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The Great Forgetting
Jack Felter, a history teacher, returns home to bucolic Franklin Mills, Ohio, to care for his father, a retired pilot who suffers from dementia and is quickly losing his memory. Jack would love to forget about Franklin Mills, and about Sam, the girl he fell in love with, who ran off with his best friend, Tony. Except Tony has gone missing.
Soon Jack is pulled into the search for Tony, but the only one who seems to know anything is Tony's last patient, a paranoid boy named Cole. Jack must team up with Cole to follow Tony's trail-and maybe save the world. Their journey will lead them to Manhattan and secret facilities buried under the Catskills, and eventually to a forgotten island in the Pacific-the final destination of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
When Jack learns the details about the program known as the Great Forgetting, he's faced with the timeless question: Is it better to forget our greatest mistake or to remember, so it's never repeated?
Soon Jack is pulled into the search for Tony, but the only one who seems to know anything is Tony's last patient, a paranoid boy named Cole. Jack must team up with Cole to follow Tony's trail-and maybe save the world. Their journey will lead them to Manhattan and secret facilities buried under the Catskills, and eventually to a forgotten island in the Pacific-the final destination of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
When Jack learns the details about the program known as the Great Forgetting, he's faced with the timeless question: Is it better to forget our greatest mistake or to remember, so it's never repeated?
352 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 2015
About the author
James Renner
23 books966 followersJames Renner is an award-winning journalist and author of True Crime Addict, the definitive book on the Maura Murray disappearance. Renner is also a novelist, having written The Man from Primrose Lane and other works of scifi and fantasy. He currently hosts the podcast, The Philosophy of Crime.
In 2019, he founded The Porchlight Project a nonprofit that raises money for new DNA testing and genetic genealogy for Ohio cold cases. In May, 2020, James Zastawnik was arrested for the murder of Barbara Blatnik, thanks to the work of genealogists funded by the Porchlight Project.
In 2019, he founded The Porchlight Project a nonprofit that raises money for new DNA testing and genetic genealogy for Ohio cold cases. In May, 2020, James Zastawnik was arrested for the murder of Barbara Blatnik, thanks to the work of genealogists funded by the Porchlight Project.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
September 14, 2018
"The thing is, memory is about trust. We have to trust that what we remember is fact. And we have to trust what other people remember for things we never saw."
… It was a disturbing and thrilling realization, that our grasp of the truth is dependent on the honesty of older generations, on the companies who write history books.
once again james renner has written a kickass novel that is impossible to review.
it's a little bit easier than The Man from Primrose Lane because the book doesn't suddenly reinvent itself in the middle, but it's definitely a book where caution is required in reviewing. it's best if you don't know what's going to happen until it's happening all around you. which is the main difference between this book and a swarm of hornets.
if i had to sell it in five words, it would be: conspiracy theory road trip novel.
fortunately, i have so many more words.
like these: umami pepsi. make this a thing, please.
not a helpful review so far. so let me try to explain. there's a kind of novel that always feels like a home when i come across one. i can't articulate exactly what it is about these books except that they are paradoxically both exciting and comforting to me; my heart beats faster while my body relaxes. they have nothing in common with each other, although they frequently fall into the place where postmodern metafiction intersects with slipstream and kinda knocks you over sideways a little and has you questioning reality.
Ron Currie Jr., The Sea Came in at Midnight, Jonathan Carroll, When We Were Animals, Gretel and the Dark, Infinite Jest, Evan Dara, The Dead Lands, Magnetic Field etc etc. it's a feeling that registers as a tightening in my armskin first, and then i get warm and still and my brain locks in and i'm just gone. it feels like reading the forgotten bits of my own dreams (which already sounds like the plot to a jonathan carroll novel. feel free to run with it, j.c.) but also like how it feels to wake up after a seizure or a fainting spell, where everything is half-familiar, half-foreign. if you've never experienced either of those things, it is like how disoriented sam must feel at the beginning of each episode of quantum leap.
ask your parents.
but anyway, this is one of THOSE books. one of MY books.
it's such a specific experience - i rarely get deeply immersed in a book where i'm not constantly aware of myself-as-reader, but it's more than just immersion; it's quite physical. there are plenty of books i love that don't give me this feeling, and there are plenty of books that started to (House of Leaves) but then ended up going in a different direction.
and all of this is just blather because i'd much rather tackle the task of trying to explain some weirdo feeling i get sometimes that is likely due to an undiagnosed neurological disorder than to risk ruining this book by saying too much.
but for those of you who need more than just "how it makes my arms feel" to decide whether or not to read a book, it's about history, memory, regret, some nerd bullshit, family, madness, secret agencies with your best interests in mind, grief, urban legends and "what really happened to…," the idea that knowledge is power, but memory even more so, and whether it's better to remember and learn from mistakes both personal and cultural or to forget every last bit of shame and humiliation and historical atrocity and start over unencumbered. and bigfoot.
also, the truth about the moon is finally revealed and, oddly enough, it's what i've been saying for years.
renner does a really good job, through different characters, addressing some of the questions that would naturally arise from people confronted with Great Truths, but i still have a million questions, or at least two. which i will hold for now until this is published (not long now!) and we can all chat about it. unless there's another round of the great forgetting and all of this gets wiped from my mind.
but i can't tell you any more until you start boiling your water.
**********************************************
yayyy! i totally forgot this was being sent to me and i opened the package thinking it was a different book and then i went SQUAWKKKK real loud when i saw what it was so i thank you james renner and st martins for making me scare my cat!
review coming...
come to my blog!
… It was a disturbing and thrilling realization, that our grasp of the truth is dependent on the honesty of older generations, on the companies who write history books.
once again james renner has written a kickass novel that is impossible to review.
it's a little bit easier than The Man from Primrose Lane because the book doesn't suddenly reinvent itself in the middle, but it's definitely a book where caution is required in reviewing. it's best if you don't know what's going to happen until it's happening all around you. which is the main difference between this book and a swarm of hornets.
if i had to sell it in five words, it would be: conspiracy theory road trip novel.
fortunately, i have so many more words.
like these: umami pepsi. make this a thing, please.
not a helpful review so far. so let me try to explain. there's a kind of novel that always feels like a home when i come across one. i can't articulate exactly what it is about these books except that they are paradoxically both exciting and comforting to me; my heart beats faster while my body relaxes. they have nothing in common with each other, although they frequently fall into the place where postmodern metafiction intersects with slipstream and kinda knocks you over sideways a little and has you questioning reality.
Ron Currie Jr., The Sea Came in at Midnight, Jonathan Carroll, When We Were Animals, Gretel and the Dark, Infinite Jest, Evan Dara, The Dead Lands, Magnetic Field etc etc. it's a feeling that registers as a tightening in my armskin first, and then i get warm and still and my brain locks in and i'm just gone. it feels like reading the forgotten bits of my own dreams (which already sounds like the plot to a jonathan carroll novel. feel free to run with it, j.c.) but also like how it feels to wake up after a seizure or a fainting spell, where everything is half-familiar, half-foreign. if you've never experienced either of those things, it is like how disoriented sam must feel at the beginning of each episode of quantum leap.
ask your parents.
but anyway, this is one of THOSE books. one of MY books.
it's such a specific experience - i rarely get deeply immersed in a book where i'm not constantly aware of myself-as-reader, but it's more than just immersion; it's quite physical. there are plenty of books i love that don't give me this feeling, and there are plenty of books that started to (House of Leaves) but then ended up going in a different direction.
and all of this is just blather because i'd much rather tackle the task of trying to explain some weirdo feeling i get sometimes that is likely due to an undiagnosed neurological disorder than to risk ruining this book by saying too much.
but for those of you who need more than just "how it makes my arms feel" to decide whether or not to read a book, it's about history, memory, regret, some nerd bullshit, family, madness, secret agencies with your best interests in mind, grief, urban legends and "what really happened to…," the idea that knowledge is power, but memory even more so, and whether it's better to remember and learn from mistakes both personal and cultural or to forget every last bit of shame and humiliation and historical atrocity and start over unencumbered. and bigfoot.
also, the truth about the moon is finally revealed and, oddly enough, it's what i've been saying for years.
renner does a really good job, through different characters, addressing some of the questions that would naturally arise from people confronted with Great Truths, but i still have a million questions, or at least two. which i will hold for now until this is published (not long now!) and we can all chat about it. unless there's another round of the great forgetting and all of this gets wiped from my mind.
but i can't tell you any more until you start boiling your water.
**********************************************
yayyy! i totally forgot this was being sent to me and i opened the package thinking it was a different book and then i went SQUAWKKKK real loud when i saw what it was so i thank you james renner and st martins for making me scare my cat!
review coming...
come to my blog!
November 11, 2015
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
Because this came out yesterday and it's amazing so it gets a bump. Don't like it?
“Life is long. Longer than we allow ourselves to remember.”
Understatement of the year. I motherf-ing LOVED this. Holy hell. Where do I begin? Okay, so The Great Forgetting grabs you right from the cover. So appealing to the eye, so understated, so perfect. Then you open it and discover it’s totally un-put-down-able . . . and that it’s also one of those books where anything you say about it might be considered too much. Which leaves a Kelly and Mitchell combo who have looked pretty much like this ever since finishing the book on Saturday . . .
The basics are our MC Jack is a history teacher who plans to spend his summer vacation giving his sister a much needed break from dealing with their father who is quickly fading away due to dementia. It doesn’t take long for Jack to catch up on small town gossip – mainly that his old bestie Tony (who also happens to be his high school sweetheart Sam’s husband) has gone missing. Reluctantly Jack agrees to help track down his old friend which leads him to one of Tony’s former psychiatric patients – a boy named Cole who will attempt to open Jack’s eyes to the truth of The Great Forgetting. Then . . .
“Sometimes I get the feeling that none of this is right.”
So much mindblowing. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd that’s all I can tell you. Okay, well maybe not alllll. This book is smart. Like wicked smart. But don’t let that intimidate you. Renner has done a great job of providing a cast of characters that are all Average Joes. While they find themselves put in spectacular circumstances, they are people with not-genius IQs so you never get lost in the crazy that is being thrown at you. Renner also does something that normally I hate – he inundates the reader with the present. Now, this may end up being a novel that doesn’t quite stand the test of time, but for today? Right now? This sonofabitch WORKS! If you’re into conspiracy theories and a story that stays on eleven for the duration, The Great Forgetting is not one to be missed. Be prepared to question everything. Oh, and make sure to get your foil hat fitted before even beginning . . .
Every star there is to star.
Alright. Review over – now for the full disclosure B.S. I never had contact with James Renner until he personally messaged me and asked if I would like to review his new book. Turns out he saw my review of The Man From Primrose Lane (which all of you should immediately read because the man ain’t no one-hit-wonder) and didn’t despise my giffy style (SUCK IT, GIF HATERS!). Upon receiving said message, I was very grateful to have stocked up on my supply of . . .
and proceeded to run around the house screaming about how awesome I am to my non-book-loving family who haven’t yet figured out that I’m kind of a big deal. I should probably float my reviewsall day every day more frequently in order to break into the Top 5 of the fake popularity contest. Whatevs. Anyway to make a long story even longer, endless thanks to Mr. Renner (and to Trudi who turned me on to his work in the first place). I can’t wait to see what your crazy brain comes up with next.
Because this came out yesterday and it's amazing so it gets a bump. Don't like it?
“Life is long. Longer than we allow ourselves to remember.”
Understatement of the year. I motherf-ing LOVED this. Holy hell. Where do I begin? Okay, so The Great Forgetting grabs you right from the cover. So appealing to the eye, so understated, so perfect. Then you open it and discover it’s totally un-put-down-able . . . and that it’s also one of those books where anything you say about it might be considered too much. Which leaves a Kelly and Mitchell combo who have looked pretty much like this ever since finishing the book on Saturday . . .
The basics are our MC Jack is a history teacher who plans to spend his summer vacation giving his sister a much needed break from dealing with their father who is quickly fading away due to dementia. It doesn’t take long for Jack to catch up on small town gossip – mainly that his old bestie Tony (who also happens to be his high school sweetheart Sam’s husband) has gone missing. Reluctantly Jack agrees to help track down his old friend which leads him to one of Tony’s former psychiatric patients – a boy named Cole who will attempt to open Jack’s eyes to the truth of The Great Forgetting. Then . . .
“Sometimes I get the feeling that none of this is right.”
So much mindblowing. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd that’s all I can tell you. Okay, well maybe not alllll. This book is smart. Like wicked smart. But don’t let that intimidate you. Renner has done a great job of providing a cast of characters that are all Average Joes. While they find themselves put in spectacular circumstances, they are people with not-genius IQs so you never get lost in the crazy that is being thrown at you. Renner also does something that normally I hate – he inundates the reader with the present. Now, this may end up being a novel that doesn’t quite stand the test of time, but for today? Right now? This sonofabitch WORKS! If you’re into conspiracy theories and a story that stays on eleven for the duration, The Great Forgetting is not one to be missed. Be prepared to question everything. Oh, and make sure to get your foil hat fitted before even beginning . . .
Every star there is to star.
Alright. Review over – now for the full disclosure B.S. I never had contact with James Renner until he personally messaged me and asked if I would like to review his new book. Turns out he saw my review of The Man From Primrose Lane (which all of you should immediately read because the man ain’t no one-hit-wonder) and didn’t despise my giffy style (SUCK IT, GIF HATERS!). Upon receiving said message, I was very grateful to have stocked up on my supply of . . .
and proceeded to run around the house screaming about how awesome I am to my non-book-loving family who haven’t yet figured out that I’m kind of a big deal. I should probably float my reviews
July 15, 2016
When Jack Felter returns to his home town to help care for his dementia-stricken father, he winds up looking for his missing childhood friend, Tony, the friend that stole his high school girlfriend. Jack meets Tony's last patient, a kid named Cole with a very compelling delusion, that everything we think we know about history is wrong...
After reading The Man from Primrose Lane and True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray, I just had to read more James Renner. The Great Forgetting made him rise even higher in my esteem.
The Great Forgetting is a mind-bender of Phillip K. Dickian proportions. How much do we trust the history books? How much do we trust our own memories? What if the conspiracy theories are true? This book raises those questions and more.
It's best to go into this book unprepared so I'm not going to spoil the particulars. Once the truth behind Cole, Tony, and the rest of what was actually going on was revealed, I had a hard time doing anything but finishing it.
If I had to complain about something, which I won't, is that the characters were a little thin. However, I loved Jack and his father, The Captain. Cole grew on me as well, but I hated Tony and didn't trust Sam. Hell, even Scopes and the Maestro turned out to have hidden depths.
The tension toward the end was almost maddening. I haven't felt this engrossed with a book since the Dark Tower series. That's as great a compliment as I can give any book. Five out of five stars.
After reading The Man from Primrose Lane and True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray, I just had to read more James Renner. The Great Forgetting made him rise even higher in my esteem.
The Great Forgetting is a mind-bender of Phillip K. Dickian proportions. How much do we trust the history books? How much do we trust our own memories? What if the conspiracy theories are true? This book raises those questions and more.
It's best to go into this book unprepared so I'm not going to spoil the particulars. Once the truth behind Cole, Tony, and the rest of what was actually going on was revealed, I had a hard time doing anything but finishing it.
If I had to complain about something, which I won't, is that the characters were a little thin. However, I loved Jack and his father, The Captain. Cole grew on me as well, but I hated Tony and didn't trust Sam. Hell, even Scopes and the Maestro turned out to have hidden depths.
The tension toward the end was almost maddening. I haven't felt this engrossed with a book since the Dark Tower series. That's as great a compliment as I can give any book. Five out of five stars.
February 6, 2017
What starts out as an intriguing mystery novel eventually turns into a devilishly wild ride of conspiracy theory SF, and this simple statement does nothing to explain just how CRAZY it'll get. :)
I'm a very big fan of cross-genre fiction and this one really fits the bill in a big, big way. The mystery is clever and engaging and fascinatingly strange, but what really struck my fancy was just how good the characters are. So much has happened in their lives and just getting to the point of the next reveal kept me glued to the page. These aren't even big reveals, just character reveals, and yet because Jack kept digging, this whole book took on a fantastic dimension that just got deeper and deeper as we find out more about Tony and Cole and the way the human mind can be a real nutter.
The whole book is a gradient. It starts you out with the small stuff and as you get acclimated, it gets steeper and steeper into nutter land. I'm just glad I already boil all my water. Of course, that may be because I drink little more than coffee and tea, but you know how it is. I avoid my Flouride in my water. :)
From there, however, I can't and won't spoil you, but if you're a conspiracy theory nut, yourself, do yourself a favor and read this little gem of a novel. Take a bag of your favorite theories, shake them around, take three handfuls of them, and now toss them in the air. Make connections. Build a story around them where they all fit together. Now read this book. How closely do they match?
Not close enough? Fine. Add another handful of theories and build another story. Closer? YES! lol
I can't believe the author got away with everything he did. The mystery connections were set up with some real brilliance. :) And this, my friends, became one hell of a great SF. :)
With one caveat: I debated knocking off a star for the slightly unsatisfying ending, but the whole ride of the rest of the novel was so strong and fascinating that I simply couldn't do that. I had a really great time. For those who've already read it, I liked the Prologue fine. It was the big action scene at the end and the immediate results of it, but not related to he-who-must-not-be-named. Maybe I just wanted something different to happen.
But everything else? I went fanboy all over it. :)
Thanks goes to the author for a physical copy of this book! It was a real blast!
I'm a very big fan of cross-genre fiction and this one really fits the bill in a big, big way. The mystery is clever and engaging and fascinatingly strange, but what really struck my fancy was just how good the characters are. So much has happened in their lives and just getting to the point of the next reveal kept me glued to the page. These aren't even big reveals, just character reveals, and yet because Jack kept digging, this whole book took on a fantastic dimension that just got deeper and deeper as we find out more about Tony and Cole and the way the human mind can be a real nutter.
The whole book is a gradient. It starts you out with the small stuff and as you get acclimated, it gets steeper and steeper into nutter land. I'm just glad I already boil all my water. Of course, that may be because I drink little more than coffee and tea, but you know how it is. I avoid my Flouride in my water. :)
From there, however, I can't and won't spoil you, but if you're a conspiracy theory nut, yourself, do yourself a favor and read this little gem of a novel. Take a bag of your favorite theories, shake them around, take three handfuls of them, and now toss them in the air. Make connections. Build a story around them where they all fit together. Now read this book. How closely do they match?
Not close enough? Fine. Add another handful of theories and build another story. Closer? YES! lol
I can't believe the author got away with everything he did. The mystery connections were set up with some real brilliance. :) And this, my friends, became one hell of a great SF. :)
With one caveat: I debated knocking off a star for the slightly unsatisfying ending, but the whole ride of the rest of the novel was so strong and fascinating that I simply couldn't do that. I had a really great time. For those who've already read it, I liked the Prologue fine. It was the big action scene at the end and the immediate results of it, but not related to he-who-must-not-be-named. Maybe I just wanted something different to happen.
But everything else? I went fanboy all over it. :)
Thanks goes to the author for a physical copy of this book! It was a real blast!
April 8, 2019
--Friday afternoon in the psych ward
Man, am I glad to see you again. I was starting to go a little stir-crazy in here. Seriously, these idiots are just impossible to talk to. I’ve tried, you know, really tried to get through to them, but they think I’m delusional. They’re too far gone to realize that I’m the only sane one in here!
You mind closing the door? These walls have ears, if you know what I mean, and I don’t wanna add any more fuel to their fire.
Pull up a chair, time is of the essence. The situation grows more desperate by the day. The alarming rate at which things are progressing is untenable, man. You have got to get me out of here!
First things first though, have you started boiling your water?
Good. Thanks for humoring me. Your eyes do seem to be a little bit clearer today, so let me ask you another question.
Do you know what a gradient is?
Yeah, it’s sorta like an incline in a road I suppose, but that’s not exactly what I was getting at. You see, the truth about what’s really going on out there is so inconceivable that your mind would never be able to accept it, if I told you everything all at once. So, we’ll use a gradient instead, or a system of baby steps—little truths if you will—that’ll help to ease your mind into realizing that ultimate truth.
What I’ve developed is a seven-step gradient, comprised of seven impossible facts. Each one progressively harder to accept than the one before. Don’t worry though, the proof is out there, and I’ll show you where to look. But, you’ve gotta be patient, it’s gonna take some time to work our way through all the steps. And, you’ve gotta be willing to do your part, meet me halfway. Do a little research of your own even.
If you’re ready, let’s begin.
Impossibility #1) The earliest anomaly can be traced back to a man known only as the “Maestro” who’s . . . *radio cuts in - SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP -- THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM*
Oh shit! Nooooo! Damn it, not again!
Man, am I glad to see you again. I was starting to go a little stir-crazy in here. Seriously, these idiots are just impossible to talk to. I’ve tried, you know, really tried to get through to them, but they think I’m delusional. They’re too far gone to realize that I’m the only sane one in here!
You mind closing the door? These walls have ears, if you know what I mean, and I don’t wanna add any more fuel to their fire.
Pull up a chair, time is of the essence. The situation grows more desperate by the day. The alarming rate at which things are progressing is untenable, man. You have got to get me out of here!
First things first though, have you started boiling your water?
Good. Thanks for humoring me. Your eyes do seem to be a little bit clearer today, so let me ask you another question.
Do you know what a gradient is?
Yeah, it’s sorta like an incline in a road I suppose, but that’s not exactly what I was getting at. You see, the truth about what’s really going on out there is so inconceivable that your mind would never be able to accept it, if I told you everything all at once. So, we’ll use a gradient instead, or a system of baby steps—little truths if you will—that’ll help to ease your mind into realizing that ultimate truth.
What I’ve developed is a seven-step gradient, comprised of seven impossible facts. Each one progressively harder to accept than the one before. Don’t worry though, the proof is out there, and I’ll show you where to look. But, you’ve gotta be patient, it’s gonna take some time to work our way through all the steps. And, you’ve gotta be willing to do your part, meet me halfway. Do a little research of your own even.
If you’re ready, let’s begin.
Impossibility #1) The earliest anomaly can be traced back to a man known only as the “Maestro” who’s . . . *radio cuts in - SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP -- THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM*
Oh shit! Nooooo! Damn it, not again!
July 6, 2016
I almost forgot to write this review! ba-dum-bum.
a complex, fast-paced, scifi-tinged thriller that often feels like a lighthearted romp despite the heavy themes and upsetting deaths on display. great artists will continually revisit their pet subjects and themes; Renner - clearly a great writer - does the same in this second novel which deals again with how humans process grief, loss, and trauma. often by.... wait for it... forgetting. but also by rewriting histories, both personal and large-scale. in his ingenious and mind-boggling first novel, the canvas was relatively small and the focus was intimate: Renner was exorcising personal demons and obsessions, and also penning a sad but warm love letter to his home state Ohio. in The Great Forgetting, the canvas is wider: writ large, it encompasses the Holocaust (and, in a way, Holocaust denial), 9/11, and all sorts of conspiracy theories; writ small, it subtly probes how people deal with painful emotions and things gone awry in life. there's so much going on in this novel that I frequently had to cling to those recognizable Renner themes to keep my bearings - at times it felt as if he threw everything he was currently interested in at his writer's wall and kept not just what stuck, but what slid off as well. as a result, the book is often chaotic in an enjoyably berserk way, but just as often felt like it could have used a bit more mapping out before finger met keyboard. several highly intriguing and sympathetic characters are unfortunately lost in the breathlessly paced mix. despite my issues, this is certainly a worthy accomplishment and an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.
a complex, fast-paced, scifi-tinged thriller that often feels like a lighthearted romp despite the heavy themes and upsetting deaths on display. great artists will continually revisit their pet subjects and themes; Renner - clearly a great writer - does the same in this second novel which deals again with how humans process grief, loss, and trauma. often by.... wait for it... forgetting. but also by rewriting histories, both personal and large-scale. in his ingenious and mind-boggling first novel, the canvas was relatively small and the focus was intimate: Renner was exorcising personal demons and obsessions, and also penning a sad but warm love letter to his home state Ohio. in The Great Forgetting, the canvas is wider: writ large, it encompasses the Holocaust (and, in a way, Holocaust denial), 9/11, and all sorts of conspiracy theories; writ small, it subtly probes how people deal with painful emotions and things gone awry in life. there's so much going on in this novel that I frequently had to cling to those recognizable Renner themes to keep my bearings - at times it felt as if he threw everything he was currently interested in at his writer's wall and kept not just what stuck, but what slid off as well. as a result, the book is often chaotic in an enjoyably berserk way, but just as often felt like it could have used a bit more mapping out before finger met keyboard. several highly intriguing and sympathetic characters are unfortunately lost in the breathlessly paced mix. despite my issues, this is certainly a worthy accomplishment and an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.
December 24, 2015
I'm so remiss in my reviews of late, but I really wanted to make sure I wrote something for this one to draw your attention to it: A) because it's a whole lot of wacky, weird and wild fun (something I've come to expect from this author) and B) said author was generous enough to send me a copy in the mail so the very least I can do is tell the reading world what I thought of it.
James Renner is the author of the mind-bending, genre-mashing The Man from Primrose Lane and you really must read that one if you are looking for something that is wholly unlike anything else. There was some buzz a few years back that Bradley Cooper had been tapped to star in a film adaptation, but no updates on that yet.
I didn't know what to expect in picking up The Great Forgetting, but you can bet I approached it with keen anticipation. Renner is a brave author who doesn't ever make safe choices. He marches out into the badlands of crazy and bewildering, sees what he finds there, and then puts it into his story. It doesn't always work, but considering the kind of unique crazy pants he's peddling, it works amazingly, unforgettably (heh) well most of the time.
This one starts as almost a quiet domestic drama: an unassuming high school teacher returns to his hometown where his sister is looking after their senile father. Jack has to deal with an ex-girlfriend who married his best childhood friend Tony. But Tony has gone missing and his wife wants Jack to help her get him declared deceased. In his efforts to do this, Jack meets a boy named Cole, the last person Tony had any significant contact with before his disappearance. Cole is a patient in a psychiatric ward suffering from complex and paranoid delusions. Or are they? The more Jack talks to him the further down the rabbit hole he goes. And takes us with him.
Side note of interest: James Renner is definitely an author to watch. And while he has a noteworthy talent spinning wild and crazy tales of speculative fiction, Renner is also a dedicated true crime writer. He is currently researching the unsolved disappearance of Umass nursing student, Maura Murray and will publish True Crime Addict in May 2016 about his experiences. The Maura Murray case is a real life rabbit hole story and it is very easy to become lost in all the moving pieces and arm chair detective theories that exist for this cold case. Renner also maintains a blog of his ongoing investigations that makes for riveting reading if you are into that sort of thing.
Two young armchair detectives are also hosting a pretty decent podcast right now about the Maura Murray case in which Renner has been a guest. The hosts are currently at work on a documentary.
James Renner is the author of the mind-bending, genre-mashing The Man from Primrose Lane and you really must read that one if you are looking for something that is wholly unlike anything else. There was some buzz a few years back that Bradley Cooper had been tapped to star in a film adaptation, but no updates on that yet.
I didn't know what to expect in picking up The Great Forgetting, but you can bet I approached it with keen anticipation. Renner is a brave author who doesn't ever make safe choices. He marches out into the badlands of crazy and bewildering, sees what he finds there, and then puts it into his story. It doesn't always work, but considering the kind of unique crazy pants he's peddling, it works amazingly, unforgettably (heh) well most of the time.
This one starts as almost a quiet domestic drama: an unassuming high school teacher returns to his hometown where his sister is looking after their senile father. Jack has to deal with an ex-girlfriend who married his best childhood friend Tony. But Tony has gone missing and his wife wants Jack to help her get him declared deceased. In his efforts to do this, Jack meets a boy named Cole, the last person Tony had any significant contact with before his disappearance. Cole is a patient in a psychiatric ward suffering from complex and paranoid delusions. Or are they? The more Jack talks to him the further down the rabbit hole he goes. And takes us with him.
Side note of interest: James Renner is definitely an author to watch. And while he has a noteworthy talent spinning wild and crazy tales of speculative fiction, Renner is also a dedicated true crime writer. He is currently researching the unsolved disappearance of Umass nursing student, Maura Murray and will publish True Crime Addict in May 2016 about his experiences. The Maura Murray case is a real life rabbit hole story and it is very easy to become lost in all the moving pieces and arm chair detective theories that exist for this cold case. Renner also maintains a blog of his ongoing investigations that makes for riveting reading if you are into that sort of thing.
Two young armchair detectives are also hosting a pretty decent podcast right now about the Maura Murray case in which Renner has been a guest. The hosts are currently at work on a documentary.
March 17, 2019
In the immortal words of Jack Black from Tenacious D, this book is my "Cream Dream Supreme." I fell in love before I was done with the first page. The story is right up my alley with conspiracy theories and government cover-ups and it is about as original a book as I have ever read. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch come to mind in terms of just how unique this one was and it will have a place among my favorite reads ever. There was a part in the beginning where the main character is at a county fair and notices a girl for the first time that is among the most beautiful things ever written, it had such an impact I forgot I what I was reading for a minute and was fine if it had morphed into a straight up love story. But enough with the squishy stuff, I sincerely had a ton of fun reading this and at times sat back and marveled at the scope of the author's imagination, I mean where does he come up with this stuff?!?! The pacing was perfect, the characters so real it hurt, and I was praying he stuck the landing and I would not be stuck with an awesome 7/8 of a book only to be disappointed with the ending. Happy to say the conclusion was satisfying, appropriate, and my only gripe was the damn book wasn't five hundred pages longer. This book spoke to me, I dreamed about it while sleeping, and it consumed my attention while awake. Love is not a strong enough word for my experience reading this and I cannot recommend it enough. I'd give it 6 stars if I could, shit, probably even 7.
March 8, 2018
CAUTION: This review is filled with spoilers like you wouldn't believe. Definitely don't read this review unless you've read the book or unless you're positively sure you never will—come back later if you think you may read it at some point in the future, because The Great Forgetting definitely benefits from its surprises, wacky and flawed as they may be.
I don't think there's any better way to describe my experience with The Great Forgetting than to relate two separate encounters I had while reading it.
I was halfway into Part 2 when my friend saw me reading this book. "Any good?" she asked. I nodded fiercely. "I can't wait to finish it. It's just so wild!"
The next time she saw me reading it, a few days later, I was mere pages from the end. "Almost done, huh?" she asked. I sighed heavily and nodded. "I can't wait to finish it. It's just so... wild."
"Good wild?"
I shook my head. "Bad wild."
See, the very thing that drew me into the story in the first place—the craziness of it—was the same thing that became so grating by the end. With every new aspect the author introduced, my disbelief became harder and harder to suspend until it was so ludicrous I rolled my eyes several times per chapter.
But let's backtrack for a second. The Great Forgetting is what I would call conspiracy fiction—it imagines not an alternate world from our own but the same one we live in, with all the secrets and covert plots laid bare. When the only main conspiracy Renner tackled was the titular one (radio signals causing people's minds to be wiped, allowing them to partake in a communal delusion and a shared yet false history) I was hooked. It was just in the right place between "plausible" and "crackpot nonsense" that reading about the protagonist delving further into something he initially dismissed was simultaneously entertaining and really engaging. But then Renner just had to go and through every single goddamned conspiracy theory ever hatched into this book, and it was just. Too much. Don't believe me? Here's a list of conspiracies The Great Forgetting incorporates into its plot, just off the top of my head:
- Bigfoot
- Nazi scientists
- the Holocaust
- fluoridated water
- Amelia Earhart
- D. B. Cooper
- the lost continent of Mu
- Alcatraz escapees
- fabricated history
- faked deaths
- genetically engineered humanoids
- chemtrails
- the 9/11 attacks
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- Area 51
- Morgellons Syndrome
- secret tunnels through mountain ranges
- underground cities
- and practically everything but lizard people. And to be honest, I was kind of surprised that after all this nonsense, Mr Renner didn't just throw a repitilian overlord into the mix for shits and giggles.
But the ludicrous amount of conspiracies—even a few of which are too many to keep from scoffing at outright—wasn't the only bloated part of this novel. There were also way too many characters, several of which could easily be eliminated (such as Becky, Zaharie, Nils, and who the fuck even was Constance?). This issue isn't helped by the fact that every single character gets at least one mini-chapter where the omniscient narrator is in their head, so we see things from their point of view. It keeps the story from ever feeling focused on one plot, one issue, until the very end, and by then it's far too late. Plus, most of the conflicts that these alternate POV passages bring up are never touched on again, let alone resolved, rendering this tactic doubly ineffective.
Further, the characters themselves aren't interesting enough to warrant such a large number of them. The protagonist, Jack Felter, is pretty boring, being constantly moral and responsible and perfect and just generally not having a personality. His love interest Sam has a bit more going on, but her interesting tragic backstory was mentioned in the beginning and rarely seemed to affect her afterwards. And don't even get me started about Tony—Tony was just a fucking mystery to me. I guess I'm just supposed to accept his last-act transformation into a villain, and the fact that he was practically the human equivalent of a stale cracker despite everyone loving him and willing to walk the world for him.
Also... I refuse to believe that I'm reading into this just because I'm gay—there was definitely something happening between Tony and Jack, right? What the hell was that relationship? Jack remembers feeling closer to Tony than he'd ever felt with anyone else (even Sam, apparently). As kids they slept so close together in their sleeping bags that Jack fell asleep with Tony's breath on his face. They say they love each other pretty often—and before you come at me with that "they're just good friends" and "men can be vulnerable and loving with their friends, too", hang on! Jack doesn't just mention loving Tony, he mentions falling in love with him, and he says that it happened "the same way it happened with women." Okay, so I guess we just have to leave it at that, because Renner just sort of drops it without any real elaboration or exploration of this relationship. I guess they're just two straight guys who fell in love... straightly? And then fell in love with the same woman? (And speaking of, what the hell was up with that situation? The author acts like "falling into bed" with your best friend and his girlfriend is a totally natural thing that happens, but, uh, you know, it's definitely not. I don't casually visit people and wind up—oops!—sleeping with them and their significant other. Sam, Tony, and Jack's whole threesome/side-relationship thing was just baffling and it came out of absolutely nowhere.)
I don't mean to disparage all of the characters, though. Cole and the Captain were pretty great. Jean was great, too. What united these side characters, interestingly enough, is that they have compelling backstories AND flaws. They're layered and they're human and they're far from perfect. Their chapters were the only thing that redeemed the multiple-POV format.
Onto the writing. The prose in this book is nothing to write home about, but it's tremendously readable from start to finish so credit to Mr Renner for keeping things flowing smoothly there. Renner has a very specific talent that I noted a few times: he's very good at describing sound. I remember one noise being described as a thousand rubber balls rolling down staircases, for example. So that was pretty cool. But tonally, this book really confused me. I could never put my finger on how seriously it wanted to be taken. In some places, it seemed like Renner was being almost tongue-in-cheek with his scores of conspiracy references, but in others it seemed like he genuinely wanted to make a larger point about humanity. There were some serious and thought-provoking passages about memory, immediately followed by these madcap chases by Nazi-created yeti-men with teleportation belts that totally threw the whole thing off. It was like tonal whiplash.
There was also a huge missed opportunity for some awesome meta-mindfuckery with the mention that some of the memories we'd previously read were altered—but nothing ever came of it. You never know why some memories were changed, or what they were originally. Which really bummed me out because I was ready for my head to be screwed with in a way that wasn't just another rehashing of that "alternate history where the Nazis took over" shtick.
I feel like I'm tearing this book to shreds and I really don't mean to. The first third is so interesting and engaging, and the parts with Cole showing Jack the "gradient," where you're not sure if he's trying to pull Jack into his delusions or if he's really perfectly sane, are fantastic. There was a delicious tension and conflict between what Jack believed and what he was being told, and later between what he believed and what he saw. I loved Cole's manipulation, earnest and clever as it was, and the moment when Jack had to decide whether to believe that he was crazy, or that there truly was a conspiracy so far-reaching it effected everyone else in the world. But once Jack threw himself into the conspiracy of the Great Forgetting, everything became so much more contrived.
One last thing before I go. The denouement of this story was just so problematic. I already had lowered my expectations after the "paradise island where everything and everyone is happy and perfect" segment, but good god did the ending just wreck it all. Not only did it involve all but two of the main cast of characters crashing suddenly to their deaths, but there was so much "Aha, I knew you would do that, which is why I did THIS! Bwahahaha!" it was just embarrassing. I feel like the rushed ending was the final nail in the coffin for me here, and the only reason this book was spared from getting two stars is because I really did love it in the beginning. Alas, sometimes a story just derails after a promising start. It's a special kind of disappointing.
I don't think there's any better way to describe my experience with The Great Forgetting than to relate two separate encounters I had while reading it.
I was halfway into Part 2 when my friend saw me reading this book. "Any good?" she asked. I nodded fiercely. "I can't wait to finish it. It's just so wild!"
The next time she saw me reading it, a few days later, I was mere pages from the end. "Almost done, huh?" she asked. I sighed heavily and nodded. "I can't wait to finish it. It's just so... wild."
"Good wild?"
I shook my head. "Bad wild."
See, the very thing that drew me into the story in the first place—the craziness of it—was the same thing that became so grating by the end. With every new aspect the author introduced, my disbelief became harder and harder to suspend until it was so ludicrous I rolled my eyes several times per chapter.
But let's backtrack for a second. The Great Forgetting is what I would call conspiracy fiction—it imagines not an alternate world from our own but the same one we live in, with all the secrets and covert plots laid bare. When the only main conspiracy Renner tackled was the titular one (radio signals causing people's minds to be wiped, allowing them to partake in a communal delusion and a shared yet false history) I was hooked. It was just in the right place between "plausible" and "crackpot nonsense" that reading about the protagonist delving further into something he initially dismissed was simultaneously entertaining and really engaging. But then Renner just had to go and through every single goddamned conspiracy theory ever hatched into this book, and it was just. Too much. Don't believe me? Here's a list of conspiracies The Great Forgetting incorporates into its plot, just off the top of my head:
- Bigfoot
- Nazi scientists
- the Holocaust
- fluoridated water
- Amelia Earhart
- D. B. Cooper
- the lost continent of Mu
- Alcatraz escapees
- fabricated history
- faked deaths
- genetically engineered humanoids
- chemtrails
- the 9/11 attacks
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- Area 51
- Morgellons Syndrome
- secret tunnels through mountain ranges
- underground cities
- and practically everything but lizard people. And to be honest, I was kind of surprised that after all this nonsense, Mr Renner didn't just throw a repitilian overlord into the mix for shits and giggles.
But the ludicrous amount of conspiracies—even a few of which are too many to keep from scoffing at outright—wasn't the only bloated part of this novel. There were also way too many characters, several of which could easily be eliminated (such as Becky, Zaharie, Nils, and who the fuck even was Constance?). This issue isn't helped by the fact that every single character gets at least one mini-chapter where the omniscient narrator is in their head, so we see things from their point of view. It keeps the story from ever feeling focused on one plot, one issue, until the very end, and by then it's far too late. Plus, most of the conflicts that these alternate POV passages bring up are never touched on again, let alone resolved, rendering this tactic doubly ineffective.
Further, the characters themselves aren't interesting enough to warrant such a large number of them. The protagonist, Jack Felter, is pretty boring, being constantly moral and responsible and perfect and just generally not having a personality. His love interest Sam has a bit more going on, but her interesting tragic backstory was mentioned in the beginning and rarely seemed to affect her afterwards. And don't even get me started about Tony—Tony was just a fucking mystery to me. I guess I'm just supposed to accept his last-act transformation into a villain, and the fact that he was practically the human equivalent of a stale cracker despite everyone loving him and willing to walk the world for him.
Also... I refuse to believe that I'm reading into this just because I'm gay—there was definitely something happening between Tony and Jack, right? What the hell was that relationship? Jack remembers feeling closer to Tony than he'd ever felt with anyone else (even Sam, apparently). As kids they slept so close together in their sleeping bags that Jack fell asleep with Tony's breath on his face. They say they love each other pretty often—and before you come at me with that "they're just good friends" and "men can be vulnerable and loving with their friends, too", hang on! Jack doesn't just mention loving Tony, he mentions falling in love with him, and he says that it happened "the same way it happened with women." Okay, so I guess we just have to leave it at that, because Renner just sort of drops it without any real elaboration or exploration of this relationship. I guess they're just two straight guys who fell in love... straightly? And then fell in love with the same woman? (And speaking of, what the hell was up with that situation? The author acts like "falling into bed" with your best friend and his girlfriend is a totally natural thing that happens, but, uh, you know, it's definitely not. I don't casually visit people and wind up—oops!—sleeping with them and their significant other. Sam, Tony, and Jack's whole threesome/side-relationship thing was just baffling and it came out of absolutely nowhere.)
I don't mean to disparage all of the characters, though. Cole and the Captain were pretty great. Jean was great, too. What united these side characters, interestingly enough, is that they have compelling backstories AND flaws. They're layered and they're human and they're far from perfect. Their chapters were the only thing that redeemed the multiple-POV format.
Onto the writing. The prose in this book is nothing to write home about, but it's tremendously readable from start to finish so credit to Mr Renner for keeping things flowing smoothly there. Renner has a very specific talent that I noted a few times: he's very good at describing sound. I remember one noise being described as a thousand rubber balls rolling down staircases, for example. So that was pretty cool. But tonally, this book really confused me. I could never put my finger on how seriously it wanted to be taken. In some places, it seemed like Renner was being almost tongue-in-cheek with his scores of conspiracy references, but in others it seemed like he genuinely wanted to make a larger point about humanity. There were some serious and thought-provoking passages about memory, immediately followed by these madcap chases by Nazi-created yeti-men with teleportation belts that totally threw the whole thing off. It was like tonal whiplash.
There was also a huge missed opportunity for some awesome meta-mindfuckery with the mention that some of the memories we'd previously read were altered—but nothing ever came of it. You never know why some memories were changed, or what they were originally. Which really bummed me out because I was ready for my head to be screwed with in a way that wasn't just another rehashing of that "alternate history where the Nazis took over" shtick.
I feel like I'm tearing this book to shreds and I really don't mean to. The first third is so interesting and engaging, and the parts with Cole showing Jack the "gradient," where you're not sure if he's trying to pull Jack into his delusions or if he's really perfectly sane, are fantastic. There was a delicious tension and conflict between what Jack believed and what he was being told, and later between what he believed and what he saw. I loved Cole's manipulation, earnest and clever as it was, and the moment when Jack had to decide whether to believe that he was crazy, or that there truly was a conspiracy so far-reaching it effected everyone else in the world. But once Jack threw himself into the conspiracy of the Great Forgetting, everything became so much more contrived.
One last thing before I go. The denouement of this story was just so problematic. I already had lowered my expectations after the "paradise island where everything and everyone is happy and perfect" segment, but good god did the ending just wreck it all. Not only did it involve all but two of the main cast of characters crashing suddenly to their deaths, but there was so much "Aha, I knew you would do that, which is why I did THIS! Bwahahaha!" it was just embarrassing. I feel like the rushed ending was the final nail in the coffin for me here, and the only reason this book was spared from getting two stars is because I really did love it in the beginning. Alas, sometimes a story just derails after a promising start. It's a special kind of disappointing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2015
Almost a 4 star but I cannot round it up. It was at least 4 star in entertainment value, until the last 1/3rd of the book. Then it was not.
The time conundrums and other facile interconnections of gradients (as this book defines gradients) did not make sense by then, and the outcomes became cartoonish as a result.
This author has immense skill in interfacing current or past minutia of culture and media into context of story and characters. That was absolutely 5 star level, and the parts of the book I liked the best. It reminded me of an early Stephen King.
But with extra long verbosity and introduction of too many intersects to match past Nazi or "forgotten" history, for me anyway- the tension dissolved. By page 250 only a few of the characters kept their depth. And by page 300, they all had progressed from idealistic yet flat cardboard figures and finally converted to tech game avatars.
Very disappointed that such an excellent slant and conceptual premise could have ended up as only a 3 star. Because the premise is an exceptional one and it was translated well for a goodly portion. Mu itself and its components were ridiculous in comparison.
Forgot to add: ITALICS. Flash-backed past events and characters' histories are represented by a break in the normal print pattern/chapter. In other words, you will have page after page after page of italics to read over a dozen times in this book. It was appalling. No, beyond annoying to the point that I was taken right out of the complex storyline. Please, please, please, publishers and authors. Return to a more chronological and English specific norm of print. This method is overused and killed all the critical logic here- at the same time.
The time conundrums and other facile interconnections of gradients (as this book defines gradients) did not make sense by then, and the outcomes became cartoonish as a result.
This author has immense skill in interfacing current or past minutia of culture and media into context of story and characters. That was absolutely 5 star level, and the parts of the book I liked the best. It reminded me of an early Stephen King.
But with extra long verbosity and introduction of too many intersects to match past Nazi or "forgotten" history, for me anyway- the tension dissolved. By page 250 only a few of the characters kept their depth. And by page 300, they all had progressed from idealistic yet flat cardboard figures and finally converted to tech game avatars.
Very disappointed that such an excellent slant and conceptual premise could have ended up as only a 3 star. Because the premise is an exceptional one and it was translated well for a goodly portion. Mu itself and its components were ridiculous in comparison.
Forgot to add: ITALICS. Flash-backed past events and characters' histories are represented by a break in the normal print pattern/chapter. In other words, you will have page after page after page of italics to read over a dozen times in this book. It was appalling. No, beyond annoying to the point that I was taken right out of the complex storyline. Please, please, please, publishers and authors. Return to a more chronological and English specific norm of print. This method is overused and killed all the critical logic here- at the same time.
May 28, 2021
What if everything you’ve learned in history textbooks for the past two hundred years is completely wrong? What if something so horrible happened in our distant past that a decision was made, on a global level, to take steps to forget that it ever happened?
This is the premise of James Renner’s trippy, suspenseful, funny, and frightening science fiction novel “The Great Forgetting”. Part Philip K. Dick, part “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, and part “The Matrix”, Renner’s novel will make one question everything you thought you knew. Keep telling yourself it’s just a novel, it’s just a novel, it’s just a novel because the alternative is too terrifying to contemplate.
It starts innocently enough. Jack Felter, a high school history teacher, reluctantly comes back to his hometown of Franklin Mills, Ohio to help his sister care for his father, who is suffering from dementia. There’s also the matter of his best friend Tony’s disappearance. Tony married Jack’s childhood love, Samantha, so he hasn’t really had a desire to come back to his small hometown. Too many memories. At Sam’s request, however, Jack decides to play amateur detective.
Tony was a psychologist at a mental institution. His last patient was a young teenaged boy named Cole. Cole claims that reality isn’t what everyone thinks it is, that it’s actually the year 2132, that a shadow government controls the world via fluoride in the water and chemtrails. He also says that people who choose to remember can escape to the lost continent of Mu, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Without giving too much away (and I feel that I’ve said too much already), I’ll just say that “The Great Forgetting” cleverly and plausibly utilizes almost every classic conspiracy theory ever documented. Renner even comes up with a few new ones. Seriously, he makes Alex Jones look not paranoid enough.
While there is a tongue-in-cheek silliness to the novel, Renner does raise a serious philosophical question: Is our mind’s ability to suppress painful memories a defense mechanism or is it an unhealthy brain function that prevents us from fully maturing and evolving, individually and as a species?
As he has shown in his nonfiction works such as “The Serial Killer’s Apprentice” and “True Crime Addict”, Renner has a talent for telling a riveting and creepy story. He clearly carries that talent into his fiction.
This is the first novel by Renner that I have read, and I look forward to reading more by him. “The Man from Primrose Lane” is next on my list...
This is the premise of James Renner’s trippy, suspenseful, funny, and frightening science fiction novel “The Great Forgetting”. Part Philip K. Dick, part “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, and part “The Matrix”, Renner’s novel will make one question everything you thought you knew. Keep telling yourself it’s just a novel, it’s just a novel, it’s just a novel because the alternative is too terrifying to contemplate.
It starts innocently enough. Jack Felter, a high school history teacher, reluctantly comes back to his hometown of Franklin Mills, Ohio to help his sister care for his father, who is suffering from dementia. There’s also the matter of his best friend Tony’s disappearance. Tony married Jack’s childhood love, Samantha, so he hasn’t really had a desire to come back to his small hometown. Too many memories. At Sam’s request, however, Jack decides to play amateur detective.
Tony was a psychologist at a mental institution. His last patient was a young teenaged boy named Cole. Cole claims that reality isn’t what everyone thinks it is, that it’s actually the year 2132, that a shadow government controls the world via fluoride in the water and chemtrails. He also says that people who choose to remember can escape to the lost continent of Mu, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Without giving too much away (and I feel that I’ve said too much already), I’ll just say that “The Great Forgetting” cleverly and plausibly utilizes almost every classic conspiracy theory ever documented. Renner even comes up with a few new ones. Seriously, he makes Alex Jones look not paranoid enough.
While there is a tongue-in-cheek silliness to the novel, Renner does raise a serious philosophical question: Is our mind’s ability to suppress painful memories a defense mechanism or is it an unhealthy brain function that prevents us from fully maturing and evolving, individually and as a species?
As he has shown in his nonfiction works such as “The Serial Killer’s Apprentice” and “True Crime Addict”, Renner has a talent for telling a riveting and creepy story. He clearly carries that talent into his fiction.
This is the first novel by Renner that I have read, and I look forward to reading more by him. “The Man from Primrose Lane” is next on my list...
December 27, 2016
I had high expectations for this because I loved The Man from Primrose Lane so much. I enjoyed the first half of this a lot. It's a conspiracy theory oriented sci-fi thriller and that first half did get into my head a couple of times. Unfortunately the second half ended up taking it into rather too ridiculous territory. I still enjoyed it, it just wasn't as good as I had hoped.
Still, maybe I should start boiling my water...
Still, maybe I should start boiling my water...
November 22, 2015
Some books are special. They make you look at the world around you in a different way. They fill your heart and your mind with 'what ifs'. They make you think of possibilities.
This is one of these books.
I recently read James Renner's first fiction novel, The Man from Primrose Lane and fell in love with his style. Then I learned he was releasing a new book soon and couldn't wait to read it. I bought The Great Forgetting the morning it was released, and started reading immediately. Unfortunately, it was a busy week and I couldn't read much during it but as soon as Saturday arrived, I put all my focus on it. I knew it would be a great ride, I just didn't anticipate it being so intense - way more intense than The Man From Primrose Lane.
I got attached to one of the main characters, Cole. He grew on me to a point that I was really caring about his future and well being.
There are great characters in this book - it's not a one person adventure. Nils, for example, brings a bit of much needed comic relief. The Captain is one of the brightest spots. I'm a little ambivalent to Sam. Jake is the appointed hero, the official main character so to speak, but to me, the real star, the real hero, is Cole.
There's not a real, defined villain in this story. There are mentions of bad guys, sure, and even brief appearances of a few, but what you have is mainly misguided beings. Beings wanting the same thing, but going at it differently because of their own experiences and approaches to life and society.
This book is rich in so many aspects. It is something that needs to be read, needs to be experienced. I highly reccommend it.
Congratulations, James Renner on this brilliant work.
Footnote: If you're a fan of dystopian novels, you should definitely check this out, even thought it's not one per se, you'll find many elements that you will enjoy.
This is one of these books.
I recently read James Renner's first fiction novel, The Man from Primrose Lane and fell in love with his style. Then I learned he was releasing a new book soon and couldn't wait to read it. I bought The Great Forgetting the morning it was released, and started reading immediately. Unfortunately, it was a busy week and I couldn't read much during it but as soon as Saturday arrived, I put all my focus on it. I knew it would be a great ride, I just didn't anticipate it being so intense - way more intense than The Man From Primrose Lane.
I got attached to one of the main characters, Cole. He grew on me to a point that I was really caring about his future and well being.
There are great characters in this book - it's not a one person adventure. Nils, for example, brings a bit of much needed comic relief. The Captain is one of the brightest spots. I'm a little ambivalent to Sam. Jake is the appointed hero, the official main character so to speak, but to me, the real star, the real hero, is Cole.
There's not a real, defined villain in this story. There are mentions of bad guys, sure, and even brief appearances of a few, but what you have is mainly misguided beings. Beings wanting the same thing, but going at it differently because of their own experiences and approaches to life and society.
This book is rich in so many aspects. It is something that needs to be read, needs to be experienced. I highly reccommend it.
Congratulations, James Renner on this brilliant work.
Footnote: If you're a fan of dystopian novels, you should definitely check this out, even thought it's not one per se, you'll find many elements that you will enjoy.
May 16, 2016
Stories are magic, and that is why the first thing any dictator does is to ban the stories that do not agree with him.
Brace for impact! A different thrill of spectacular from James Renner. An intriguing story with a scandalous vision that would have made Ray Bradbury read.
James Renner is my new favorite author. He once again succeeded in making me ditch my work and finish the book. His writing is so good it blew my mind. He once again proved the power of a straightforward storytelling without dropping too many adjectives and sentence enhancers. The Great Forgetting had it all except a foreseen ending. 4 stars because I felt the ending happened sooner than it otherwise would. This needs a sequel. Cannot end this way. It will be a delight for readers to read The Great Remembering. His writing is reason enough to keep reading.
Don't let this undeniable page-turner turn out to be a great miss. Put your trust in James Renner. But before that, You Need To Start Boiling Your Water.
October 7, 2016
The vertiginous veering between four stars and two! This starts out with a bang, reminiscent of Stephen King’s short story N. inasmuch as it involves a patient/psychiatrist relationship that devolves due to the patient’s growing influence over their doctor. While I find most of the conspiracy theories discussed implausible, it’s still fun for me to suspend disbelief and wonder 'What If' along with the protagonist, Jack Felter – what if the fluoride in our water is there to keep us docile instead of cavity-free? What really is the deal with contrails? Is the paranoid Cole actually on to something or is Jack being sucked into his delusion?
There's a lot of exciting buildup, but once the story heads into what does it all mean territory, the writing begins to rush. The characters are heading somewhere for most of the book, but once they get there, actions are compressed and sensible explanations go by the wayside; in particular, there's some totally egregious stuff about teleporting belts to save the day that made me roll my eyes. Everything about their destination seems a little weird but nothing about that gets explored. At least seven weeks of plot happen off-page, and then the story veered straight downhill and I almost stopped reading altogether Just writing this is making me angry at the ending all over again. Two and 1/2 stars.
There's a lot of exciting buildup, but once the story heads into what does it all mean territory, the writing begins to rush. The characters are heading somewhere for most of the book, but once they get there, actions are compressed and sensible explanations go by the wayside; in particular, there's some totally egregious stuff about teleporting belts to save the day that made me roll my eyes. Everything about their destination seems a little weird but nothing about that gets explored. At least seven weeks of plot happen off-page, and then the story veered straight downhill and I almost stopped reading altogether Just writing this is making me angry at the ending all over again. Two and 1/2 stars.
November 4, 2015
Renner (The Man from Primrose Lane) begins—or does he end?—with an epilog in which a freshly severed monkey paw is found in the woods of rural Pennsylvania clutching the watch of one of the victims of Flight 93, which crash-landed there 14 years earlier. The paw is tattooed with a bright red swastika. Say what? Say “yeah.” The story proper focuses on history teacher Jack Felter, who returns to his pastoral Ohio hometown to help care for his ex-soldier father, now unstable with dementia. It’s the last place Jack wants to be—too many psychic wounds that he blames on his two ex-crushes who ran off together to get married. One, Tony, disappeared three years ago, and the other, Samantha, enlists Jack’s help in finding out wtf happened. Tony was a shrink, and Jack discovers that within two weeks of treating the teenage Cole he was raving about the water supply. Within 26 days, Tony had vanished into thin air. Jack contacts Cole to flush out the scoop, and the boy slowly compels Jack into believing that this world isn’t reality, that dark powers fomented a Great Forgetting centered on lies, half-truths (like who won World War II) and mass hypnosis. Foreshadowing abounds. Dad advises Jack to “…play both sides.” Tony at one point says “[m]emory is about trust.” Jack is spurred to think, “[o]ur grasp on the truth is dependent of the honesty of older generations.” Which is the rub—there’s believability, authenticity here, a lot of it. The likable story moves quickly and has Jack sucked deep and fast into conspiracy theories about everything. Intricate, but easy to follow, this is well done with solid emotional anchors surrounding Jack’s father and Sam. VERDICT If you enjoy alternate histories, this is a damn good one.
Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.
Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.
November 26, 2015
Great ideas, great imagination. Renner knows this is his strength, and he plays to it nicely. I found "The Man on Primrose Lane" more grounded in real science, more believable (while many might have found it completely unbelievable). But I found this one more disturbing (and I think more people will agree with me here): Renner is asking us to look at one specific event differently, and it's a tough proposition.
March 1, 2018
Could he follow the thread of his story back to a single moment in time where he might have saved everyone and everything? He could. He could.
Jack Felter, a history teacher and history nerd in general, returns to his hometown, Franklin Mills, Ohio to care for his dementia-stricken father with school out for the summer.
While there, he falls back in with his ex-girlfriend, Sam. Sam broke his heart by choosing his best friend over him. He wants to leave that adolescent pain in the past where it belongs, but Sam approaches him almost immediately with a problem.
The problem?
Tony, his best friend, disappeared three years ago. Sam thinks he committed suicide after being driven insane by one of his psychiatric patients, and needs Jack's help to drag the lake, their childhood playground, for his body.
"Fucking crazytown."
With a beginning like that, you're probably starting to see what you're in for.
After a fruitless attempt at recovering Tony's body, Jack becomes determined to help Sam get the insurance money for his death, which she needs to keep her store open.
Jack traces Tony's last known steps to Haven, an in-patient psychiatric and rehabilitation clinic.
There, after a stern warning from Sam, Jack meets Tony's last patient, seventeen-year-old Cole Monroe, a paranoid schizophrenic who's diagnosis came after being in the car accident that killed his father.
Tony was the only doctor to get through to him.
But, was it really Tony getting through to Cole, or-?
"The thing is, I'm not crazy. The rest of the world is. And yes, I know how crazy that sounds."
Jack plays along, hoping Cole can somehow lead to Tony.
But something happens.
Cole reveals a selectively-known theory, a conspiracy that's been hidden in plain sight for nobody knows how long.
"The only thing easier than rewriting history is deleting history."
"It was called The Great Forgetting."
The Great Forgetting is a complicated plot to unravel, the basics being rolled out through what Cole's father called the Seven Gradients.
It begins with flouride, first used in Nazi concentration camps (true). It jumps from there to the Emergency Alert System (which, play Devil's advocate if i may, was not functioning on the morning of September 11th, 2001). It keeps going until you're up to your neck in mercury, Mohamed Atta, Mangele... And the Maestro.
The Great Forgetting is overseen by a shadow ops group and handled by a secret person known as the Maestro. There's no way to know what all's been covered up, what all's been erased, and what all's been rewritten.
"This is fucking crazy."
As hard to believe as it obviously is, the history nerd in Jack is eager to listen to Cole's plot, partially for his own enjoyment, partially because it may very well tell him where that son of a bitch Tony is.
But Jack didn't count on one contingency.
Cole's not crazy.
Cole's theories, Jack realizes, are all rooted in obscure nuggets of truth. Not exactly the surprise of the year, but Jack finds himself caught in the Great Forgetting's web, and once in, the only way out is to debunk it somehow.
Which Jack can't.
The Forgettings skip over Cole. When Jack witnesses a mass effect of one, he can no longer deny the fact that something isn't right, and that Tony may have had good reason to disappear to where he couldn't forget.
"You can't stop it. It was built to last forever."
Together with Cole, Sam, his father The Captain, and three-hundred-eighty-pound Warcraft-playing redheaded Viking and childhood friend, Nils, Jack sets out to find Tony, and with him, answers.
"It's a crazy fucking plan."
"It's a crazy fucking world."
But this ragtag band of brokenhearted castouts are up against a society determined to keep the masses in the dark.
"Only together can we forget."
The few and the one have to decide how the many can be salvaged.
"Freedom can't be granted. It must be won."
Renner is a wordsmith, in more than just the figurative sense. The words he uses, the way he strings this plot together, is fucking scary.
And not just what he makes you believe.
What he makes you forget.
The Great Forgetting isn't your normal thriller or missing persons mystery.
These characters (and not just how many times they say 'fuck') won me over, big time. They were real and totally believable. Cole was probably my favorite, but Jack came in at a close second. They were bewildered at points, but always ready to keep digging for the truth.
There's some killer shoutouts I considered ruining, but going into this story knowing as little as possible is recommended. Rose-colored glasses available at the kiosk up front.
Five stars, because it helped me claw out of a slump and it got me feeling good and creeped for a bit.
"Fuckin' A."
"Yeah, fuckin' A."
I'm not getting fitted for a tin hat any time soon, but some of Renner's conspiracies were rooted in big enough nuggets of truth (don't get me started on the nuggets, man) and they're fun to turn around in your head when you can't sleep.
Take them all with a grain of salt, and just enjoy the ride. Because if you look too closely, you'll start to forget.
"Far out, man! Far fucking out!"
Jack Felter, a history teacher and history nerd in general, returns to his hometown, Franklin Mills, Ohio to care for his dementia-stricken father with school out for the summer.
While there, he falls back in with his ex-girlfriend, Sam. Sam broke his heart by choosing his best friend over him. He wants to leave that adolescent pain in the past where it belongs, but Sam approaches him almost immediately with a problem.
The problem?
Tony, his best friend, disappeared three years ago. Sam thinks he committed suicide after being driven insane by one of his psychiatric patients, and needs Jack's help to drag the lake, their childhood playground, for his body.
"Fucking crazytown."
With a beginning like that, you're probably starting to see what you're in for.
After a fruitless attempt at recovering Tony's body, Jack becomes determined to help Sam get the insurance money for his death, which she needs to keep her store open.
Jack traces Tony's last known steps to Haven, an in-patient psychiatric and rehabilitation clinic.
There, after a stern warning from Sam, Jack meets Tony's last patient, seventeen-year-old Cole Monroe, a paranoid schizophrenic who's diagnosis came after being in the car accident that killed his father.
Tony was the only doctor to get through to him.
But, was it really Tony getting through to Cole, or-?
"The thing is, I'm not crazy. The rest of the world is. And yes, I know how crazy that sounds."
Jack plays along, hoping Cole can somehow lead to Tony.
But something happens.
Cole reveals a selectively-known theory, a conspiracy that's been hidden in plain sight for nobody knows how long.
"The only thing easier than rewriting history is deleting history."
"It was called The Great Forgetting."
The Great Forgetting is a complicated plot to unravel, the basics being rolled out through what Cole's father called the Seven Gradients.
It begins with flouride, first used in Nazi concentration camps (true). It jumps from there to the Emergency Alert System (which, play Devil's advocate if i may, was not functioning on the morning of September 11th, 2001). It keeps going until you're up to your neck in mercury, Mohamed Atta, Mangele... And the Maestro.
The Great Forgetting is overseen by a shadow ops group and handled by a secret person known as the Maestro. There's no way to know what all's been covered up, what all's been erased, and what all's been rewritten.
"This is fucking crazy."
As hard to believe as it obviously is, the history nerd in Jack is eager to listen to Cole's plot, partially for his own enjoyment, partially because it may very well tell him where that son of a bitch Tony is.
But Jack didn't count on one contingency.
Cole's not crazy.
Cole's theories, Jack realizes, are all rooted in obscure nuggets of truth. Not exactly the surprise of the year, but Jack finds himself caught in the Great Forgetting's web, and once in, the only way out is to debunk it somehow.
Which Jack can't.
The Forgettings skip over Cole. When Jack witnesses a mass effect of one, he can no longer deny the fact that something isn't right, and that Tony may have had good reason to disappear to where he couldn't forget.
"You can't stop it. It was built to last forever."
Together with Cole, Sam, his father The Captain, and three-hundred-eighty-pound Warcraft-playing redheaded Viking and childhood friend, Nils, Jack sets out to find Tony, and with him, answers.
"It's a crazy fucking plan."
"It's a crazy fucking world."
But this ragtag band of brokenhearted castouts are up against a society determined to keep the masses in the dark.
"Only together can we forget."
The few and the one have to decide how the many can be salvaged.
"Freedom can't be granted. It must be won."
Renner is a wordsmith, in more than just the figurative sense. The words he uses, the way he strings this plot together, is fucking scary.
And not just what he makes you believe.
What he makes you forget.
The Great Forgetting isn't your normal thriller or missing persons mystery.
These characters (and not just how many times they say 'fuck') won me over, big time. They were real and totally believable. Cole was probably my favorite, but Jack came in at a close second. They were bewildered at points, but always ready to keep digging for the truth.
There's some killer shoutouts I considered ruining, but going into this story knowing as little as possible is recommended. Rose-colored glasses available at the kiosk up front.
Five stars, because it helped me claw out of a slump and it got me feeling good and creeped for a bit.
"Fuckin' A."
"Yeah, fuckin' A."
I'm not getting fitted for a tin hat any time soon, but some of Renner's conspiracies were rooted in big enough nuggets of truth (don't get me started on the nuggets, man) and they're fun to turn around in your head when you can't sleep.
Take them all with a grain of salt, and just enjoy the ride. Because if you look too closely, you'll start to forget.
"Far out, man! Far fucking out!"
March 7, 2017
Conspiracy theories abound in The Great Forgetting. Jack returns to Franklin Mills to help his sister Jean care for their dementia-ridden father and is pulled into a search for his long missing best friend Tony, who was married to the love of his life, Sam. In the course of the search, Jack meets with Tony's former psychiatric patient, Cole, who tells him Tony is alive and they can find him together. What follows is a series of escalating conspiracy theories explored and plowed through on the path to the truth. Is that a lot of stuff to process? It's just the tip of the iceberg.
The mysterious build up and action sequences are probably the best bits of the book. The flat characters, veiled allusions to events and lack of scientific explanation took me out of the story though. That being said, it was highly readable and kept events moving at a nice clip (if not a little rushed at the end).
3 stars and a lingering question of whether speculative fiction is for me.
My thanks to the publisher; I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
The mysterious build up and action sequences are probably the best bits of the book. The flat characters, veiled allusions to events and lack of scientific explanation took me out of the story though. That being said, it was highly readable and kept events moving at a nice clip (if not a little rushed at the end).
3 stars and a lingering question of whether speculative fiction is for me.
My thanks to the publisher; I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
September 1, 2019
The Man from Pimrose Lane was such a fun read. That story had a plotline that took some very unexpected and crazy turns. I five starred it.
The Great Forgetting is not much different. Oh man, the ingredients that went into this one...like just about every conspiracy myth and unknown mysteries that have been part of our history. At times outlandish to the extreme and sometimes ridiculous, this one really went over the top.
Of course, the less said about this the better. The reveals will make you laugh, groan, and maybe even think: what if?
On the plot and reveals alone I would give this novel 5 stars easy. But I was a bit annoyed at how, at every dangerous turn, our heroes didn't need to use one iota of coercion to get information on all the secrets here. Information was served up on a golden platter to them, and the fact that this was such a heavily guarded secret that no qualms were given over killing to preserve the secrets, except for these people, was a bit of a joke. The villains sang like canaries!
But, it was a device to move the plot along quickly, so there's that.
However, this pretty much took the cake:
OK, he's clearly having fun here, I imagine he was deliberately causing reader eyeroll.
Outlandish, clever, outrageous, you've got it all here. I can't not recommended it despite my little issues with it. Just a hair over 4 stars, and all sorts of "what ifs" you'll want to blab about to all your friends.
The Great Forgetting is not much different. Oh man, the ingredients that went into this one...like just about every conspiracy myth and unknown mysteries that have been part of our history. At times outlandish to the extreme and sometimes ridiculous, this one really went over the top.
Of course, the less said about this the better. The reveals will make you laugh, groan, and maybe even think: what if?
On the plot and reveals alone I would give this novel 5 stars easy. But I was a bit annoyed at how, at every dangerous turn, our heroes didn't need to use one iota of coercion to get information on all the secrets here. Information was served up on a golden platter to them, and the fact that this was such a heavily guarded secret that no qualms were given over killing to preserve the secrets, except for these people, was a bit of a joke. The villains sang like canaries!
But, it was a device to move the plot along quickly, so there's that.
However, this pretty much took the cake:
OK, he's clearly having fun here, I imagine he was deliberately causing reader eyeroll.
Outlandish, clever, outrageous, you've got it all here. I can't not recommended it despite my little issues with it. Just a hair over 4 stars, and all sorts of "what ifs" you'll want to blab about to all your friends.
November 27, 2015
Now and then, I come across an interview with an author where the question is asked “What is the book you wish you'd written?” I hadn't ever given the question much thought, but as I anticipated the release of James Renner's latest novel, it came to me: The Man from Primrose Lane. Now, I don't wish I'd written what was Renner's first novel because I consider it to be the greatest work of literature ever; I cherish The Man from Primrose Lane because Renner was able to write in a way that I love but am—at present—incapable of duplicating. You see, when it comes to stories I have two great loves: one is the dramatic, the epic, the heart warming and the heartrending (East of Eden, Atonement, Short Term 12, The Wonder Years); the other (which I love in equal measure), is the bizarre, the unexpected, the paranormal and paranoid (The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, We Have Always Lived in the Castle). In my own writing, I write like the first. I'm okay with that. But I do wish I could write in both styles. And The Man from Primrose Lane is the best, most unexpected work in the genre I've come across since the heyday of the genre in the sixties and seventies.
So when I cracked open the cover of The Great Forgetting I was thrilled to discover a nod to The Twilight Zone itself in a chapter title and epigraph. It took all of two minutes to realize the entire book was filled with these titles and quotes. (I admit I flipped all the way through to the end reading the episode titles and reminiscing about the classic sci-fi show before reading the novel's opening paragraph.) At this point, expectations were high. SUPER HIGH.
Renner didn't let me down. Right away the story was intriguing. I was pulled into the mystery and marveled at the brilliance of the plot. My appetite for conspiracies was sated. There was a little bit of all those elements that make the genre great without a loss of quality writing. I made speculations as to what was going on; my reading was fueled by my desire to reach the conclusion.
Then the novel became a bit bogged down by all it was trying to hold up and keep together. The story depended too much on its absurdities and grew convoluted. In defense of the author, I admit it was a lot to hold together: layered conspiracies, anomalies, maintaining relevance, and being the follow-up to such a great predecessor. Certainly, only a well-trained, intelligent and patient author could even formulate such a plot. Myself, I am not such an author.
(Note: This is a vague review. It's vague on purpose, because the thing about Renner's style is that saying anything is almost saying too much. This was particularly true with The Man from Primrose Lane, but it applies here as well.)
So yes, I hoped for more with The Great Forgetting, but that's not to say I was disappointed. My expectations were high, and even though Renner's second novel did not reach the heights I had hoped for, it was still an engrossing, well-written novel. I've read some Stephen King. I've read every novel of David Mitchell's. Without a doubt, James Renner is of their caliber.
Oh, my other great love? Willy Wonka. And there were several nods to the candyman in this novel as well. Thank you, Mr. Renner, for making me giggle with school-girl-like excitement.
So when I cracked open the cover of The Great Forgetting I was thrilled to discover a nod to The Twilight Zone itself in a chapter title and epigraph. It took all of two minutes to realize the entire book was filled with these titles and quotes. (I admit I flipped all the way through to the end reading the episode titles and reminiscing about the classic sci-fi show before reading the novel's opening paragraph.) At this point, expectations were high. SUPER HIGH.
Renner didn't let me down. Right away the story was intriguing. I was pulled into the mystery and marveled at the brilliance of the plot. My appetite for conspiracies was sated. There was a little bit of all those elements that make the genre great without a loss of quality writing. I made speculations as to what was going on; my reading was fueled by my desire to reach the conclusion.
Then the novel became a bit bogged down by all it was trying to hold up and keep together. The story depended too much on its absurdities and grew convoluted. In defense of the author, I admit it was a lot to hold together: layered conspiracies, anomalies, maintaining relevance, and being the follow-up to such a great predecessor. Certainly, only a well-trained, intelligent and patient author could even formulate such a plot. Myself, I am not such an author.
(Note: This is a vague review. It's vague on purpose, because the thing about Renner's style is that saying anything is almost saying too much. This was particularly true with The Man from Primrose Lane, but it applies here as well.)
So yes, I hoped for more with The Great Forgetting, but that's not to say I was disappointed. My expectations were high, and even though Renner's second novel did not reach the heights I had hoped for, it was still an engrossing, well-written novel. I've read some Stephen King. I've read every novel of David Mitchell's. Without a doubt, James Renner is of their caliber.
Oh, my other great love? Willy Wonka. And there were several nods to the candyman in this novel as well. Thank you, Mr. Renner, for making me giggle with school-girl-like excitement.
February 13, 2017
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
This is some book!
If you're looking for a book with a complex, intricate plot, this is the book for you. If you looking for a book that makes you question whether the history you have been taught is true, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that is engrossing and a thrilling read, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that is filled with conspiracy theories, this is the book for you.
This was a great read and I will be looking for more of this author's works.
This is some book!
If you're looking for a book with a complex, intricate plot, this is the book for you. If you looking for a book that makes you question whether the history you have been taught is true, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that is engrossing and a thrilling read, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that is filled with conspiracy theories, this is the book for you.
This was a great read and I will be looking for more of this author's works.
December 3, 2015
What. What just happened. I don't know how to review this.
Okay, first of all, this book is more about the idea than the characters. There is not a ton of character development. There's a lot of potential in Sam, a woman who has been abused by the men in her life since she was a child, but Renner never takes it anywhere. There are parallels with Scopes, one of the Hounds, and his abuse at the hands of his makers.
But really this is about the idea, which is crazy. I'm not even sure if it's offensive. You know how some people think there are topics you shouldn't joke about? This is maybe a topic that shouldn't be approached....in this particular way. I'm not sure. It isn't a joke, but it is an extreme retelling of history.
I didn't like it as much as The Man From Primrose Lane, but I did enjoy it.
Okay, first of all, this book is more about the idea than the characters. There is not a ton of character development. There's a lot of potential in Sam, a woman who has been abused by the men in her life since she was a child, but Renner never takes it anywhere. There are parallels with Scopes, one of the Hounds, and his abuse at the hands of his makers.
But really this is about the idea, which is crazy. I'm not even sure if it's offensive. You know how some people think there are topics you shouldn't joke about? This is maybe a topic that shouldn't be approached....in this particular way. I'm not sure. It isn't a joke, but it is an extreme retelling of history.
I didn't like it as much as The Man From Primrose Lane, but I did enjoy it.
March 26, 2017
List every conspiracy theory you've ever heard: that Atlantis exists, that fluoride in the water makes you stupid, that 9/11 was an inside job, that there's a secret cabal running the world, that the government is illicitly controlling the weather/history/people's minds, that at least some of the so-called crazy people locked up in psycho wards are there because they know something.... Link them all together in a deeply implausible but totally internally-consistent narrative. Throw in a love story, mix in some super-duper high-tech, season with suspense, add a dash of some serious questions (how we deal with guilt, for example), and set the cruise control at about 90 mph.
This fun-house of a book is what you get: unpredictable, loopy, madcap, occasionally touching and thought-provoking, and a heck of a lot of fun to read.
(Disclosure: I received this in a GR giveaway.)
This fun-house of a book is what you get: unpredictable, loopy, madcap, occasionally touching and thought-provoking, and a heck of a lot of fun to read.
(Disclosure: I received this in a GR giveaway.)
December 13, 2015
Imagine that everything you think you know about the history of the world was a lie, a lie so important that people would kill to keep you from learning the truth. That's the central premise of this novel, and it's frightening. I spent a bit of time between reading snatches of this book with reading online about various conspiracy theories. Fluoride in drinking water as a form of mind control, 'chemtrails' and many other nutty theories make up a good portion of this book. Doing the research made me feel slightly dirty.
Anyway, this was good read, and I'm picking up the author's The Man from Primrose Lane next.
Anyway, this was good read, and I'm picking up the author's The Man from Primrose Lane next.
November 20, 2015
It’s the Dan Brown of conspiracy novels. Everything from TacMars, fluoride, chemtrails, bigfoot, and somewhat worryingly, 9/11. But what is most interesting is the idea of Phantom Time, the idea that over the course of history, people in positions of power have modified the calendar to suit their own agendas. Scholars believe that Pope Sylvester II skipped a hundred years just so he could be the Pope of 1000 A.D. What if that happens all the time and we’re just not aware of it? What if WW2 extended beyond the borders of Europe and into the United States? And what if we just wanted to forget?
Boil your water and try to befriend someone with a metal plate in their head.
Boil your water and try to befriend someone with a metal plate in their head.
November 25, 2015
Loved this book for its complex characters, surprises, and a bit of a magical feeling mixed in with Sci-fi! Very thought provoking!
March 8, 2018
http://delivreenlivres.blogspot.fr/20...
Si j'aimais bien la première partie de ce thriller de Science-Fiction, j'ai eu de plus en plus de mal à trouver tout ça crédible au fur et à mesure qu'on avançait et que le coté SF se dévoilait. Mais malgré tout j'ai quand même trouvé la fin très satisfaisante.
Jack Felter, petit professeur d'histoire, revient dans sa ville natale pour aider sa sœur à s'occuper de leur père qui est en train de perdre la mémoire. Sur place il retrouve Sam, son amour d'enfance qui l'avait trahi en épousant son meilleur ami, Tony. Celle ci voudrait reprendre une vie normale mais ne peux pas parce que Tony a disparu depuis 3 ans et que l'enquête de police le concernant est toujours en cours, empêchant de le déclarer mort. Elle demande donc à Jack de l'aider à le retrouver, mort ou vif.
Jack se lance donc à la recherche de son ancien ami, et commence par se rapprocher du dernier patient de Tony, Cole, un jeune homme de 16 ans enfermé dans une institution car il affirme que le gouvernement nous cache la vérité et qu'il change les événements du passé à sa guise. Celui ci n'accepte d'aider Jack que si celui ci réalise une série d'expériences qui, au grand étonnement de celui ci, commencent à faire changer la réalité autour d'eux ...
Si il a un point que j'ai vraiment bien apprécié c'est la façon dont l'auteur s'empare de toutes les théories du complot qu'on voit trainer sur internet, comme les Chemtrails, ou le fluor dans l'eau pour en faire une intrigue énorme et qui se tient !
Sur ce point j'imagine qu'il c'est régalé et ça fait plaisir à voir. j'avoue que c'est limite jubilatoire certaines fois et ça m'a bien fait marrer.
Par contre pour moi l'auteur est allé (un peu) trop loin. A tel point qu'a certains moments on avait plus l'impression de trouver des gadgets sortis de Doctor Who (la ceinture boomerang ...) sans le moindre explications scientifique, que de vrais objets futuristes crédibles. Et c'est la que ça a bloqué, parce que si je ne peux pas valider ce point ci, tout le reste retombe totalement à plat et ça compromet la crédibilité de l'ensemble du scénario du livre parce qu'il est censé se dérouler dans un futur proche.
Du coup je suis un peu mitigée sur l'ensemble, et j'ai eu du mal à avancer passé un certain cap, surtout que c'est à se moment la que certaines longueurs sont apparues, dans la seconde partie.
C'est vraiment dommage parce que si on retire ce point la le reste est bien trouvé.
J'avoue par contre que j'ai adoré la fin, elle boucle vraiment tout et nous retourne la situation de façon vraiment intéressante. Du coup je ne regrette pas du tout d'avoir persévéré jusqu'au bout.
15/20
Si j'aimais bien la première partie de ce thriller de Science-Fiction, j'ai eu de plus en plus de mal à trouver tout ça crédible au fur et à mesure qu'on avançait et que le coté SF se dévoilait. Mais malgré tout j'ai quand même trouvé la fin très satisfaisante.
Jack Felter, petit professeur d'histoire, revient dans sa ville natale pour aider sa sœur à s'occuper de leur père qui est en train de perdre la mémoire. Sur place il retrouve Sam, son amour d'enfance qui l'avait trahi en épousant son meilleur ami, Tony. Celle ci voudrait reprendre une vie normale mais ne peux pas parce que Tony a disparu depuis 3 ans et que l'enquête de police le concernant est toujours en cours, empêchant de le déclarer mort. Elle demande donc à Jack de l'aider à le retrouver, mort ou vif.
Jack se lance donc à la recherche de son ancien ami, et commence par se rapprocher du dernier patient de Tony, Cole, un jeune homme de 16 ans enfermé dans une institution car il affirme que le gouvernement nous cache la vérité et qu'il change les événements du passé à sa guise. Celui ci n'accepte d'aider Jack que si celui ci réalise une série d'expériences qui, au grand étonnement de celui ci, commencent à faire changer la réalité autour d'eux ...
Si il a un point que j'ai vraiment bien apprécié c'est la façon dont l'auteur s'empare de toutes les théories du complot qu'on voit trainer sur internet, comme les Chemtrails, ou le fluor dans l'eau pour en faire une intrigue énorme et qui se tient !
Sur ce point j'imagine qu'il c'est régalé et ça fait plaisir à voir. j'avoue que c'est limite jubilatoire certaines fois et ça m'a bien fait marrer.
Par contre pour moi l'auteur est allé (un peu) trop loin. A tel point qu'a certains moments on avait plus l'impression de trouver des gadgets sortis de Doctor Who (la ceinture boomerang ...) sans le moindre explications scientifique, que de vrais objets futuristes crédibles. Et c'est la que ça a bloqué, parce que si je ne peux pas valider ce point ci, tout le reste retombe totalement à plat et ça compromet la crédibilité de l'ensemble du scénario du livre parce qu'il est censé se dérouler dans un futur proche.
Du coup je suis un peu mitigée sur l'ensemble, et j'ai eu du mal à avancer passé un certain cap, surtout que c'est à se moment la que certaines longueurs sont apparues, dans la seconde partie.
C'est vraiment dommage parce que si on retire ce point la le reste est bien trouvé.
J'avoue par contre que j'ai adoré la fin, elle boucle vraiment tout et nous retourne la situation de façon vraiment intéressante. Du coup je ne regrette pas du tout d'avoir persévéré jusqu'au bout.
15/20
September 18, 2018
There were times when reading this gave me that LOST (the TV series) feeling. I really enjoyed it, the way it is structured being pretty friendly, i.e. good pace, short chapters, round composition. Characters won't develop too much, but the storytelling does everything.
January 18, 2016
Jack Felter's father is suffering from dementia and his sister fears his final days are on their way. So Jack packs up and returns to his tiny hometown of Franklin Mills. It's not exactly a welcome homecoming for Jack. He's avoided Franklin Mills ever since his girlfriend married his best friend. Yes, that's right, Jack's girlfriend, Sam, married Jack's best friend, Tony. And now Tony is missing.
Tony's been gone for three years now and Sam is ready to move on. Without a body, though, the police won't allow Tony to be declared dead. Here's where Jack comes in: Sam is sure that Tony offed himself in the local lake and appeals to Jack for help. If he can find the body, Sam can collect on the life insurance. Then she won't lose everything she's worked for in the time since Tony abandoned her.
Jack agrees and arranges for a diver who does indeed turn up a body. And that's when things get really complicated. And weird.
You should know that this is not an easy book to sum up, especially without giving too much away. It involves history, some insane conspiracy theories (conspiracy theories that do exist!) and memory as we perceive it. It's a twisty turny read that will likely head in directions that you won't expect - or at least I didn't - it starts with an Epilogue for goodness sake!
From the start we do know that Jack is not looking forward to running into Sam. You might question, then, why he would be so willing to help her out (per the synopsis above). Well, present day Jack keeps things close for a while but Franklin Mills does force him to confront issues from his past, like his relationships with Sam and Tony. Through flashbacks we discover how they all met, how the relationships formed, and what ultimately went wrong. We also get flashbacks from a few other characters, all of which - and whom - move the story along quite brilliantly.
I'm going to stop there because I'm really too afraid of spoiling it. I've already removed quite a few things from this post that I thought would do exactly that so I know any more time I spend trying to write this risks even more potential surprise ruining quips.
I will add that I'm an unabashed fan girl for James Renner's fiction. His debut, The Man From Primrose Lane, is one of my all time favorites. That book blew me away and left me waiting with baited breath to see what Renner would have in store for readers the next go around. And while Man set the bar pretty high as far as expectations go, I have to say that The Great Forgetting more than lived up to those expectations.
Like Man, The Great Forgetting is another genre bender. It's part sci-fi, part mystery, and part a few other things. They're the hardest books to describe but, in my opinion they're often the most fabulous of reads.
Highly recommended!
Tony's been gone for three years now and Sam is ready to move on. Without a body, though, the police won't allow Tony to be declared dead. Here's where Jack comes in: Sam is sure that Tony offed himself in the local lake and appeals to Jack for help. If he can find the body, Sam can collect on the life insurance. Then she won't lose everything she's worked for in the time since Tony abandoned her.
Jack agrees and arranges for a diver who does indeed turn up a body. And that's when things get really complicated. And weird.
You should know that this is not an easy book to sum up, especially without giving too much away. It involves history, some insane conspiracy theories (conspiracy theories that do exist!) and memory as we perceive it. It's a twisty turny read that will likely head in directions that you won't expect - or at least I didn't - it starts with an Epilogue for goodness sake!
From the start we do know that Jack is not looking forward to running into Sam. You might question, then, why he would be so willing to help her out (per the synopsis above). Well, present day Jack keeps things close for a while but Franklin Mills does force him to confront issues from his past, like his relationships with Sam and Tony. Through flashbacks we discover how they all met, how the relationships formed, and what ultimately went wrong. We also get flashbacks from a few other characters, all of which - and whom - move the story along quite brilliantly.
I'm going to stop there because I'm really too afraid of spoiling it. I've already removed quite a few things from this post that I thought would do exactly that so I know any more time I spend trying to write this risks even more potential surprise ruining quips.
I will add that I'm an unabashed fan girl for James Renner's fiction. His debut, The Man From Primrose Lane, is one of my all time favorites. That book blew me away and left me waiting with baited breath to see what Renner would have in store for readers the next go around. And while Man set the bar pretty high as far as expectations go, I have to say that The Great Forgetting more than lived up to those expectations.
Like Man, The Great Forgetting is another genre bender. It's part sci-fi, part mystery, and part a few other things. They're the hardest books to describe but, in my opinion they're often the most fabulous of reads.
Highly recommended!
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