The Day We Met

by Rowan Coleman

[Leah]

Rowan Coleman is one of my favourite authors, and one of the most accomplished Chick Lit storytellers. All of her novels are fantastically warm, and they’re always so different to most Chick Lit novels you read, so I was really, really happy to be offered the chance to review her most recent novel The Memory Book. I thought it sounded wonderful, and I loved the rich, red cover, which having read the novel evokes memories of Claire’s own Memory book, so well done to the publishers for matching the two. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in, and I think this is Rowan’s best novel yet, and I’m hoping it will sell loads, because everybody should read this wonderful novel.

The Memory Book has a very simple premise; when Claire Armstrong learns she’s got early on-set Alzheimers, she can hardly believe it. Her father suffered from it, but never did she think it would come and get her, too, and not at such a young age. When her counsellor Diana suggests she get herself a memory book, to record all her precious memories, it seems the ideal way for her to hold onto precious parts of her life. But it isn’t just Claire who will be filling the memory book, her entire family will pitch in with their own memories – her mother, chatting about Claire’s childhood; Claire’s husband Greg, talking about their relationship, and how despite a 10-year age gap, they made it work and love each other dearly; Claire’s daughter Caitlin, suffering with some issues of her own, but not wanting to worry her mother at such a difficult time… And there’s also Esther, Claire’s youngest daughter, who has no idea why Mummy can’t read her her favourite stories any more. When Claire meets Ryan, she finds that he sees her as no one else does; he sees her as the Claire without an illness, without pity in his eyes, and she begins to find solace in his words and his company. And as the memory book fills up, Claire and her family realise just how precious this object has become.

The Memory Book brings to mind a lot of adjectives; heartbreaking, uplifting, warm, hopeful, amazing, compelling, beautiful. The book is all of those things and more. My grandma died of Alzheimers, but as I was only a baby I didn’t get to see how it affected her, but I know how much it affected my Mam, and how my Mam worries she might at some point get it, and as we got to see Claire’s deterioration first hand, I found it really hard to swallow. Really hard not to feel moved by the fact that Claire couldn’t remember such simple things any more, things that we take for granted, like a mobile phone, and knowing how to set a dinner table. Such simple things you don’t even have to think twice for suddenly became as hard as flying to the moon for Claire and it broke my heart. It filled me with such sadness, to see her struggling. To see that she couldn’t take her daughter to the park because there was every chance she wouldn’t be able to find her way home again, and it was awful. There’s a scene where Claire goes to the corner shop with her daughter and I felt her fear, it was palpable because she thought she had lost her daughter. The novel really did take me through the wringer, because I just kept wishing for some magical cure that would make it OK again, but that’s the thing about Alzheimers, there is no OK.

The novel also showed how it affected Claire’s family. Her daughter Caitlin has her own issues, and I very much enjoyed her part of the novel. I enjoyed getting away from Claire for a bit because it was so tough to see her struggle, and fail with such simple tasks simply because they had flown out of her head. Caitlin offered some respite, and I felt she had her head screwed on right and I really liked her. I felt I could have been her friend. When Zach comes into the novel later on, he offers a much-needed ray of sunshine. A much-needed bright spot. I also really loved all the memory book excerpts, all the bits and pieces Claire and the family put into the book, memories that reminded them of happier times. They were a nice way to see how life had been, once upon a time. A stark contrast to what it became. I felt Greg and Claire’s mother were stalwarts, just getting on with things. Total heroes. The addition of Ryan was amazing, this random stranger Claire meets one day, and who makes her feel like herself, who makes her feel again. That really paid off at the end of the book, and it was why I felt the novel was hopeful despite the subject matter, because despite everything, Claire could still feel love and affection, and the times when she was lucid enough to be herself were quite something. The Memory Book is a book that will stay with me for ages. Claire is unforgettable. It was an utterly amazing, heartbreaking read, and I want to go back to the beginning and read it all again.