[Book] Before I go to sleep (by S.J. Watson): New beginning everyday

[Book] Before I go to sleep (by S.J. Watson): New beginning everyday

Title: Before I go to sleep

Author: S.J. Watson

Another book for the book club. It's a story about a lady who loses her memory every night. 

1. Summary

There is a lady called Christine who lives in London, UK. During the sleep at night, she loses her memory. She thinks she is in her 20's but she is actually in her late 40's. She needs to be explained every morning who she is. She remembers only for a day.

Surely, she suspects everything every morning. She cannot believe that she is married to someone called Ben. 

Then, there comes a doctor who is trying to help her. Dr. Nash suggests her to keep a journal for what happens during the day. So she does. But there is a problem. She forgets about the journal itself next morning. Therefore, he calls her everyday to remind her about the journal.

There was an accident which made her like this. But Chris does not remember the accident. She does not even remember her wedding and her son.

So the key of the story is for her to find out what happened for the last 2 decades.

The book has three parts:

Part One - Today (p. 1-40)

Part Two - The Journal of Christine Lucas (p. 41-284)

Part Three - Today (p. 285-366)

So the main part is the journal. A very long and detailed journal. Hmmm.

2. Quotes

My husband, tearing at my clothes. Ben, holding me, his kisses becoming more urgent, deeper. I remember we neither ate the fish nor drink the wine; instead, when we had finished making love we stayed in bed for as long as we could, our legs entwined, my head on his chest, his hand stroking my hair, semen drying on my stomach. We were silent. Happiness surrounded us like a cloud.

- p.90

She manages to do it even when she is not certain the guy is her husband.

  'There's something else,' said Nash. 'I'm sorry, Christine, but Nicole asked me how you were doing, and I told her. She said she was surprised that you were back living with Ben. I asked why.'

  'OK,' I heard myself say. 'Go on.'

  'I'm sorry, Christine, but listen. She said that you and Ben were divorced.'

- p. 225

They were divorced. Then who is the guy living with her?

3. My comments

The beginning is quite impressive. It caught my attention. The plot could be too typical but it is nicely described.

Then it became slow in the journal. I felt like reading something repeating again and again.

The ending was not extraordinary. It was an ending which could be easily predicted. My expectation was something better than that. 

And one question floating around in my mind while I was reading it was what kind of person writes her day in a journal with structured sentences with organised paragraphs. It would take long long hours to write like that. And reading it is another problem. It took me weeks to read her journal. How possibly could she read it in an hour to recall what happened to her? If it was me, then I would simply make notes with bullet points to keep only the crucial facts which should not be forgotten. 

In short, the book was good but still could be better.

28 February 2017

gguro

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