Reunited after all these years
The last time I interviewed Jon Bassoff about a book, Barack Obama was president. Yeah.
Jon has had a rewarding career of great book releases since then, and when I saw the synopsis for THE MEMORY WARD, I knew I had to read it and get him back on a call to catch up.
This book is going to invite comps like crazy, to stuff like Stepford Wives, Truman Show, and other classic stories about manipulation, control, and the fallibility of our own memories. I even added Memento and The Number 23 to the list in this conversation. So naturally if those things interest you, you should immediately buy this book and tear through it.
But know that it’s a story that is its own beast, and doesn’t ape other stories or sit in a trope. It’s a deftly crafted timeline of suspicion, paranoia, deception, and the need to feel in control of our own lives. The setting feels very 1950s, but it’s also modern, giving it an eerily manufactured setting which starts you and keeps you on edge.
I thought it was delightful, and Jon didn’t just hand us a story, he gave us a puzzle to try to figure out, all the way to the last sentence. Just great stuff.
Coming up on the podcast
I have a lot of irons in fires and so here are some of the names you can look forward to seeing/hearing soon: Nick Kolakowski, Sam Rebelein, Michael David Wilson, Drew Huff, Tim Waggonner, and a lot more!
For those who prefer YouTube:
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