The Answer to the Riddle Is Me: A Memoir of Amnesia - Softcover

Maclean, David Stuart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0544227700 ISBN 13: 9780544227705

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2015

Synopsis

"A mesmerizing, unsettling memoir about the ever-echoing nature of identity--written in vivid, blooming detail." --Gillian Flynn, best-selling author of Gone Girl

On October 17, 2002, David MacLean "woke up" on a train platform in India with no idea who he was or why he was there. No money. No passport. No identity.

Taken to a mental hospital by the police, MacLean then started to hallucinate so severely he had to be tied down. He could remember song lyrics, but not his family, his friends, or the woman he was told he loved. His illness, it turned out, was the result of the commonly prescribed antimalarial medication he had been taking. Upon his return to the United States, he struggled to piece together the fragments of his former life in a harrowing, absurd, and unforgettable journey back to himself.

"[MacLean] is an exceedingly entertaining psychotic . . . [A] raw, honest and beautiful memoir."--New York Times

"A deeply moving account of amnesia that explores the quandary of the self . . . MacLean has written a memoir that combines the evocative power of William Styron's Darkness Visible, the lyric subtlety of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family and the narrative immediacy of a Hollywood action film. He reminds us how we are all always trying to find a version of ourselves that we can live with."--Los Angeles Times

DAVID STUART MACLEAN is a PEN/American Award-winning writer. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, and on the radio program This American Life. He has a PhD from the University of Houston and is a cofounder of the Poison Pen Reading Series.

About this title

Review

"If bad things are going to happen, we are lucky when they happen to someone with the wit, humanity and sweetness -- to say nothing of an eye for detail and a gift for pacing -- that MacLean brings to this wrenching tale . . . Readers who flip open the book will find MacLean, preserved between pages, goofy and serious, lost and found." -- Chicago Tribune

"A deeply moving account of amnesia that explores the quandary of the self . . . MacLean has written a memoir that combines the evocative power of William Styron's Darkness Visible, the lyric subtlety of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family, and the narrative immediacy of a Hollywood action film. He reminds us how we are all always trying to find a version of ourselves that we can live with." -- Los Angeles Times

"[MacLean] writes eloquently about the bizarre and disturbing experience of having his sense of self erased and then reconstructed from scratch." -- The New Yorker

"As harrowing as this territory is, MacLean makes an affable, sure-footed guide . . . Thanks to his raw, honest, and beautiful memoir, readers will already have a clear idea what his experience was like. We can be grateful MacLean has remembered so much, and so well." -- New York Times

"[A] vivid reflection on the ten years following the Lariam-induced break with reality and the memory problems that persisted in its wake . . . One author, a writer by trade, tells his story because it is a good one: dramatic and unique. The other tells a story, no less arresting, because she has a point to make. Both succeed impressively." -- New York Times Book Review

"Written in terse, vivid prose spiked with blackouts and violent hallucinations reminiscent of a Ken Kesey classic, MacLean's story of the yearlong quest to regain his life reads like fiction, and reminds us that while memories may be painful, truth is all too often elusive." -- Mother Jones

"Incandescent . . . MacLean's account is raw and unsparing, and will surely take you out of your comfort zone -- the reader is immersed in the writer's oblivion and his vertiginous journey of recovery -- but the reward for sticking with it is the privilege of reading MacLean's profound and finely nuanced meditation on memory and identity." -- Seattle Times

"MacLean fearlessly explores his journey to the edge of madness and his subsequent return to sanity in an unsettling, sometimes riotous, memoir." -- Publishers Weekly

"Mesmerizing." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Riveting, sad, and funny . . . Both a sharply written autobiography and an insightful meditation on how much our memories define our identities." -- Booklist

"A gripping medical mystery, a heartwarming personal journey, and a chilling indictment of the commonly prescribed drug that upended MacLean's life -- but left his superb literary skills intact." -- Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

"A mesmerizing, unsettling memoir about the ever-echoing nature of identity, written in vivid, blooming detail." -- Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

About the Author

DAVID STUART MACLEAN is a PEN/American Award-winning writer. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, and on the radio program This American Life. He has a PhD from the University of Houston and is a cofounder of the Poison Pen Reading Series.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0544227700
• ISBN 13: 9780544227705
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304