Randy Haglund has taken a family tale and used the bones of it to frame a novel about a man who finds himself with no idea of his past and as a result, has to make his way through a stranger’s life – his own.
The book begins at the time when John Olson is challenged by someone at a station and realises that he doesn’t know who he is. We then explore the life of which he has no awareness and see the day-to-day anguish of his wife, Helen and their children as well as his parents, all of whom are wondering where he is and how they are going to survive without him.
It must be a terrible thing to lose your memory as along with it goes your identity and without context, it is incredibly difficult to understand your place within the world you inhabit. Haglund goes some way to show the stress that this places on Olson as he tries to find work so that he has some shelter and food at least, if not comfort. But even this is difficult if you have no idea of skills you have learned or capabilities you may have. One of the things that I liked is the way that Olson copes; he is sure that there are people that he has left behind but he realises that he has to keep going, living in a sort of stasis until his mind decides to recover. But there is always the chance that it won’t and this too is something that Olson tries to come to terms with.
Haglund is a competent writer and the book flows from start to finish as we follow Olson’s life under aliases he has to choose and jobs that he has to obtain in different places. The depiction of the family and their vulnerability now that the breadwinner has disappeared shows a resilience in the face of what could become destitution but just like Olson, there is a keenness to endure, despite the odds. I especially liked Helen’s gutsiness as well as Charles, her eldest boy’s, maturity in the face of adversity.
This is not a deeply thoughtful book but I think Haglund was right to embroider the facts as this novel has in its pages an enjoyable and reasonably suspenseful mystery which deserves to be shared.
This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC.
Scuffed Granny 