The Memory Painter
by Gwendolyn Womack
I really liked the premise of this novel – Bryan paints scenes from his dreams, but they
aren’t like normal dreams. It is as if he is remembering his own life.
These dreams, and the aftermath, are very hard on him both
physically and mentally. They tire him, make him sick and confused. After the
dreams, he is often able to speak the language of the person he was in the
dream, fluently. The people in his dreams can also be verified to have existed,
historically. He becomes quite certain that these are past lives but
integrating and yet separating them from the present takes time.
Then Bryan meets Linz. He has an instant affinity for her
and, by concentrating, he can see who she was in his past life. She was in all
of them.
Finally, a past life comes to light which shows how
this all started.
In the 1980s, Bryan and a small group of researchers
were working on a medication to unlock memories for Alzheimer’s patients. The
researchers take the medication and because they are healthy, it unlocks past
lives. Another little catch - though this happened in a previous life, it seems
to carry over into the present one.
Also, Bryan and his wife in that life are killed in a
lab explosion.
Some people are still living from this previous life
while some people have died and been reincarnated. Sorting out who is a danger
and who is an ally can be a bit precarious.
I enjoyed this book, but had a little of an ambivalent
reaction to it. I felt that it both went on a little too long and also was not
in depth enough. It was very action oriented and I felt that perhaps the author
could have focused on a few less scenes and given them more depth.
In trying to capture the breadth of the history the
two characters had, I think she tried to pack too many lives in. They were
interesting, but too much is too much.
I still enjoyed it a good deal and would give it 3
stars. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations but I don’t feel like I
wasted my time reading it.
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