Published: April 11, 2008 11:01 am         

'The Memory Book' makes you think

Figuring out your own life is difficult enough. Add to that several generations, past and present, and the task is nearly impossible for Phoebe Lange in “The Memory Book” by Penelope J. Stokes.

Phoebe knows she should visit her grandmother more often and she feels guilty after not visiting in several months. After all, Gram raised Phoebe after Phoebe’s mother died when she was 5 and she’s all the family Phoebe has.

Gram had promised she would come for Phoebe’s college graduation, to see her get her master’s degree, but Gram was too sick. It was “just a cold”, but she couldn’t travel.

So Phoebe goes home to see Gram, but not just to be a dutiful granddaughter.

Phoebe is running away a little bit, too. She’s engaged to Jake Bartlett, a Christian guy who’s the envy of her friends, but Phoebe is uneasy. She’s never felt comfortable with herself and doesn’t reveal much of herself to anyone, including Jake.

How can he love a woman he doesn’t really know?

So Phoebe goes home to find herself and in the process, finds out more about her family than she ever knew. One of the family secrets is that she’s not the original Phoebe Lange.

When Phoebe stumbles across a memory book kept by her Great-Aunt Phoebe, she learns more than what life was like in the 1920s. She learns she has a lot in common with her great-aunt, who was going through many of the same things Phoebe is facing now, including some terrible family secrets.

How can Phoebe tell her friends what she’s going through and risk their rejecting her? How can she keep her secrets and face life alone?

Penelope J. Stokes tells an interesting tale involving several generations and spanning 75 years, but she keeps it flowing seamlessly, no mean feat, considering the way she’s chosen to tell it.

Stokes mixes together some of the worst of human behavior and shows how it is passed down through the generations, escalating along the way. She asks what it takes to break the cycle and whether we have the courage to do what it takes.

Along the way, Stokes integrates Bible passages such as, “The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generations” and classic wisdom such as “Those who forget the past are destined to repeat it” and modern wisdom from the song, “Me and Bobby McGee”. She also asks what does it take to find peace, instead living our lives in fear and pain?

Many people struggle with God. We feel abandoned because it seems as if God is ignoring our prayers, even when we pray really hard. We wonder where God is when bad things happen and why He doesn’t just fix it.

Stokes specializes in asking questions about human nature. Her characters are recognizable, but they usually don’t take the conventional path. I’ve read “The Blue Bottle Club” and “The Amethyst Heart” and, both, like “The Memory Book”, take place over many years and follow their characters through the lessons they have learned.

Emotional trauma plays a part in Stokes’ writing, but her stories are more about the choices we make, consciously or unconsciously, in our lives and how that affects us.

If you want a book that doesn’t shy away from making you think about how you’re living your life, try “The Memory Book” or other books by Penelope J. Stokes.