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A review by readundancies
Adventures in Memory: Exploring the Science and Secrets of Human Memory by Hilde Østby, Ylva Østby
4.0
I quite enjoyed this novel about memory. The case studies mentioned were fascinating, the writing was easy to follow if almost tangential at times, and the choices the authors made with respect to what about memory to discuss were not as expected to my delight.
I absolutely adored the chapter The Elephant’s Graveyard, both due to the cleverness of the title and the actual content about the art of forgetting and it’s importance. The conversations between both sisters that were incorporated into the novel were some of my favourite passages. And I found myself pleasantly intrigued that a lot if not most of the people interviewed for this story were (or at least appeared to be) Norwegian, providing an unique POV to assess memory from.
My main gripe is that, at times, the transitions to connect ideas, whether they were trying to segue the more science heavy parts with the more literary aspects or just trying to progress the story along, were sometimes too convenient and sounded odd in their execution. I’m not sure if it’s a result of the translation or just due to my own personal preferences, but it pulled me out of the novel to a noticeable degree.
But other than that, I definitely would recommend this to anyone curious about memory.
I absolutely adored the chapter The Elephant’s Graveyard, both due to the cleverness of the title and the actual content about the art of forgetting and it’s importance. The conversations between both sisters that were incorporated into the novel were some of my favourite passages. And I found myself pleasantly intrigued that a lot if not most of the people interviewed for this story were (or at least appeared to be) Norwegian, providing an unique POV to assess memory from.
My main gripe is that, at times, the transitions to connect ideas, whether they were trying to segue the more science heavy parts with the more literary aspects or just trying to progress the story along, were sometimes too convenient and sounded odd in their execution. I’m not sure if it’s a result of the translation or just due to my own personal preferences, but it pulled me out of the novel to a noticeable degree.
But other than that, I definitely would recommend this to anyone curious about memory.