The Memory Palace | B

Titles of books can sometimes be very misleading but The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok is all about the title. Bartok, who has previously written 28 children's books, uses a new concept for her first adult novel. A memory palace, as described in the book, is a mental storage place for memories. For each memory you want to remember, you assign an image and a specific location inside of the imaginary palace in your mind. The Memory Palace takes readers inside Bartok's capsule. Most of the memories stored in her palace center around her schizophrenic mother from whom she was estranged for a number of years.

The book begins with Bartok finding out that her mother is in the hospital. The setting is in the present day. At this time Bartok has been estranged from her mother for 17 years. Bartok's mother dominated her early life, as well as her sister's, and Bartok spent a large amount of her life living in fear of what she would do next. Bartok, along with her sister travel to Cleveland to visit their mother for the first time in years. While there, they discover the life that their mother has been leading while they've been apart and struggle to deal with the fact that she may soon be gone from their lives permanently.

Bartok, who suffered from a brain injury herself, wonders how she'll remember her mother and her life when her own memory seems to be fading. This is when she decides to create her very own memory palace.

At the end of each chapter is a paragraph taken from her mother's journals. Each one of these contains her mother's fragmented thoughts and memories. The thoughts are choppy; not a single one is complete, but they provide readers a glimpse of what Bartok's mother was going through. This raw presentation adds to the overall appeal of the book, giving a closer look at a disorder that is still not fully understood.

Overall this book makes for good reading. Bartok shows readers a great deal about herself. But more importantly, she details a young girl's tumultuous relationship with her mother whom she both loves and fears. Bartok's honesty in retelling the details of her life, her mother's journal entries and the physical descriptions of her imaginary palace are all remarkable. The Memory Palace is a bit slow-paced and it takes a while to get really into it, but if you find yourself with some free time this book is certainly worthwhile.