamation. Procreate, Generate and The Demilitarized Zone are contemporary fiction set in middle America. Village 113 chronicles China’s Three Gorges Dam construction through the eyes of a village ‘seed keeper’. The River Nemunas sends an orphaned American teenager to live with her Lithuanian grandfather. In the last story, Afterworld, an elderly Holocaust survivor spends her last days with her grandson while having seizure induced visitations with her lost childhood friends.

Each of these stories explores an aspect of memory, but they are not linked to each other in any other way. Each setting is distinct, with great attention paid to the flora and fauna of the natural world. Doerr’s prose is lyrical and haunting. The characters are real enough to walk off the pages.

The audio production used different performers for each story. Lisette Lecat was perfect for the South African story. All of the stories were well read. Although, despite the Chinese surname, Louis Changchien read as if Three Gorges Dam was located in the middle of Kansas.

Ok, it's reviews like this that are causing my TBR to topple. Doerr, short stories, all of them good - - I'm in trouble.

Great review. I just picked it up but can't figure out when I will be able to read it.

Started this one yesterday. I wasn't thrilled with The Shell Collector, so I'm coming in with some misgivings.

Barbara wrote: "Started this one yesterday. I wasn't thrilled with The Shell Collector, so I'm coming in with some misgivings."

I enjoyed the stories in both books. But the stories in this book remain distinct in my memory. The only one I remember from The Shell Collector is the title story.

Jgrace wrote: "Memory Wall - Doerr
audio performance by multiple narrators
5 stars

Anthony Doerr published four books before the phenomenally successful All the Light We Cannot See; one novel, one memoir, and ..."

Oh, this looks good!!