The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

This thread is for discussion of The Memory of Love.

Here's my review:

This enchanting novel is set in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, at the end of the country's civil war that lasted from 1991-2002. Adrian Lockheart, a British psychologist who has left his family to pursue a more personally fulfilling career, is at the bedside of Elias Cole, a former university professor and dean who is nearing the end of his life. Adrian encourages Elias to share his story with him on weekly therapeutic visits , and Cole tells him about his career, including his friendship with Julius Kamara, another university professor, and his young wife Saffia, who Julius sees for the first time at a faculty gathering just before the successful Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. He is immediately entranced by her, and spends much of his spare time thinking of ways to get closer to her.

The story of Elias and Saffia is interwined with Adrian's experiences in post-war Sierra Leone, along with his friendship with Kai, a talented young surgeon who has used Adrian's living quarters as a place to crash prior to the psychologist's arrival. The men become close friends, although Kai is clearly scarred by his experiences during the recent civil war, which he is unable to share with his friend.

Adrian's primary interest is in diagnosing and treating victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and he cares for several hospitalized patients who appear to suffer from this problem due to the civil war. He attempts to get several of them to talk about their experiences, but few of these poor souls are willing or able to share their stories or accede to his treatment plans. His colleagues and Kai are respectful of his work, but they tell him that his methods have little chance to make any impact on the lives of his patients, due to the country's lack of resources and the different cultural beliefs about mental health.

Elias is the only person who will talk freely about the past with Adrian, and through the life of the dying man and his relationships with Julius and Saffia he learns about the country's postcolonial history, including the devastating civil war that destroyed the fabric of the country and the will of thousands of Sierra Leoneans.

Adrian falls in love with a local woman, whose ties to the other major characters provide a tension to and deeper understanding of their stories. As their relationship deepens, Adrian is forced to decide whether to stay in Sierra Leone, where he is loved and believes he has much to offer, while Kai agonizes over his long held desire to move to the United States where he can practice medicine and exorcise the internal demons that plague his dreams and affect his work.

The Memory of Love is a stunning and deeply moving novel about love in its different forms, and how it can affect and be affected by greed, selfishness, personal ambition and war. The narrative is superb, and I found myself emotionally tied to the lives of the characters as much as any other book I've read in the past decade.

Great review!! I'm nearly finished. I predict this book will win the Orange Prize.

>2 vancouverdeb:: Thanks, vancouverdeb. The Memory of Love is my favorite of the four shortlisted books I've read so far, followed by Room, Grace Williams Says It Loud and Annabel, so I agree with you at the moment.

My review's below. After completing it I wished I'd written about Adrian's work with PTSD patients, so I was pleased to see you talk about it in your review, Kidzdoc. Vancouverdeb- that's my prediction too!

"I soon became totally immersed in this story of Sierra Leone in the present day and how its people are coping in the aftermath of civil unrest. Initially the story is told mostly through the eyes of Adrian, a British psychiatrist newly arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The use of a character unfamiliar with the country and the present tense narrative gave the beginning the of the book a real immediacy. I felt I was seeing Sierra Leone for the first time and gradually learning about it and its people with Adrian.

As the book continues we learn less about Adrian and more of the characters around him who become his world. Elias Cole, an elderly patient at the hospital where Adrian is based, relives the story of his love during his youth for the wife of one of his university colleagues. Here, the first person narrative and the theme of unrequited love would suggest a sympathetic character but the obsessive quality of Elias's feelings set alarm bells ringing early on and his story becomes increasingly sinister.

The other character we follow closely is doctor, Kai, clearly the author's favourite! We meet him initially as Adrian's first friend but then learn much more about him particularly when the hidden connection between Adrian, Kai and Elias is revealed. Although each of these characters are men we also get a clear picture of the women in their lives through reading (and reading between the lines of) the men's stories.

There are various strands to the novel but by the conclusion the strands have been combined, questions answered and a devastating reality revealed. Forna's passion for Sierra Leone is obvious and there is a definite sense of criticism of visiting outsiders attitudes- both the opportunists who use the country for their own gains and those who want to help but find themselves judging. Forna's account presents the attitudes often interpreted by westerners as fatalistic as a neccessary survival mechanism and a natural consequence of what Sierra Leone's people have been through.

Overall a mesmerising and powerful novel. Recommended!"

My review written for a friend's website www.theBookbag.co.uk (however, I bought this book, rather than getting a review copy) - reviews of the other 19 longlist novels can also be found there.

The setting for this story is a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, soon after the government has declared an end to an 11 year civil war. How can people come to terms with the terrible things that have happened? Actually, can they come to terms with those things?

Adrian Lockheart is an English psychologist who is finding his professional training and experience rather inadequate in a country where almost everyone is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. His colleagues refer patients when they are not sure how to help them, the patients are confused by not being offered medicine, and most don't come back. So he has plenty of time to listen to the memories of a terminally ill man, Elias Cole. He also becomes friendly with Kai, a young surgeon.

At first I found this novel a little confusing, as it shifts between past and present and between different strands of the story. Forna's writing is beautiful though, and I was gradually drawn into his world and the contrasting perceptions of Adrian and Kai in the present of the novel, and Elias in the past. It is a novel about thoughts and emotions - love, lust, sadness, grief, rather than action.

Elias tells his story in the first person, a story of betrayal and disappointment. I was interested in the portrait of university campus life and politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but I found the other two main characters much more engaging, as Elias comes across as rather self-absorbed and selfish. Saffia, the woman he is obsessed with, remains shadowy as we only see her through his eyes. She is married to his friend and colleague Julius, and one day both Elias and Julius are arrested and interrogated. Elias later marries the widowed Saffia, but doesn't find the happiness he expected. I thought it was interesting that, while in some novels the first person narrative brings us closer to characters, it was used here by the least sympathetic of the three main protagonists.

Adrian and Kai are a study in contrasts. Adrian seems to have come to Sierra Leone because it offers an escape from his life in England and his unhappy marriage. Kai has seen many of his friends and colleagues leave Sierra Leone, notably one who writes to him from the US. He has stayed for a long time, but now he has made up his mind to leave.

The civil war and the political violence and repression which affected the country for a long time before it are the background to the story rather than the foreground, but The Memory of Love raises some important questions about the extent to which such a conflict can ever be over. How can Agnes, one of Adrian's patients, forget her experiences of rape and witnessing murder, especially as she returned home after some time to find her daughter married to one of the killers? Such shocking examples brought home to me the tragedy of the war in Sierra Leone.

In contrast to the poverty and violence, and the ailments Adrian and Kai are attempting to treat, are the stories of Adrian's love affair with the beautiful singer Mamakay, and Kai's earlier relationship with his childhood sweetheart Nenebah. These are beautifully written and again, more compelling for me than Elias Cole's account of his relationship with Saffia, but they are hard to discuss without revealing too much of the plot.

I was very impressed with The Memory of Love and hope to read Forna's other books, a novel and a memoir also set in Sierra Leone, soon.

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Interestingly, I talked to a colleague at work who comes from Sierra Leone. Aminatta Forna's memoir is about searching to find out what happened to her father, a doctor and politician who was killed in the 1970s by a rival. A, my colleague, told me that Dr Forna was her mum's doctor. I've lent her the book.

You have all written wonderful reviews!! 5 - I'm glad that you mentioned that initially you found the novel a little confusing . I did too -but quite quickly it sorted itself out. I think it's important to let people know that there are many different strands, as well as the time shift. I think that could be off putting for some -but knowing that within about 60 pages or so- it's easy to follow would reassure would be readers.

Great reviews, all of you! That lets me off the hook! :)

I was initially just going to write a few comments about The Memory of Love but with the friendly encouragement of Whisper1 - I turned my comments into a a review.

What a beautiful and elegantly written book! One caveat that I would give is that because the story goes back and forth in time, as well as having several threads with different characters - the book can initially seem a wee bit confusing. But by the time I was about 60 pages into the book, I no longer had any difficulty with the nonlinear time, nor the who was whom It's a wonderful read on so many levels. The many strands of the story give us insight into different perceptions of several characters as to what happened both back in time and in the current time. One of the characters, Adrian, a psychologist who goes to Sierra Leone to assist in the war torn country helped me realize something that had never really occured to me. Possible small spoiler alert - it would seem that the author feels that those that have survived the Sierra Leone civil war are all suffering witha degree of PTSD. Perhaps that is true of anyone who has survived a war, at least for some time. One thing that really amazed me is how of all of the separate strands all came together by the end of the book.

The Civil War is more a part of the background to the story - though an essential part of the story. The characters come to life so beautifully and fully . Truly a beautiful though tragic story -and yet Memory of Love does not get bogged down in sorrow.

Like it's title, this book really is about love at it's heart. 4.75 stars from me. I'm still so carried away by the different characters' , the entire story -and the way that everything comes together in the end. I'm willing to bet that this book takes the Orange Prize for 2011. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

>7 vancouverdeb:: What a lovely review! We all seem to have loved this book- I wonder if anyone will write a negative review!

>7 vancouverdeb:: Great review of The Memory of Love! I'm glad that you enjoyed it, too.

>8 Soupdragon:: I'm also curious to see if a lukewarm or negative review is written.

Great reviews!

I am yet to read this one, but after recently reading Ancestor Stones and loving it, I think I might enjoy this one too. I am off to the library website now to place a hold on it!

Here is my take on this book. Neither negative nor lukewarm!

For 'deep' books, I often like small stories because I feel they give the writer an opportunity to get to the heart of things I care about (think Room or Olive Kitteredge). This Orange Prize nominee is a many-charactered story traveling in time to both before and after the Civil War in Sierra Leone with many flashbacks to the war itself, but Forna certainly manages to get to the heart of things. She explores the nature of love, personal responsibility and the human ability to survive the unthinkable. Even with these grand subjects to consider, every character comes alive on the page as does Sierra Leone itself.

Absolutely stunning. Run to the nearest bookstore. Dance your fingers over the keyboard as fast as lightning. Do what it takes, but GET THIS BOOK

Nancy! How are you? Thanks for coming by - and for your enthusiastic recommendation of this book!

I'm good, Jill! I love the Orange books, but since it is neither January or July I didn't know there was an ongoing conversation :-)

WHY DIDN'T THIS BOOK WIN?????

ETA: That's a real question. Does anybody have an idea?

I can't help but wonder if the judges prefer not to award the Orange Prize to books that have won other major literary awards. The Lacuna was given the prize last year over Wolf Hall, which won the Booker Prize in 2009, and The Memory of Love won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize this year (admittedly a much less prominent award than the Booker Prize). The Lacuna was very good, but nowhere close to Wolf Hall, IMO, and although I haven't read The Tiger's Wife yet, I find it hard to believe that it will come close to The Memory of Love.

Thanks, Darryl. That's a good theory. On the other hand, I found The Lacuna so much more accessible than Wolf Hall that I might have thought it the better book. Probably not.....

Here's my review, which I also posted on my thread:

The Memory of Love takes place shortly after Sierra Leone's Civil War (1991-99). Adrian, a British psychologist, has returned to the country following an initial short volunteer experience. He's left his wife and daughter at home in the hopes of making a difference, helping the people of Sierra Leone recover from trauma. His methods are viewed skeptically at first, but eventually he begins to have a positive impact on his patients. Kai is a brilliant young surgeon working in the same hospital, and haunted by war trauma and lost love:

And when he wakes from dreaming of her, is it not the same for him? The hollowness in his chest, the tense yearning, the loneliness he braces against every morning until he can immerse himself in work and forget. Not love. Something else, something with a power that endures. Not love, but a memory of love. (p. 185)

Kai is still in love with Nenebah, a woman who left him some time ago. He also misses his best friend Tejani, who left the country to practice medicine in the US. Kai toys with the idea of joining him, and takes steps necessary for immigration, but is clearly ambivalent about leaving other loved ones behind in Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, silence rules the day: the war is simply not discussed; personal stress is suppressed, as if it's all a big secret. Most of Adrian's cases suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, having witnessed horrific violence during the war that they have been unable to deal with on an emotional and psychological level. And then there is Elias, the patient who on the surface appears the most "normal." Elias checks himself into the hospital, knowing he is near the end of his life. He has a compelling need to unload his personal story on someone, and Adrian begins meeting with him. Elias worked at the university, first as a lecturer and ultimately as dean. While his personal circumstances kept him away from most of the violence, he and other academics were arrested under suspicion of some vaguely described wrongdoing. Elias describes his response to this event, and its impact on important people in his life, in a matter-of-fact way but gradually Adrian realizes there's much more to Elias' story.

Aminatta Forna uses patient stories, gradually revealed through Adrian's therapy, to help the reader imagine the war's events. She also builds a web of people which I found fascinating. Kai and Adrian's lives intersect first on a professional level and later in deeply personal ways. The connections between people and events unfold slowly, and for me each revelation was very emotional. This is especially true of Elias; when his "sins of omission" are revealed, his real character becomes known, as does a connection that binds him with both Adrian and Kai. The ending was especially wrenching and yet somehow, just right.

This is a superb book; I was transfixed and couldn't put it down.

There's so much that can be said about this book! I wanted to write more about Elias/Julius/Saffia. And Mamakay. And the back story of Agnes' psychological issues, which just hit me like a ton of bricks.

There's some great discussion of this book on raidergirl's thread. It begins at the link (message #14) and goes on for 15 messages or so as of this writing.

I was too afraid to come here and say I less than absolutely loved the book. :) I liked it, but like a lot of people who read Room after all the buzz, I spent the whole book trying to determine why I didn't loorve it.

*hand up * don't hurt me!!

What can I say about The Memory of Love? I agree, it's a great book in it's discussion of war and the personal and societal aftermath. I loved the idea that a psychologist would think to go to Sierra Leone to help with PTSD. The scenes of the patients in the mental institution and even in the main hospital were chilling and hopeful. Chaining mental patients and drugging them into quietude, sending a paralyzed man home because there was no hope and no room for long term care then forgetting to talk to the family, wow. But beginning a book called The Memory of Love by talking about a stalker had me just about ready to chuck the book. I thought perhaps the author didn't realize the difference between obsessive need for possession and love, I was wrong. But the book comes down to a dynamic story of 3 men and a country with women, with few exceptions, being only victims and/or the object of desire, and/or the means of reproduction. I don't know why a woman would write such a book. Obviously she has had an affect on the world, and I'm willing to bet the women left behind in her native country do too. We can't fault a book for not being the book we wish it had been, so I gave it 4 stars, but can't help but wish Forna had done more with the women. Recommended to anyone wanting to know more about the effects of war.

I think the book didn't win specifically because the women were so compartmentalized. The other psychologist at the mental hospital was a woman and we saw some of her activities, though none of her background that I recall. There were other women professionals obliquely referred to, and there was a female leader of the rebels whom we meet only through her underwear. I'd like to think a prize given to women writers would have wanted a little more concentration on or variety in the women of the novel.

I am only 100 pages in to this book, but I'm not so thrilled with it. Loved Ancestor Stones, but this one is just not singing to me. After reading all the stunning reviews above, I feel like I need to say sorry.

It took me about 170 pages. The second half is superb. Don't stop now Judy before you get to the good part. It really does all come together nicely.

I am 150 pages in and have been hooked since about page 60. I find the parallel story lines to be not a bit confusing and I always know where I am and with whom. I think that the author has done an outstanding job of this as it is not easy to have several stories and time-lines running at the same time without off-putting some readers. Forna has a lovely way of communicating the way people deal....or do not deal with the aftermath of an horrendous occurrence.
I am taking this one fairly slow as I am so afraid that I may miss some nuance that can be tide turning for a character.
Forna has a gift and such a love of her homeland that it shines through the story-lines. I look forward to finishing this one and reading more by her.
belva

BTW: Beautiful, lovely reviews up above from so many of you. Very thought provoking.

What a beautiful book about a horrendous subject or rather subjects. So many really good story lines in The Memory of Love and all of them proved out to be very telling.
There are so many lovely reviews on this thread that I am not even going to attempt to review the book but I did love it. I cared about all of the characters, I laughed, I cried, I mourned, so many emotions are drawn out of the reader with this book.
I too, wonder why it did not win. This is a spectacular read! I read a library copy but must buy my own. 5 stars
belva

UNfortunately, I was not able to read this one as easily as most others. I just didn't get it. Perhaps I should try again another time. Because there isn't really anything about it that I didn't like that I can put my finger on. I was just not in the right mood for it maybe?

Anyway, I have very much enjoyed reading your comments and reviews.

I felt pretty much the same as you Judy.

#26 & 27. I think you aren't alone. It takes a little longer than many books to fall into. I've had to encourage people to keep with it on multiple threads.
Ultimately, I loved it...