Read This!: My Name is Memory

By Ann Brashares


This is another novel from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants/ The Last Summer (Of You and Me) author. I usually like her books so I scooped this up once it was in paperback.

My Name is Memory starts at the present time with Daniel and Lucy, the main characters, in high school. Daniel has lived many lives and remembers all of them unlike Lucy who only remembers this life. They are drawn to each other, Daniel because he is convinced she is his soulmate from his past lives and Lucy because there is just something about him. As the story progresses, glimpses into Daniel’s past lives with and without Lucy are interspersed with the story of their current lives.

Even though this was definitely chick litty, I found myself thinking about the concept behind this story. What if we are reincarnated and our weird, unexplainable quirks in this life are due to what happened in a previous life? Is this why am terrified of being murdered in my bed at night? Or why I am claustrophobic and afraid of the dark? Or why I have been obsessed with the ocean since I was a wee one even though I have spent the better part of my life not living anywhere near it? Or why I always had a strong desire to live in New England even though I never step foot in it until I went there for college at age 18? Spooky.

Anyways, if a reincarnated Sigmund Freud ever comes my way, I will ask him if I am crazycakes or not.

Back to the book.

I thought the story was a little contrived and it committed one of my deadly sins of literature (and I use “literature” here loosely) which was (SPOLIER ALERT!!!) an unresolved ending. I like when books tidy it all up at the end. This did not and I was left wanting more so I was not pleased.

I am not sure if Brashares was trying to paint Daniel as a sympathetic character or not. I didn’t find him to be one. I actually thought he was a bit too self-involved but I think her point was that he wasn’t living the life he was given, he was always waiting for a better life and living in the past and only when he started living this life and being this person was he happy.

Personally, I thought Lucy could do better.