Review Detail

I was fresh out of college in 2001 and interning at a local high school. The Memory of Things is a powerful read. Personally, it brought up a lot of emotions, but in a good way. I instantly was transported back to the exact place I was sitting when the news spread around the school. I had friends interning in the towers, students had parents working in the city, and a coworker had a son-in-law working for Canter-Fitzgerald. Emotions were high and confusing and disbelief were rolling and weaving through everyone’s thoughts.
Gae Polisner takes all these emotions and crafts it into an exquisite story about loss, pain, survival, and perseverance.

I knew from the very first page that The Memory of Things was going to pull at my heart strings in some many different ways. But as Gae Poliner responded, it pulled but it didn’t break. And that shows just how resilient the human heart can be- we can feel pain, sorrow, intense loss, and with the power of hope, love, and tolerance, we can mend all those wounds and come out even stronger.

Underneath the historical context, The Memory of Things is lyrical, moving, and real. Polisner captures every hour and moment accurately in a physical and emotional way. Told through the eyes of two teenagers, one in prose and one in almost poetic way, this coming-of-age story is one everyone should read- young and old. It is one that should be read and talked about.

The Memory of Things is highly recommended. It is one of those books I know will never leave me and has left a tiny mark on my heart that I don’t ever want to go away.