I read 'Not Forgetting the Whale' by this author a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it so thought I'd give one of his other books a go.

It's an unusual book, with a very interesting premise. I agree with other people's opinions that it seemed a little drawn out at times, there were extracts from Max's diaries that didn't really seem to have anything to do with anything, but they were still quite readable. The ending of the book was the best part as it dealt with something very real and it was well written. It has some interesting discussion about memories though, and how much is actually forgotten. ( )

This reminded me of the story Funes the Memorious by Borges. it relates in a similar way to the nightmare of remembering every experience. Unlike Funes Ponder wants to preserve every experience. But in both cases the consequences make ordinary existence impossible. The effect here is melancholic as the narrative jumps convey a powerful sense of time's destructive potential. ( )

Enjoyable if at times annoying. Ultimately I don't understand why the crime was committed, in the end there was no need for it but the overall narrative is very good and a bit different from anything else I've ever read. ( )

Maximillian Ponder has locked himself away in the family seat for thirty years with no phone, radio or television. His personal clock stopped in 1975, his only link to the world beyond his walls is his childhood – and only - friend Adam Last and Adam is duty bound never to mention anything that is happening in the present, because that would pollute the state of Max’s brain on the day he began his grand project: the cataloguing of his memories; all the information in his brain, up to and including the day he shut himself away.

It could have been rather dry. It’s not. It is a collection of stories about life and how it feels to be alive; a remarkably woven tapestry of past and present and how events impacted two men - Adam and Max, who met as children in colonial Africa, their lives inextricably entwined because of Max’s project – a life’s work that only Adam truly understands.

Max’s diary entries contrast with Adam’s own memories, and Adam’s thoughts sit alongside Max’s musings and all the characters – Max and Adam, their families and friends and the people they knew, like Max’s father’s friend Idi Amin – are wonderfully real. Turning points in history sit alongside simple stories of the everyday and everything is stitched together with the strange, sad story of Max Ponder. The African chapters in particular, are exceptional. The writing is consistently superb, touching and sad and detailed by turns, rich in detail but never laboured; constantly entertaining, readable and quite remarkable. ( )