Forget Texas

The Story of Forgetting, Stefan Merrill Block, 2008

A first novel deals with Alzheimer’s victims in Texas. An elderly hunchback remembers his dead twin brother and his brother’s wife that was also the hunchback’s lover. A daughter that the hunchback assumes is his own runs away to New York and disappears. The hunchback sells more and more of his family farm until only the decrepit house and barn are all that remain, surrounded by Dallas suburban mansions. He holds on in the hopes that the lost daughter will return. The hunchback’s mother and brother suffered from Alzheimer’s.

The novel alternates to a second character, a 15 year old boy whose secretive mother has come down with Alzheimer’s and is now living in a nursing home. The boy studies Alzheimer’s and discovers that a genetic variant known as EOA-23 an early onset familial disease (invented by the author) which originated with a prolific English noblemen in the 19th century. Some of his descendants have been traced to Texas. The boy must find out where his mother was born and her maiden name (both unknown to the boy’s father who met his mother in New York) to discover her true story. He starts interviewing known EOA-23 families looking for clues to his mother’s origin.

The hunchback and boy have in common stories told by their mother about a mythical land Isadora, a place without memory where nothing can be misplaced or lost. These stories seem to have been passed down through generations of families. The author ruminates on the mysterious workings of the mind where forgetfulness is necessary to pattern recognition and mental organization. We create a meaningful and recognizable world by forgetting most of what we perceive or experience. There are cases of people with the ability to memorize long lists of numbers or names or texts but who are unable to organize information or even understand what they have remembered. The author reminds us that forgetting is an essential part of how our minds function.