Review
Sarah Lapsley finds this modern fable a little too far-fetched for her taste.
- Thanks for the Memories
- Harper Collins
Thanks for the Memories
I do not know where she gets the ideas from, it’s as if Cecelia Ahern writes fairytales for adults. But she gets away with it, adults read them.
Furthermore they are now watching them on the big and small screen, with the adaptation of her successful first novel, P.S I Love You, now out on video. In her latest tale Ahern is promoting the rather unnerving notion that when a person gives blood they also give some of their memories and knowledge to the transfusion recipient.
Justin Hitchcock, a lecturer in art, is charmed into giving blood against his better judgement. Joyce Conway, the unfortunate recipient of the blood (the result of a fall that causes her to miscarry a longed-for child), knows something has happened to her when she wakes up in hospital. She can speak languages she has not learnt, she has memories of cities she has never visited; unsettling her friends, family and ex-husband.
There is much ‘will they - won’t they’ jostling as Joyce tries to prove to her loyal but understandably doubtful friends that she has in fact gained her new-found knowledge from a blood transfusion. An unbelievable number of coincidences eventually lead Joyce to the blood donor and the ending will not shock anyone familiar with this genre.
Interspersed with this far fetched tale of love ‘through the veins’ is a touching relationship between Joyce and her widowed dad; with whom she moves in, following her marriage break-up. This relationship - along with her relations with her close gal pals - adds some believability to the book. In fact, I think within these relationships and Joyce’s experiences at work, Ahern may have had a book in its own right without introducing the implausible love story.
In fairness, Ahern manages to make her fable credible by the way in which she constructs the tale. I wouldn’t say this was a page turner, but it’s an easy read, perhaps a good holiday read, not too hard to follow.
Not exactly what I expected from a book called Thanks for the Memories, however Ahern could never be accused of writing a book without a twist. The first few of these were tolerable; however her more recent tales of adult imaginary friends and places where missing things and people go, along with this offering of eerie happenings around blood transfusions are too fanciful for my palate. I don’t think it will do much to increase much needed donations at local blood banks.
