Nostalgia
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: February 6, 2017 7:40 PM | Last Updated: January 4, 2018
M.G. Vassanji
In the indeterminate future in an unnamed western city, physical impediments to immortality have been overcome. With the threat of the brain's storage capacity being overwhelmed, people want to move forward into the future free from interfering memories. Thus, all traces of a person's past are erased. On occasion, though, cracks emerge.
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Dr. Frank Sina specializes in sealing these memory leaks. He is satisfied in his own fiction. But one day, Presley Smith arrives in Frank's office, tortured by persistent thoughts. As he tries to save Presley, Frank finds clues that suggest Presley's past may be located in nuclear-ravaged Maskinia. His suspicions are only intensified when the Department of Internal Security takes an interest in Presley. As Frank tries to save Presley, cracks emerge in his own fiction, and the thoughts that sneak through suggest a connection with Presley. (From Doubleday Canada)
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From the book
Leaked memory syndrome — Nostalgia, as commonly known — is a malady of the human condition in its present historic phase. Reminders of our discarded lives can not yet be completely blocked, but we can expect their intrusions into our conscious minds to diminish as our understanding of thought-complexes increases and our ability to control them improves.
Chemicals do alleviate the condition, but often they are blunt, their effects diffuse, with collateral outcomes to negotiate. Stubborn cases require the more intrusive ministrations and shock tactics of a surgical team.
From Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji ©2016. Published by Doubleday Canada.