Before I Go to Sleep – December CC Book Club Selection

Parent Cafe
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<p>^ It’s been so long, but didn’t the main character “Leonard” actually tattoo information on his body so he would remember it. </p>

<p>I read a review, which said that Watson wanted Before I Go Sleep to be a "domestic " version of Memento. </p>

<p>Mary13, I thought about how you had difficulty transitioning to this book after State of Wonder, and I realized that State of Wonder took us on journeys through the Amazon to foreign places and people.</p>

<p>This book was such an “interior” journey. The setting, four rooms in a suburban house, and of course Chris’s mind.</p>

<p>Love this Mary13,
Or S.J. Watson may have been injecting a little bit of sly humor—it ‘s kind of funny that Christine remarks that the story includes, “**…a man – her husband I guessed –…“ She’s been known to guess wrong. **</p>

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<p>I saw Memento an awfully long time ago too. Probably some of you have read “Still Alice,” by Lisa Genova, about a woman with Alzheimer’s? Really a heartbreaking book.</p>

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<p>I just finished this very enjoyable novel yesterday never realizing the author was a man!
Although I did notice some inconsistencies, the story really enticed me to the very end. Not all books are so compelling.
One of my concerns is if the journal was destroyed by fire, then how could Chrissy have written this complete work without it? From memory? That would suggest she was cured at the end and remembered EVERYTHING!
Why Nash said he called earlier when he showed up was not explained to my satisfaction. If it is established that Chrissy remembers what has happened that day until she sleeps again, then this is just adding deliberate deception to the reader.</p>

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<p>Hi Malignon, thanks for joining us! </p>

<p>I didn’t realize the author was a man either, and although occasionally a few things seemed “off”, I just chalked it up to the fact that not all women think alike, so I shouldn’t expect Christine to think like me. So I was fooled.</p>

<p>Your point about the burning of the journal is fascinating! Ben definitely did burn the journal:</p>

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<p>So if the journal is destroyed, what are we reading? Maybe we—the readers—aren’t supposed to be reading a journal that we have picked up after everything is over. Rather, it’s more like we are reading over Christine’s shoulder as she writes, and then we are with her and watching her as the final confrontation with Fake Ben unfolds before our eyes. (Note Watson’s use of the present tense.) I think that the “it’s-happening-right-now” aspect makes the reader feel closer to Christine, adds to the immediacy of the story, and is what keeps us quickly turning the pages.</p>

<p>I guess we just have to accept the journal as a literary device. There is no way—even if Christine was completely cured—that she could re-create those days (and Ben’s letter) in such detail. Shoot, I can’t remember what I did yesterday.</p>

<p>On the other hand, Christine IS a writer. So it would be fun to think that she woke up the next day, remembered everything…and started her next novel, Before I Go to Sleep. That would be a happy ending!</p>

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<p>Christine did want her first novel to be an autobiography…maybe now she has one!</p>

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<p>Ditto the welcome! I never picked up that a male author wrote the book either, though like Mary mentions, “occasionally a few things seemed ‘off.’” I now chalk them up to a male author writing as a middle-aged female. Would foreknowledge of the author’s gender make a difference to the reader? Maybe … the publishing-powers-that-be seemed to think so.</p>

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<p>Certainly it’s happened before:<br>

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<p>Re the structure of Before I Go to Sleep:
I think the sections of the book titled Today mean to pull the reader into Christine’s day. The author starts in present tense and ends in present tense as contrasted to the past tense of the journal. We live out Today along with Christine as it happens. We only become aware of the past as she reads her journal and we read over her shoulder (as Mary said). The journal is written in the past tense … those days have come and gone. </p>

<p>Actually if you really think about, the whole book takes place on the day of Nov. 30. It starts with Today. We read Christine’s journal along with her, filled with the past she documented. Then Christine continues her day - with us beside her.</p>

<p>I don’t think I realized until just now that the whole book actually takes place on one day. Reading the journal entries threw me off. But really, we are just reading Christine’s journal over her shoulder that day. So, I guess I could/should clarify my earlier statement that the book takes place over a three-week period. Change three weeks to one day only, Nov. 30. I think the immediacy of the title Before I Go to Sleep makes more sense now. Rough day for Christine and no way could she replicate in a journal entry - having to replicate the journal also.</p>

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<p>Photo of author Watson and interview with him here:</p>

<p>[S&lt;/a&gt;. J. Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep, answers Ten Terrifying Questions Booktopia – A Book Bloggers’ Paradise – The No. 1 Book Blog for Australia](<a href=“http://blog.booktopia.com.au/2011/04/13/s-j-watson-author-of-before-i-go-to-sleep-author-ten-terrifying-questions/]S”>http://blog.booktopia.com.au/2011/04/13/s-j-watson-author-of-before-i-go-to-sleep-author-ten-terrifying-questions/)</p>

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<p>First, want to say how much I’m enjoying everyone’s comments! </p>

<p>I hadn’t read ** “Still Alice”** so this is my first book about memory impairment, (as far as I can remember ;)</p>

<p>This book reminded me just how much our memories effect WHO we ARE,they define us.
Without memories we are no longer ourselves, which hits close to home.</p>

<p>My mother had a large benign brain tumor which was successfully removed in the early 90’s. She is alive, 83, and as feisty as ever.
The tumor was in the right frontal cortex, and like Christine she awoke from surgery with some serious memory impairment, able to remember her youth, but unable to remember her middle age years.
She felt as though she lost 30 years.
Eventually, this improved, but there are still large gaps in her memory. She functions fine, but no doubt she has experienced a bit of what Christine felt at times. Hopefully, this book will make me more empathetic when dealing with my mother, which is a good thing because she can be trying at times.</p>

<p>Before I Go To Sleep made me realize that we really are just a collection “chemical” signals. The neurochemicals, the peptides the protein chains in our brains, are responsible for our personality, our memory, our cognitive aptitude, and physical abilities .
What is a memory beyond a “stored chemical reaction” somewhere in our brains? Amazing, isn’t it, how potent these little molecules can be?</p>

<p>When someone acts extremely mean, nasty, belligerent, I will say to my sister they are acting ** “tumor-ish”** referring to the time when our mother was “not herself”, before resection. </p>

<p>So for me, as Mary13 said earlier, the topic hit close to home… </p>

<p>Before I Go To Sleep, was not enjoyable read, as others mentioned. Reading the book was like like going 100 miles an hour only to have the brakes slammed on with an ending that was out of a soap opera, as Mary13 stated. </p>

<p>** Ignatius** you made me laugh when you wrote
"Mary … you find Adam’s funeral a shortcut. I find Mike’s death an unacceptable shortcut:
Quote:
“He’s dead. That man is dead. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
**Excuse me: Did he die in the fire? Is there a body? DNA? Something?Anything? **</p>

<p>The tension was so unbearable when Chris and Fake Ben were in the hotel, I skipped ahead to the very end to find out what happens. To end my misery.
Couldn’t take it anymore! I did go back a reread the book, even the beginning to understand the time line better.
Imagine how disgusted I was to to read in the last chapter " he’s dead he won’t hurt you", and then to have all the lose ends tied up so neatly.
Guess Ridley Scott will make a nice little movie with a happy ending, but for this reader, it didn’t work.</p>

<p>I’m glad I read the book, which reminds how awful it is to experience memory loss.</p>

<p>By the way, for those of you, like me, who find both THE Brain and Charlie Rose fascinating you can watch Charlie Rose’s series about this topic. [Charlie</a> Rose - Charlie Rose Brain Series 2 Episode 1](<a href=“http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11978]Charlie”>http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11978)</p>

<p>Oh, and one last thing- MRI’s are revealing that prolonged playing of video games, or heading a soccer ball, and of course, football concussions, even PTSD are causing “measurable structural brain damage”. This is all cutting edge news, and almost daily something new is discovered.</p>

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<p>Ignatius-I don’t think I realized until just now that the whole book actually takes place on one day. Reading the journal entries threw me off.</p>

<p>I think the author was quite successful and probably threw off many other readers. Masterfully, done, I thought. </p>

<p>Also, the other kudos I will give to Watson, is that he made me suspicious of EVERY one of his characters, including Claire. He gave just enough background, that we could be skeptical of everyone’s motives. THIS DROVE ME NUTS!</p>

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<p>NJTheatreMom- thanks for link above-very interesting.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the welcomes! It is great to be able to discuss books with others whether pro or con.
I appreciate the discussion on the present and past tense–I guess in the TODAY sections Chrissy never has time to write anything down or does she?</p>

<p>I get the feeling that when Chrissy wakes up-- after the novel ends-- that she WILL remember more of who she is and those close to her…Isn’t that what Watson is implying?</p>

<p>And finding ‘errors’ in a book that I enjoyed reading doesn’t always ruin the experience–sometimes discussing the ‘errors’ adds another level of depth to the book!</p>

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<p>^ Malignon- another welcome to CC book discussion.
Regarding the ending, perhaps Watson was saying even if Chris still suffers brain damage/memory impairment, her life will be different and BETTER, because now she has people around her who really do love her.</p>

<p>But , as many CCers stated earlier, the optimists, perhaps Chris does retain her memory.</p>

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<p>^^^ SJCM: Are you hinting that you are not an optimist? :)</p>

<p>I think Chrissie’s memory returns not only from the “second bump on the head” but also from having to face (the hard way) what happened to her … and acknowledge guilt from her part in it. </p>

<p>page 357

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<p>Memories start flooding back. I don’t think she’ll remember much from the lost years. She’ll have to deal with all she’s lost, and it won’t be easy. Still better than waking up each morning with no memories whatsoever. :slight_smile: There’s that optimism again, and as psychmom points out, she has plenty of fodder for another book. </p>

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<p>Chrissie has time to record her morning in her journal after she finishes reading it but definitely not her evening adventures. Even if she had time to write down everything that happened that night, she no longer has a journal (as Malignon pointed out).</p>

<p>So, in an earlier post, I thought out the timeline. I obviously knew that Christine’s story starts Today and ends Today. I’m trying to figure out why the one day time frame really stands out more for me now. I think that even though I knew the beginning and ending both happened on the same day, reading Chrissie’s journal made me live through those few weeks with her. I forgot the immediacies of the day - even though I knew the date to be the same. As SJCM says, “Masterfully done.”</p>

<p>My guess - a more thought-out guess than before: The author chose present tense for the Today sections for a reason. Neither Today section finds its way into Christine’s journal. The author clearly separates Christine’s past in “Part II The Journal of Christine Lucas” from Part I and Part III - and also through use of the past tense.</p>

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<p>Adding my welcome to Malignon.</p>

<p>SJCM, my sympathies for what your mom has had to go through, and what you’ve had to go through with her.</p>

<p>But this: "MRI’s are revealing that prolonged playing of video games, or heading a soccer ball, and of course, football concussions, even PTSD are causing ‘measurable structural brain damage’ "…!!?</p>

<p>Huh? Video games cause brain damage? Pish tosh, I don’t believe it. Playing video games may cause temporary changes in patterns of brain activity, but actual brain damage???</p>

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<p>Prolonged Violent Video game playing —NJTheatreMom- you can google this.
[Violent</a> Video Games Alter Young Brains](<a href=“http://www.science20.com/news_articles/violent_video_games_alter_young_brains-85191]Violent”>Violent Video Games Alter Young Brains | Science 2.0)</p>

<p>"“For the first time,** we have found that a sample of randomly assigned young adults showed less activation in certain frontal brain regions following a week of playing violent video games at home**,” said Yang Wang, M.D., assistant research professor in the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences. “The affected brain regions are important for controlling emotion and aggressive behavior. These findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning. These effects may translate into behavioral changes over longer periods of game play.”</p>

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<p>SJCM, well, I may be splitting hairs, but in my opinion the phrases “long term effect on brain functioning” and “may translate into behavioral changes” does not necessarily mean “brain damage.” </p>

<p>I am no fan of violent video games, but I am no expert on them either. Both my sons play video games for relaxation. I imagine that the ones they play are not the most violent ones out there, but I really don’t know for sure.</p>

<p>I wonder if this subject has ever had a thread devoted to it on CC? There are some pretty heavy duty scientists who post here…</p>

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<p>NJTheaterMom- there are some people who become addicted to these games, and play excessively. In fact, here is professional football player who had this problem- Quinn Pitcock - </p>

<p>[Addiction</a> Blog | Addiction Treatment Blog by Addiction Experts](<a href=“Treatment 4 Addiction”>Treatment 4 Addiction)</p>

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<p>I do feel sorry for people with such an addiction. Hopefully they can recover…with brain functioning intact!</p>

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<p>NJtheatremom- might be good topic for it’s own thread as you wrote:
“I wonder if this subject has ever had a thread devoted to it on CC? There are some pretty heavy duty scientists who post here…”</p>

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<p>I have mixed feelings about this. I am not convinced of the long-term dependability of Real Ben, Adam or Claire. I know that on the surface, there were all kinds of excuses for why they disappeared, allowing Christine to be abducted by Fake Ben, but to me, none of those excuses were good enough. “Honestly, sweetie, it was for your own good that I found another girlfriend and moved to Italy, but I really always loved you best!” At least that’s how it sounded to me. Lame. When the going got tough, the inner circle hit the road. What happens if Christine isn’t better in the morning? What if she once again exhibits symptoms of paranoia or a tendency to violence? If she is not better “enough” for Ben, Adam and Claire, is it back to Waring House with her? </p>

<p>And even the best case scenario—Christine recovers her memory—poses problems. Ignatius posted earlier that four months of never checking on mother, friend and beloved ex-wife was understandable because “Christine had not been a viable part of their lives for years.” Very true! And yet the ending suggests that Ben and Adam–veritable strangers to her, and she to them–are going to be reunited as a family and walk the hard road ahead together. Let’s just say I’m skeptical.</p>