SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Mem by Bethany Morrow

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Mem by Bethany Morrow https://t.co/GtMY0vODq5 Short Review: 8.5 out of 10 (1/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) December 24, 2018

Short Review (cont): A short novel about an alternate early 20th century Montreal where science has found a way to remove a person's memories into a physical form, a "Mem" & the one Mem who seems to be more. A fascinating story dealing with memory & what makes us who we are (2/3)

— garik16 (@garik16) December 24, 2018

Mem is a short novel (the audiobook was under 5 hours and the ebook appears to be around 190 pages) by Bethany Morrow but its one that is absolutely full of exploring its central ideas: the issues of personhood and memory, and more specifically how much of a person is in their own memories and experiences.  It explores that idea through an alternate version of early 20th century Montreal where researches have discovered the ability to extract memories from people, and those memories then come to exist in short lived beings called "Mem"s, which can act out those memories for onlookers.

And then there's the book's central protagonist, known to the world as "Dorothy Extract-1," but to herself as Elsie, the world's only Mem who for some reason never shows signs of fading and has the ability to think for herself and create new memories, like a normal human being.  Through her experiences both in the past and in the book's present, where she faces the possibility of her erasure, the book weaves a compelling story about its central ideas before coming to a satisfying, but tragic end.

Note:  I read this as an audiobook, and the reader is very very good.  It's again short for an audiobook, only 5 hours, but worth your time in that format.  


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
In an alternate Montreal in the early 20th century, a brilliant scientist, Professor Toutant, made an amazing discovery: the ability to extract memories from the human brain.  The process results in the creation of "mem"s, near-identical clones of the source human who are not sentient, but simply are walking versions of the extracted memories, who can recall those memories on command, but all eventually decay and expire.  Mems are treated as the property of their "source"s, assuming the source wants anything to do with a memory they have deliberately removed.

The "mem" known as "Dorothy Extract-1" to the world - and Elsie to herself - is different.  Unlike the rest of her kind, for reasons that the Professor and science can't explain, she is fully sentient, capable of forming her own memories and having her own thoughts apart from the memory that spawned her.  Of course she's not human either, having not aged a day from the 19 year old she was upon her creation.  With her Source's lack of interest in her, the Professor and his wife Camille decided to act as her surrogate parents and arranged for her to leave the Vault which contains most mems and to live in her own apartment in Montreal.

But when Elsie is given an order to return to the vault in 1926, she faces the threat of her destruction from her Source, the original Dorothy who seeks to reprint another memory over her own.  In the weeks that follow, it becomes clear to Elsie the importance of memories and the tragic fate of those who have had them removed, and Elsie begins to take the final steps into asserting her own identity, her wants, her friendships, and her loves....as her destruction seems utterly imminent
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I have failed miserably in the above plot summary, so forgive me - Mem is an incredibly hard book to describe, since it's plot is merely the following of Elsie, in flashbacks to earlier times and in the present times as she interacts with people in the Vault as her destruction nears, and there isn't really an overarching grand plot.  Elsie is a tragic figure, a woman who is treated as property because humanity has no idea what to do with her, and one whose autonomy is largely prescribed by others throughout the book.  Her circumstances make her fascinating - the Pinocchio concept of thinking "I'm a real girl" never really appeals to her because she knows quite clearly she's not, and yet she still yearns (even if she can't put it that way to herself) to be treated as her own self deep in her heart, as she learns more and more about the effects of memory and its loss on others.  But as I put it, she's a tragic figure, as her realizations come with prices that are heartbreaking, and there's no reason that will stop any time even after the book ends.

That's in large part due to how well the book explores its central idea, the importance of memories in determining who we all are, through both Elsie and its examination of people who have undergone the extraction process.  We see people who are literally shattered by constant removal of memories sure, but also those who have lost core parts of themselves even after losing just a single memory, and the revelations behind these circumstances are utterly devastating.  Especially, as this is the early 20th century, and certain people, for example women, don't have full autonomy under the law...and parents and husbands can make the decision for their own good to have memories removed.

Again, this is a short book, but it really packs a lot into its short duration, exploring its ideas incredibly well and surprising repeatedly.  It is not a happy book - I can't say that enough - and the ending is particularly devastating, but it is a really strong one.  Books that center around a general idea and base their whole plot around it tend to be hit or miss, with many finding there isn't enough there to make up a functional story, but Mem is definitely a "hit."

Worth your time.