Memory

By Margaret Mahy

Book Overview

On the fifth anniversary of his older sister's death, nineteen-year-old Jonny Dart, troubled by feelings of guilt and an imperfect memory of the event, goes in search of the only other witness to the fatal accident and, through a chance meeting with a senile old woman, finds a way to free himself of

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689504462
• ISBN13: 9780689504464
• Release Date: May 1988
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.8"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

"Memory" lingers well after the reading

On the fifth anniversary of his sister's death, 19-year-old Jonny Dart is looking for someone. He is drunk and beat up and searching for someone he has not talked to in five years but with whom he shares a moment he cannot forget. He is searching for Bonny, the only other witness to his sister's death. He manages to stumble through the streets to the house where her parents live. Drunk and bruised and bloody is not the best way to show up at someone's house asking for their daughter's address, so instead they have a friend take him to the nearest main road where he can catch a taxi home. But Jonny never makes it to the taxi. He wakes up the next morning on the traffic island where he was dropped. Sick and disoriented and with little memory of the night before, he begins to wander. "Suddenly, with childish horror, he saw another movement in the [storefront] glass...Something rippled towards him... another inhabitant...A stunted person in a long coat was pushing a supermarket cart along the diagonal opposite to the one he was taking. A moment later he made out a short, thin old woman wearing a hat like a crimson chamber pot without a handle. Strands of grey hair hung around her ears... He hesitated and stood completely still so that the old lady could walk past him, but instead she cam right up to him, staring at him, smiling, as if she were waiting for him to begin a conversation. Jonny remained silent. In the end she was the one who spoke first. `Are you the one?' she asked." And so the first of many small events of fate or destiny or some strange supernatural power occur to pull Jonny Dart into Sophie's surreal world of missing memories, mistaken identities, misplaced people and a world out of time. Jonny thinks he will just follow Sophie to her home, to make sure she gets there safe, but when she invites him in for a cup of tea (which she never remembers to put the tea in) he is sucked into a world which to Jonny is both repulsive, fascinating, and strangely comforting in its disorder. He is immediately assaulted by the smell, the possible sources of which are too many to sort out: Sophies many, many cats that share her house, unwashed dishes, wet bedsheets, perhaps the dead bird in the pie plate which has occupied the refrigerator for who knows how long or maybe it was just Sophie herself. Nothing is as it should be in Sophie's house. Cheese is in the soap dish. The pigeonholes of the desk are occupied by an assortment of eggshells, orange peels, an old toothpaste tube, a crochet-covered coat hanger, and hair curlers. The only food to be found is the tea-less tea and several opened bags of cookies. But the "as it should be" world is something Jonny longs to escape, or maybe it's that he's never felt a part of it, and he feels a strange kind of comfort and safety in the unnatural order of Sophie's house. More than once, Jonny decides to leave, and more than once something prompts him to return. He becomes Sophie's relu

wonderful book

I love this book. I bought it for myself this spring and I'm giving it for a Christmas present. Mahy always writes with a powerful emotional impact. It's true her stories have some hints of real life sadness in them. But those touches are the reason why the efforts and triumphs of the hero or heroine are so satisfying and triumphant. Mahy's books aren't just for young adults. I'm no young adult, nor is the person I'm giving the book to for Christmas. This story is one a mother could enjoy reading with her daughter. There is so much to dicuss in this story of a kid on a drunk who shows compassion to a stranger. When we realize the stranger has Altzheimer's we know the woman could have been our own grandmother. The terrific story has more impact that a hundred lectures on kindness.

Mahy at her best

This is an amazing portrayal of the relationship between a ninteen year old "loser" and an old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Margaret Mahy's young adult books are all wonderful, but "Memory" stays with you long after you have read it. Mahy manages to put magic into her novels even when not dealing with magic. When she does deal with magic, it seems natural and everyday. Try her novel "Changeover" if you want to see this in action. This is a book that you can read as a young adult and reread as an adult and it hasn't lost anything.

beautifully written, touching book

Margaret Mahy's charaters think in unusual and compelling ways. Johnny, Bonny, and Sophie are no exceptions. This is a beautiful book that will touch anyone who has ever been haunted by her or his past.