The Memory Artists - Jeffrey Moore [0]
Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award
Shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
Shortlisted for the Sunburst Award
Shortlisted for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
Shortlisted for the WordsWorthy Award
“Combines smartness with wisdom… Almost absurdly inventive.”
—David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas,
in The Daily Telegraph Books of the Year review (U.K.)
“The Memory Artists is wonderful. Rich and humane, a repository of culture worth remembering, and a moving elaboration on the simple truth that we should do good for others.”
—Colin McAdam, author of Some Great Thing
“A model of inventiveness.”
—Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)
“All the hallmarks of [Moore’s] fiction are here. They include an ability to create engaging characters, and a fine balance of warmth, insight and eviscerating humour.”
—The Independent (U.K.)
“Ingenious… mesmerizing… reading it is like immersing oneself in a warm bath of words and ideas. There are many rich nuggets buried in The Memory Artists.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“A journey of fleeting moments and repetitive scenes, juxtaposing various shades of recollection with a dance of words… The Memory Artists is a marvel.”
—Edmonton Journal
“All the ingredients of an entertaining, seductive mystery… Moore repeatedly displays his ability to draw characters through subtle gestures.”
—Quill & Quire
“Infused with the same wit, verve and zany imagination that energises Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain… The sections that deal with Stella’s Alzheimer’s are wonderfully written and genuinely moving.”
—Literary Review of Canada
“Complex, ambitious structure… Moore should be commended for his inventiveness.”
—The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Virtuoso wit… Pythonesque (as in Monty, not lethal serpent)… crawling with tragic irony.”
—Mirror (Montreal)
“A hilarious yet poignant book about a young genius trying to deal with his mother’s Alzheimer’s… Entertaining and intelligent.”
—Flare
“Ingenious… A brainy follow-up to Red-Rose Chain.”
—Montreal Review of Books
“A novel that pushes at the edges of expectations… [that] dares to be different.”
—Edmonton Journal
“The winner of the Commonwealth Prize has again proven his talent for wry commentary… Moore’s clever, complicated construction testifies to his ability and broad imagination.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
“Dazzlingly learned… The results of Moore’s novelistic experiments are the more interesting for being unpredictable.”
—Books in Canada
“Twisted, tragicomic and extremely entertaining… The Memory Artists is one of those few novels that can pack humour, pathos, satire, love, friendship, hope and cynicism all in one volume… Like Life of Pi, The Memory Artists is one of those tales too fantastic to be true, yet so convincingly told that we can almost believe it. By turns puzzling, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, Jeffrey Moore’s witty prose will leave the reader out of breath at the end, wondering what the hell just happened.”
—The Link (Montreal)
“Moore’s comic genius is undisputed… The oddball relationship between the son who can’t forget and the mother who can’t remember is fraught with hope and laughter… Ribald and compelling, the humorist is always erudite and there many hilarious sequences that left me aching for more.”
—Hour (Montreal)
“Jeffrey Moore’s characters are brilliant and infuriating. Despicable and seductive. The Memory Artists is one of the few contemporary novels I plan to read again.”
—The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
“A metafictive puzzle box, a carefully structured collage of narrative voices… The novel is a delight… Challenging, often beautiful, and frequently inspired narrative play.”
—Straight (Vancouver)
“Genuinely moving.”
—The Vancouver Sun
“The story is unforgettably human… [It] leaves the reader spellbound.”
—Scotland on Sunday (U.K.)
“It is not often that I truly cannot decide whether a tale is fact or fiction… Jeffrey Moore uses Noel’s genius and synaesthesia to offer beautiful descriptions of luridly coloured (and memory dysfunctional)