Lapses
of Memory by M.S. Spencer
The
Wild Rose Press, 2017
Sydney
Bellek meets Elian Davies for the first time in the nineteen-fifties.
She’s five years old, he’s seven, and their respective families
are en route to Paris and beyond, flying on the magnificent
state-of-the-art Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. Though she feels a strong
connection with the older child, he quickly slips from her memory.
When she encounters him again, first when she’s a teen in
Gibraltar, then as a student of Arabic in Cairo, she senses something
familiar about his startling blue eyes, russet hair and stubborn
cowlick, but she doesn’t recognize him. Their lives run in parallel
as both become foreign journalists, covering the world’s conflicts
and crises, and competing for the top stories. Time after time, Elian
drifts in and out of Sydney’s life, almost like a ghost. Each
meeting is marked by a paradoxical level of comfort, given that
Sydney believes them to be strangers, as well as by the intense flare
of physical attraction. Before Sydney can figure out who he is or
what this means, however, Elian’s gone.
Then
fate throws them together in a perilous situation. They are captured
by one of the factions in the Lebanese civil war. Sydney escapes
unharmed, but Elian disappears and is believed dead. As she mourns,
Sydney begins to understand who Elian really is – her true soul
mate, as well as the father of her unborn child. For years she
searches without success for her lost lover. When she finally finds
him, he insists he has no recollection of her, or of his former
identity. After her own repeated memory lapses, Sydney struggles to
enlighten Elian about their shared past and to secure their hoped-for
future.
I
bought this book after reading the author’s blog post about its
origins (thus confirming that sometimes, at least, blogging is an
effective marketing tool!) According to the post, many of the scenes
and events in Lapses of Memory, particularly the journeys on
multiple generations of aircraft, are based on M.S. Spencer’s own
life experiences. An enthusiastic traveler myself, I was eager to
read a book that promised visits to Paris, Cairo, Beirut and other
exotic locales.
I
found myself enmeshed in a novel with a far more ambitious and
complex structure than is typical for romance. Lapses of Memory
shifts smoothly back and forth between the present and the past, as
Sydney narrates the story of her relationship with Elian to their
now-adult daughter, Olivia. Olivia, a romance author by profession,
is writing Sydney’s biography, but she’s not exactly an unbiased
observer. M.S. Spencer does an excellent job conveying both the
affection between mother and daughter and the mutual unease that
characterizes their journey into Sydney’s very personal history.
The
author’s prose is vivid and I enjoyed the glimpses she provides of
different locales and cultures, though these were not as extensive as
I had hoped. I did find the premise of the tale a bit
implausible. Then I thought about how poorly I recall some of the
people from my early years (I am almost exactly Sydney’s age), and
wondered whether in fact the core plot notion was as crazy as it
first seemed.
Overall,
I liked this book, but two aspects bothered me. First, I found the
ending somewhat dishonest. Throughout the novel, Sydney and Olivia
speak and act as if Elian had passed away at some point after he and
Sydney finally married. It was a shock to me to discover this was not
the case. I rather wonder about the author’s intentions in this
regard, or whether I seriously misread the interactions between mother
and daughter.
My
second criticism relates to the erotic content. As an erotic romance
author myself, I know the depth and intensity an explicit love scene
can bring to a story. M.S. Spencer’s sex scenes, however, gave me
the distinct impression that the author is not comfortable writing
about the details of sex. Her word choices and descriptive style
struck me as awkward, uneven and strained. Unlike the polished prose
in the rest of the book, these scenes felt amateurish and
embarrassed. It’s as if someone told M.S. Spencer ,“Well, you’ve
got to put in the sex, because that’s what readers want these
days”, and she forced herself to do this, even when this wasn’t
natural for her.
In
fact, Lapses of Memory would have worked perfectly well if the
sex had been more nuanced and less graphic, and I suspect the author
herself would have been far more comfortable. Though Sydney’s and
Elian’s connection expresses itself in intense physical attraction,
it’s fundamentally a spiritual bond. We expect them to become
lovers – we don’t need to see every step in that process.
In
summary, Lapses of Memory delivered on its promise of taking
me to far-off lands, as well as offering an original and engaging
love story. I’m glad I gave in to my impulse.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Let me know your thoughts! (And if you're having trouble commenting, try enabling third-party cookies in your browser...)