Title: My Name is Memory
Author: Ann Brashares
Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: 2010
Purchase Price: $15.00 (paperback)
Daniel has an old soul. He has lived dozens of lives, from ancient Africa to modern-day Virginia.
Every time that Daniel lives, he remembers another soul: the one he murdered. It is his greatest shame, and yet it is his greatest hope to see that same soul again.
For she is his other half. The two are drawn together throughout the ages, but only Daniel remembers. His love, the one he calls Sophia, begins each new life with no memory Daniel.
My Name is Memory is about a man who travels across time, protecting and loving the soul he betrayed. It’s also about Lucy, who finds the young man in her English class to be oddly familiar…
The review
Overall, I’m gonna go with “meh.” Maybe I’m just overloaded on the theme of immortal love, but I just wasn’t really feelin’ it while reading My Name is Memory.
There were parts I liked. I enjoyed the portions of the story where Daniel talked about his past lives, but I liked them more for the history aspects than the plot itself. Lucy’s journey toward the knowledge of her past proved interesting, because the reader is privy to all her thought processes.
The book reminded me very much of Piers Anthony’s Isle of Woman, minus the heavy-handed “humans are destroying the earth” theme.
I read My Name is Memory over two evenings, and that’s really about all the time I wanted to devote to it. I didn’t hate the book, but I feel my time could have been better spent.
Kick-ass Quotes:
“He’d pushed her. He’d scared her. He’d besieged her. He’d vowed he wouldn’t, and he did. He kept himself together so scrupulously for so long, but when he came apart he did it with the force of centuries.” (p. 22)
Anyone else read this one? What did you think? Am I missing out on something awesome?