Set in the glittering art deco world of a century ago, MEM makes one slight alteration to history: a scientist in Montreal discovers a method allowing people to have their memories extracted from their minds, whole and complete. The Mems exist as mirror-images of their source ― zombie-like creatures destined to experience that singular memory over and over, until they expire in the cavernous Vault where they are kept.
And then there is Dolores Extract #1, the first Mem capable of creating her own memories. An ageless beauty shrouded in mystery, she is allowed to live on her own, and create her own existence, until one day she is summoned back to the Vault.
I don’t think I’ve read anything like MEM. Maybe The Deep by Rivers Solomon et al, but only because the latter book also deals with memory and forgetting. This is an incredibly unique book and a joy to read.
MEM by Bethany C. Morrow is set in Montreal, Canada during the 1920s. But in this version of the world, it’s possible to extract unwanted memories. Dolores Extract No. 1 is the extraction of a young, 19-year old Dolores. She is a young, Black socialite living in the high society of Canada. (There is an Author’s note at the end, explaining that racism certainly existed/exists in Canada. However, for the purpose of this story, the author chose not to make racism a part of the main character’s life.)
Dolores Extract No. 1 is so clearly different than other mems. For one, she responds to her environment. She produces novel speech, where other mems only parrot the speech from the memory they’re extracted from. Most importantly, she chooses a name for herself. She is Elsie, named after a character from a movie. There’s some subtle meta-commentary about how Elsie feels empathy for movie characters, even though she knows they’re not real. And the same goes for the characters in the book itself. You find yourself relating to them, even though they’re just characters in a story.
I think the best part of the whole book is the prose. It felt like poetry, and each moment flowed beautifully into the next. The book relies heavily on flashbacks that relate to the present-day scenes, and this style of writing just works wonderfully. One scene in particular I loved was a poignant one where Elsie is talking to a man named Harvey and thinks back to a letter she received from her/Dolores’s mother.
Really, it’s hard to talk about this book without gushing. It was right up my alley and ticked all the right boxes. The plot was straightforward, but it was carried by strong characters and strong writing. I also just like the spin on the adage that memories make us who we are — as seen through the Sources that become shells of their former selves, essentially mirror-images of their own mems they’ve extracted.
So yeah. Overall, I loved this book. You should read it. It’s bittersweet, beautifully written, and all around great. And I’m all here for it.
