Sooooo boring. ( )

There is a lot going on in this book. It touches on memory, time, science, ethics, love, obsession, delusion, devotion, aging, tragedy, and so much more. There's even an old family mystery threaded in. This is why I love JCO. ( )

The subject matter of this book was compelling to me, being interested in Alzheimer’s type memory loss. A fascinating read.
The story line is very intriguing and unusual. The novel takes us into the lives and minds of a delusional romantic obsession and the constant of an amnesiac that only allows for seventy seconds of short-term memory. It makes us think about the pain of loneliness, the obsession of researchers and their ethics.
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As is often the case, this Oates novel has a factual basis. In this case, the inspiration was the famous case of H.M., an amnesiac whose memory was erased every 70 seconds or so. While H.M. remembered his past, any new memories were repeatedly erased: every new person he met was new over and over again each time he met them and every new experience was new again over and over.

In this fictionalization, the amnesiac is Elihu Hooper, who lost his memory at age 37 after suffering high fevers with encephalitis. After his recovery from his illness, he agreed to participate in studies at a university clinic/research facility studying memory. Margot Sharp, a neuroscientist joined the team studying Elihu in 1965, and over the next 30+ years met regularly with Elihu, conducted tests, and ultimately became the chief investigator. Margot also developed an unusual personal relationship with Elihu, and she gradually fell in love with him, while on his part, she is a continually new acquaintance.

I enjoyed this book. Some critics point out that it is unrealistic in that Margot's relationship is extremely unprofessional and unethical. While I agree that the relationship is unprofessional an unethical, Oates does an excellent job of making this relationship characteristic and real for Margot. Margot is presented as a respected and esteemed scientist, but she is also a lonely woman, a monomaniac insofar as her work is concerned. I think this is a dichotomy that Oates has used in the past in her novels--I'm thinking of Mudwoman.

Recommended.

3 1/2 stars ( )

This novel explores the inherent differences between patients and subjects. In medicine, clinicians do their utmost to cure or improve their patient’s disease. More often than not, solid information is not available. This then involves clinical experience tainted by unknown amounts of personal bias. Clinical scientists use humans as subjects in their studies. They make every effort to cut sources of bias to get interpretable data. Scientists assign subjects to random treatment arms. Then treat them according to predetermined protocols with little regard for clinical judgment. Therein lies a plethora of ethical problems.

In Oates’ novel, Elihu "Eli" Hoopes (EH) suffers from a profound amnesia that traps him in a “perpetual present” at age 37. He is not a patient. Medicine cannot cure him or help with his symptoms. EH is a subject. The psychologists at the University Neurological Institute, Darven Park, PA study him for three decades.

Oates’ plot disregards features (e.g., informed consent) designed to protect human subjects in this tale of a trapped and exploited man. The scientists use EH, with no obvious oversight. They mislead the family by suggesting that he might benefit from their testing. These behaviors are no longer possible. Most of the scientists in this story make their reputations and then move on. Milton Ferris is the ultimate parasite. He uses EH to gain fame (a Nobel prize) while stealing ideas and data from his subordinates. He has little regard for his subject or underlings beyond what he can get from them, including sexual favors.

The protagonist is Margot Sharpe. Ferris uses her ideas and her body. Then casts her aside. Margot accepts this as the way to success and in the process defends Ferris. As a scientist, she is not blameless though. She also builds her career on data derived from EH. Unlike her colleagues though, Margot elects to stay at Darven Park focused on EH. Her scientific career blossoms, but she forfeits her objectivity, introduces bias and ignores ethics when she enters a unilateral romantic relationship with EH. Outside of her career and EH, Margot is alone. She has no personal or family connections. She becomes alcoholic. She indulges in magical thinking bordering on madness involving an impossible romantic relationship with EH.

Oates does a masterful job of exploring how memory impacts identity. She also evokes the seamier side of academic science with skill. Yet, the setting is claustrophobic. It rarely ventures beyond the laboratory. There are endless experiments on a robotic subject that can be cruel. Eli never remembers these tests beyond 70 seconds. Thus the story moves at a slow pace. Oates' remedy is to introduce too many dramatic subplots but she does not manage them well. A murder mystery involves a drowned cousin. EH is in an airplane crash while searching for his cousin. He spurns a lover. He has a youthful experience with social activism. His ageing aunt is his only caregiver since his relatives have written him off as a hopeless cause. These are just a few examples of loose threads in the fabric of this novel.

The writing is signature Oates. The mood is dark and she skews reality. In the latter part of the novel, Margot’s behavior become unrealistic. Also Eli’s memories late in life of events surrounding his cousin’s death seem inconsistent with his character. ( )