Review: Memory Man

Memory Man by David Baldacci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Memory Man was my first real David Baldacci read. He’s one of those authors that everyone seems to have read at some point, if only because he covers such an array of genres. I’d been meaning to pick up one of his other thrillers, as a friend of mine had enjoyed it, but in the end I found myself with this one – if only because it was going cheap in an offer that was on. As anyone who has read any of my other reviews will know, I’m a sucker for cheap books.

I’d been given a warning about his work prior to reading this, though. I was told he was rather repetitive when it came to information, and I can safely say I can understand why such a warning was given. Having completed this book in one sitting, I probably noticed the repetition more than others did; but even if I hadn’t performed a one-sit reading, I’m sure I would have noticed the repetition. It wasn’t a case of repetitive writing, insomuch as it was a case of repetitive information. I understand reminding the readers of facts… yet it happened far too often with things that did not need reminding. There was too much reiterating of things, even those that weren’t as important as the constant repetition would want you to believe.

Did you see how many times I wrote a variant of the word repetition in that paragraph? How you feel about the overuse of the word in a mere one-hundred-and-thirty-word paragraph is how I felt about the constant duplication of information throughout the book.

Nevertheless, as the four stars suggests, I did enjoy the read.

Throughout I had to silence the neurologist within. I found myself assessing the main character in a way that that I would assess cases in scientific journals. Such was not beneficial to my reading, not when it left my mind wandering. Still, this demonstrates how the author did his research. It wasn’t perfect, but these things very rarely are. Unless you experience something like this, it is hard to truly replicate it when writing fiction. I guess it was a good job the book was written in third person, as a first person experience of the disorders the main character had would have probably left me ranting and raving in a way nobody wants.

Putting that aside, moving back to the story, I can say I had a lot of fun with the mystery. There were some things that were obvious, but throughout you’re on the edge of your seat regarding what is to come next. We’re spoon fed information as the story progresses, things being held back about characters until they are important to the story. Such prevents us from working everything out at the get-go, lessening the blow of the more obvious aspects of the story.

Now whilst I did enjoy it enough to give it a four star rating, I’m not sure how I feel about the sequel. I’m interested to see what comes next, but it’s not a situation whereby I’ll go out of my way to read it instantly. Of course, this has happened before. I’ve found many series where the first book has merely been a decent introduction only for the second book to leave me addicted to the series and counting down until the next release. Thus, whilst I won’t be reading book two within the next few days, I will be reading the next book and I will make my choice regarding whether or not I wish to go on from what the second book gives me. My fingers are crossed, though, as there is quite a bit of promise.

Overall, it was a fun read. I’ll certainly be checking out more of Baldacci’s work in the future.

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