Wednesday 4 January 2017

Review : The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

The Forgetting Time

Published by : Pan Macmillan
25 August 2016
Copy : Paperback - Reviewer purchase

The Blurb

Noah is a little boy who knows things he shouldn't and remembers things he should have forgotten.  Because as well as being a four-year-old called Noah, he remembers being a nine-year-old called Tommy.

He remembers his house.
His family.
His mother.

And now he wants to go home.

Two boys.  Two mothers.
One unforgettable story...

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Wow, a few days ago I debated which book I should start reading to kick start my year, I went for The Forgetting Time and I don't think I could have made a better decision.  This book is so absolutely absorbing and enthralling I devoured it in three sittings. 

The opening chapter is probably the slowest of them all, but once I got into the story it made sense as to why it was there.  There after I am not sure I could even tell you where chapters began or ended, I was reading with such urgency and pace because I just had to know what was going on and what was going to happen.

We follow the lives of four-year-old Noah and his mother Janie, and also of Dr Anderson.  Narration is given via different viewpoints in third person.  The three are brought together out of desperation - on both parts of the adults.  Janie is looking for anyway to make her son, Noah - a unique but disturbed little boy - better, because Noah has knowledge of things a four year old wouldn't usually have and can't be explained without going into realms of horror his mother will not accept.  Dr Anderson believes in reincarnation and has given up a highly decorated scientific career to dedicate his life to building a solid and fact-filled case for it in his book - a way to leave a lasting legacy.  For Dr Anderson proving this case would be the perfect end for him.  Janie is not sure she can cope with the idea of reincarnation, but Janie does not want to let the word 'schizophrenia' come into her vocabulary either.

We are taken on a journey of discovery with the trio, not only in their quest to help Noah, but for Janie and Anderson personally.  This is one of those books that really makes you yourself question everything and wonder if what you thought you were so sure about in the universe is right after all.  I loved different 'case-studies' punctuated through out the novel - they literally left the hairs on my arms standing.

Once the novel moved into the realms of finding the family Noah believes he is connected to I could not stop reading until I got the end of the book.  All of the characters in this novel are so real and complex and developed I could vividly and distinctively picture them immediately.  I thought the ending was fitting, life moves on no matter what happens within it, and you just have to go with it and try and make the best of it, whatever you believe or don't believe and the author makes this clear in the case of all the characters. 

With such a strong plot and flawless writing it is little wonder this book has received rave reviews from such well known authors and names.  I can do nothing but same.

The Forgetting Time receives a Very Pink Notebook Review of :





    

No comments:

Post a Comment