Readers Companions - Memory Man: By David Baldacci | Digest & Review

A READERS COMPANION TO

David Baldaccis

Memory Man

DIGEST & REVIEW

By Readers Companion

Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved.

Published in the USA

Disclaimer:

This product is licensed for personal usage only and may not be re-sold. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed without prior written consent of the publisher.

Applicable intellectual property (product names, trademarks, etc) featured or referred to within this publication is the property of respective trademark holders and is not endorsed, authorized, licensed, nor affiliated in any way.

The publisher and author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of contents within the book and disclaim all warranties and liabilities for any damages whatsoever.

T

HE NAME DAVID BALDACCI IS synonymous with best-sellers all around the world, and he does not disappoint with Memory Man . He gives the readers something that they will love and remember for a long time. He delivers a thriller novel with an unlikely hero. Memory Man is a gripping page-turner to the very end.

The unusual central character goes by the name of Amos Decker. He is a fat man with hyperthymesia and synesthesia. Hyperthymesia is a condition in which a person has anexceptional memory and is able to recollect any scene that he has previously witnessed. Most people are born with hyperthymesia but in certain situations, it is acquired through intense brain trauma. Synesthesia is a condition in which a person experiences involuntary sensory reaction caused by another sense in the body. Amos has what is known as graphene-color synesthesia, so when he recalls the murder of his family, he envisions it in the color blue. He also perceives numbers in a different way; they take different shapes.

The author has given a unique twist to his personality to make him more interesting. One of the many quirks of Amoss character is that he considers the number three as his enemy and hence avoids it at all costs. It also becomes difficult for him to relate to people in a normal manner. He becomes focused on small details of even the most routine things. This, in part, makes him a very effective detective; he does not miss a single thing, nor does he forget. He was not born with these rare conditions but, in fact, he acquired them due to an accident on his first play in the NFL. The only person, perhaps, from the sleepy town of Burlington to be chosen to play in the big leagues, Amos thought he was on the top of the world. Unfortunately, a helmet-to-helmet collision in his first big game disabled him and left him with these conditions.

Amos then decided to join the police force and proved to be a great asset to them. With his perfect memory, Amos was able to recollect any crime scene to the minutest details. He can even remember verbal testimonies presented in court.

Our heros life completely changes when he comes home one night to find that his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law were murdered. Someone had slit his brother-in-laws throat, his wife Cassie was shot, and his nine-year-old daughter, Molly, was strangulated. He is arrested as the prime suspect but is soon released. The visions of that night are forever imprinted in his brain. However, with little evidence, the case remains unsolved. His entire life falls apart, and he goes into the very depths of grief. He leaves the police force and becomes a homeless loner. After his bout of depression, he starts to work as a private investigator. It is a small-time job, and he is working from the hotel room that he resides in.

Three years after the murder, Mary Lancaster, Amoss former partner informs him that a man named Sebastian Leopold has admitted that he committed the murder of Amoss family. This information stirs the memories of the night that Amos is trying desperately to forget, and he visits Sebastian in prison. A talk with the man makes Amos realize the irregularities in his testimony compared to what he remembered of that night.

At the same time, a bloody shooting takes place on a school ground. The FBI gets involved, and the Burlington police seek help from Amos. It soon turns out that Amoss family murder and the shooting at the school site are related. Slowly, the readers understand the intricacies of the plot and get to connect the dots. The killer is intelligent but with the unique skills possessed by Amos, this seemingly impossible case is interpreted.

When Baldacci started writing Memory Man , he first wrote the central character and gradually started writing the story revolving the hero of the story. Baldacci has purposely made Amos an overweight person so that the reader focuses more on the intricacies of his mind rather than his looks. Alexandra, a reporter, becomes Amoss partner and finds him intriguing in spite of his social inadequacy. Baldacci plans to make her Amoss lover in future series. He wanted to wait because he felt that such a change would have been too soon in this book since this story was focused on the loss of Amoss family and his drive to get some closure.

Interesting fact:

D AVID BALDACCI HAD IN MIND THAT HE would want to continue Amoss character into a series, giving him different quirks to make him even more alluring.

D

AVID BALDACCI IS FROM VIRGINIA, and he attended the Virginia Commonwealth University. He graduated with a bachelors in political science. He further studied law at the University of Virginia School of Law. After completing his education, he moved to Washington where he worked as a lawyer. Later he settled back to Virginia with his family.

David loved to write stories from a very young age, and his first notebook for scribbling was given by his mother in an attempt to keep him quiet around the house. It was in high school when his work progressed to a more serious note and his passion for writing continued even while he was in law school. He wrote short stories for fifteen years, but he realized that there was not a large market for short stories, and hence, continued to write novels. He also loved to read a lot and was always intrigued by Southern Literature. His love for reading and writing was influenced by his parents. They would take David and his siblings to the library on weekends, and that is exactly where David discovered his love for books.

David writes two books a year and spends much of his time researching for his next book. Even with such a packed itinerary, he manages to conduct a few book tours. Support from his family has been a major asset for David. His wife takes care of the family matters and ensures that he gets to focus on his writing.

David is passionate about telling his stories, and hence, he has never considered writing to be a job. He even works on multiple projects at the same time, and when he gets an idea for a book, he can spend as long as twelve to fifteen hours just writing. Of course, there are days when he cannot dedicate as much time, and there are even times when his publishers have had to lock him in his office so he could be more productive. He loves to research for his book projects but instead of depending on the normal web sources, he prefers to meet people or read books. In fact, for researching Amoss condition in Memory Man , David met people who had hyperthymesia, and his research is so intense that it is well projected in the book. He is now considered by many as an authority on the condition of synesthesia because of his brilliant showcase of the condition in his book.