At the heart of The Art Of Forgetting, A June 2011 release from Dutton Adult, by Camille Noe Pagan are Marissa and Julia. Marissa is an editor at Svelte, a fitness magazine. She has always played second fiddle to her best friend Julia. Marissa has never really minded being in her enigmatic best friend’s shadow, but when Julia suffers a traumatic brain injury things change. Julia, a vibrant former ballerina who still participates with an amateur dance troupe, has a dramatic personality change because of the injury. Julia also must move back to her and Marissa’s home town in Michigan and away from New York City where both women moved after college.
As a result of the injury Julia becomes fixated on a painful incident from Marissa and Julia’s past. Julia contacts Nathan, Marissa’s ex boyfriend from college. Back in college Julia asked Marissa to break up with Nathan and make a pact that neither girl would see him, because Julia was in love with him too. Julia’s reasoning for asking Marissa to break up with Nathan was that a college fling was not important enough to come between longtime friends. Marissa agreed but breaking up with him was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of her life. Years later, when Julia repeatedly brings up the painful incident, it causes Marissa to confront her past and her not always perfect friendship with Julia. Camille Noe Pagan’s powerful novel about friendship and having the strength to let go of the past is both moving and fascinating.
My only critique regarding the book involves Julia. At times I found myself really disliking her, and I couldn’t understand why Marissa just went along with her when she asked her to break up with Nathan. However, this issue cleared up immensely in the latter half of the book when all of the different storylines started to come together, and Marissa’s motivation for staying in Julia’s shadow came into focus for me.
There were many bright spots in Pagan’s debut novel. Among them, a subplot in The Art Of Forgetting involved Marissa volunteering with an organization called Take The Lead. Marissa’s volunteer work involved her training young girls to run in a race. Seeing Marissa’s self-esteem blossom along with the girls she was mentoring was inspirational.
As a reader watching Marissa simultaneously struggle and bloom as a result of her friend’s accident, I was struck by the complexity of the story. Marissa’s struggle to deal with the memory of her past with Nathan while trying to move ahead in her current relationship was well constructed. I felt for Marissa as she confusedly tried to cope with Julia’s sudden fixation on the past incident and the effect it had on Marissa’s own personal life. I read The Art Of Forgetting in one sitting. At 247 pages it is a quick read and a welcome addition to any beach bag. Ultimately, The Art Of Forgetting is the story of what it means to be a friend while still being true to yourself. Click here
Many thanks to TLC Book Tours for including me in the tour for The Art Of Forgetting. Be sure and check out the other stops on the tour:
Monday, June 6th: Luxury Reading
Tuesday, June 7th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, June 8th: Book Addiction
Thursday, June 9th: That’s What She Read
Friday, June 10th: Life in the Thumb
Monday, June 13th: Rundpinne
Tuesday, June 14th: The Brain Lair
Wednesday, June 15th: Book Hooked Blog
Thursday, June 16th: Library of Clean Reads
Friday, June 17th: Dolce Bellezza
Monday, June 20th: Peeking Between the Pages
Tuesday, June 21st: BookNAround
Wednesday, June 22nd: Books, Movies, and Chinese Food
Thursday, June 23rd: 2 Kids and Tired
Monday, June 27th: Stiletto Storytime
Tuesday, June 28th: The Well-Read Wife
Wednesday, June 29th: Bookworm with a View
Thursday, June 30th: Unabridged Chick
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Being true to yourself in the face of a demanding friend can be a difficult task. I’m interested to see how that all plays out in this book.
Thanks for the great review and for being on the tour!