S.J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep has an interesting, and if you think about it long enough, unsettling, premise. A woman who was in an accident wakes after a coma with amnesia. Every night when she goes to sleep her memory is erased clean, and in the morning all she is left with are vague residual memories of long ago--nothing from her recent past. This isn't an entirely new story, and I've seen it done by other authors like Joy Fielding in See Jane Run. What's so uncomfortable about Christine's story is she has to reinvent her life every single day and there is little hope at the outset of the story of her ever regaining what she has lost.
Every morning when Christine wakes, she wakes in a bed she doesn't recognize and next to a man she believes she has never met before. She looks in a mirror and sees a face that she knows, but why has it aged? Where have the grey hair and wrinkles come from. Mounted to the edges of the mirror are snapshots of a younger Christine and the man who was in her bed, her husband Ben. And every morning he must sit down and explain to her her life. How she became the way she is. Then he must set off for work, leaving her alone with only a few instructions on a small blackboard to see her through the day until he returns home in the evening.
One day she hears a phone ringing in her bag. When she answers it a doctor is calling her to remind her to go to the closet and pull out the journal she has been keeping but hides away each day before Ben returns. In it she has been piecing together her life from what little she recalls and the questions she asks and the answers she's given. Dr. Nash has been working with her, trying new methods to help her remember her life. But Ben doesn't know about Dr. Nash. Ben very carefully edits her life, telling her only what he thinks she can handle. He tells her every day how much he loves her and shows her patience, but it's obvious something isn't right. Every day Christine reads this journal, which is the story of her life now and it doesn't always match what Ben tells her.
And that's about all I can tell you without spoiling it for you. This is a story that works better the less you know, as Watson only very gradually reveals Christine's story. This is also the sort of story that has the potential to become not only very repetitive but also a little frustrating if the pacing is off. Thankfully Watson knows just when the reader is starting to become fidgety and reveals a bit more. Christine is living the same life day after day, but it only brings to the fore the feeling of claustrophobia that she feels, as the reader begins to feel it, too. And then the paranoia sets in. Who can you believe. Can you even believe Christine?
As suspenseful stories goes, this is a good one, and all the more impressive as it is S.J. Watson's debut novel. It isn't completely without faults, however. The are long snatches of narrative told in journal format, and in that lots of dialogue. How likely is it that someone can remember so much and so well? And there is also the occasional moment of things happening that seem somewhat unlikely. The ending might be a tad over the top and maybe even a little predictable, but they are really minor quibbles and none of that made me enjoy the story any less. I think what raises it above the common garden variety of suspense stories is what Watson does with the theme of identity, and how the stories of our lives mould us and make us who we are, and then pulls the carpet out from under when those stories go away. All in all this was an enjoyable story and one that made many hours of otherwise boring gym time fly by, which I am always grateful for.
Kay at My Random Acts of Reading also read this recently. Check out what she has to say about it here. Lizzie at Euro Crime reviewed it here. This would make a great movie, but someone else already thought of that as it is slated to be filmed sometime soon.