This ending was not what I expected.
What
memories, if any, would you choose to have expunged from your mind? What would
you be prepared to risk to do it?
Aaron Soto, the hero of this story, seems to be in love with Genevieve, his girlfriend,
and Thomas, his best friend. He is contemplating undergoing the Leteo procedure
to forget about Thomas and maybe, hopefully, even become straight.
It's a difficult
decision to make, but isn't happiness worth it?
I'm challenged to tell you about this story without giving too much away. Here is
what I can reveal.
There is much to love about this book.
It is a
coming of age and a coming out story. It deals
with homophobia. It challenges all the gay reprogramming movements.
It's filled with realistic, authentic characters that I came to care deeply about.
There are plot twists and turns that confused the heck out of me. I wasn't prepared
to get off the ride.
It's
a book that addresses poverty. Readers become aware of the numerous small
details that combine to to form the picture of an impoverished life.
Even though I was swamped with other books that had to be read, and put More Happy Than Not aside for them. I kept coming back to this one and was seduced by the story as soon as I opened the book.
This book has continued to haunt me. Since someone close to me had a traumatic brain injury, I've devoured information about neuroscience. Since finishing this book, I've been actually musing about how possible this process will become. It's left me wondering if there are memories that should be expunged. It's left me contemplating the ramifications and possibility for abuse, should it become possible. I'm in the process of concluding that people are already too unaware of the suffering around them. I suspect it's only by acknowledging our own pain, that we can acknowledge others.
In the end, this is a book about love, the multiple ways we love other people, and how we learn to love and accept ourselves.
I'm looking forward to reading more from this author!
This is a fantastic review. Your description of how it haunts you is exactly how I feel. The first word that came to my mind after completing it was "harrowing." I think back to what the parents of the twins said. Does erasing a part of your memory dishonor the other person's existence? My book group and I came to the conclusion that we wished the procedure just dulled the emotional pain, rather than causing us to forget. But even then, is that being true to ourselves? Agh! I just don't know. There is so much to think about here.
ReplyDeleteYes exactly. How I wish I could have been part of your book club. It is the kind of book that begs conversation with others! I guess the other part of it is that if you could erase the pain, would we ever learn from the things we do and mistakes we make?
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