The misremembered man
McKenna, Christina

The Misremembered Man was a bit of a mixed beast, parts of it deeply uncomfortable with the unflinching descriptions of abuse in the Catholic orphanage, other parts reading like they’d come from a 1960s farce – I’m thinking specifically on the wig scene and Lydia’s first blind date with the pompous ‘glamour’ photographer, which were only a breath short of ludicrous. The two main characters – Jamie McCloone and Lydia Devine – were quite deftly drawn, both showing the damage inflicted on children abandoned into uncaring care homes, both luckily adopted out to families, Jamie to a loving one, Lydia as a baby gifted to a strict Protestant household very short on hugs (though it is questionable whether a Catholic orphanage would allow any inmate, let alone a baby, to be adopted by such a family.)

Other characters were less successful and little short of caricature (Lydia’s mother and her mother’s sister, for example) but the plot bowled along. I found the main conceit a little coincidental – namely that a split up brother and sister would find themselves on either side of a random ‘lonely hearts’ advert – of all the people in all the world etc. And their independent discovery at exactly the same time and by rather fortuitous routes that they’re brother and sister didn’t really merit scrutiny.

But the attempted suicide of Jamie was well done, and the ending satisfying, if a little clichéd in that they both start up relationships with Nice People and go on to have happy lives despite the damage wrought by their past.

And does anyone have the slightest idea how the title of the book relates to its contents?!

Publication Information

Publisher: AmazonEncore
ISBN: 9781935597766