Amnesia (Cooper novel)

The book is dictated by an unknown narrator and follows Izzy Darlow, a mental hospital employee who volunteers his time in order to make amends for a robbery committed during his youth. It is there that he falls for the mute Katie, a patient at the hospital who had been subjected to extreme sexual abuse.

Publishers Weekly noted that it was "Published to extravagant praise in Canada (with comparisons to Nabokov, Genet, Calvino and Margaret Atwood)."{{cite news |title=Fiction review: Amnesia|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56282-748-9|accessdate=30 September 2012|newspaper=Publishers Weekly|date=February 28, 1994}} Kirkus Reviews wrote that Amnesia was "more concerned with emotional states than traditional characters, and... reminiscent of, say, Thomas's White Hotel.{{cite news |title=Review: Amnesia|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/douglas-cooper/amnesia/#review|accessdate=30 September 2012|newspaper=Kirkus Reviews|date=December 15, 1993}} Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times observed: "Although (a) self-conscious quality never entirely lifts, one gradually comes to appreciate Mr. Cooper's copious gifts".{{cite news|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|title=Books of The Times; An Ancient Mariner Tells a Haunting Modern Tale|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/25/books/books-of-the-times-an-ancient-mariner-tells-a-haunting-modern-tale.html|accessdate=30 September 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 25, 1994}} James Polk, in a second New York Times review, called Amnesia "a dense, absorbing first novel (which) locates prominent features in the landscapes of mind and memory."{{cite news|author=JAMES POLK|title=Izzy's Own Story|date=1994-03-06|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/06/books/izzy-s-own-story.html|accessdate=2012-11-01}} While the Chicago Tribune hailed the book as "intricate",{{cite news|last=Whitehouse|first=Anne|title=DOUGLAS COOPER'S INTRICATE, SYMBOL-LADEN TALE OF FORGETTING AND IDENTITY|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24252481.html?dids=24252481%3A24252481&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Apr+03%2C+1994&author=Reviewed+by+Anne+Whitehouse%2C+a+writer++critic.&pub=Chicago+Tribune+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=DOUGLAS+COOPER%27S+INTRICATE%2C+SYMBOL-LADEN+TALE+OF+FORGETTING+AND+IDENTITY&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131165655/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24252481.html?dids=24252481:24252481&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Apr+03,+1994&author=Reviewed+by+Anne+Whitehouse,+a+writer++critic.&pub=Chicago+Tribune+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=DOUGLAS+COOPER'S+INTRICATE,+SYMBOL-LADEN+TALE+OF+FORGETTING+AND+IDENTITY&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2013|accessdate=30 September 2012|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=Apr 3, 1994}} the South Florida Sun-Sentinel dismissed it as "forgettable".{{cite news|last=Klotz|first=Steven|title=AMNESIA' A FORGETTABLE, MEANDERING TALE|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sun_sentinel/access/86471073.html?dids=86471073%3A86471073&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Jun+26%2C+1994&author=STEVEN+S.+KLOTZ+Special+to+the+Sun-Sentinel&pub=South+Florida+Sun+-+Sentinel&desc=AMNESIA%27+A+FORGETTABLE%2C+MEANDERING+TALE&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131182132/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sun_sentinel/access/86471073.html?dids=86471073:86471073&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+26,+1994&author=STEVEN+S.+KLOTZ+Special+to+the+Sun-Sentinel&pub=South+Florida+Sun+-+Sentinel&desc=AMNESIA'+A+FORGETTABLE,+MEANDERING+TALE&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 31, 2013|accessdate=30 September 2012|newspaper=Sun Sentinel|date=Jun 26, 1994}} The Boston Globe called Cooper "ambitious", and noted that he "takes us on a journey through the dark corridors of the psyche, introducing us to characters who change shape as easily as smoke rings."{{cite news|last=Hengen|first=Vicki|title=`Amnesia': a mind-bending coming-of-age novel|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61957130.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=May+06%2C+1994&author=Vicki+Hengen%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=%60Amnesia%27%3A+a+mind-bending+coming-of-age+novel&pqatl=google|accessdate=30 September 2012|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=May 6, 1994}}{{dead link|date=July 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

{{reflist|2}}

• [http://www.dysarm.com Official author page]

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Category:1994 Canadian novels

Category:Novels by Douglas Cooper

Category:Novels set in Toronto

Category:1994 debut novels

Category:Hyperion Books books

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