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"Noah wants to go home. A seemingly easy request from most four year olds. But as Noah's single-mother, Janie, knows, nothing with Noah is ever easy. One day the pre-school office calls and says Janie needs to come in to talk about Noah, and no, not later, now - and life as she knows it stops. For Jerome Anderson, life as he knows it has stopped. A deadly diagnosis has made him realize he is approaching the end of his life. His first thought - I'm not finished yet. Once a shining young star in academia, a graduate of Yale and Harvard, a professor of psychology, he threw it all away because of an obsession. Anderson became the laughing stock of his peers, but he didn't care - something had to be going on beyond what anyone could see or comprehend. He spent his life searching for that something else. And with Noah, he thinks he's found it. Soon Noah, Janie and Anderson will find themselves knocking on the door of a mother whose son has been missing for eight years--and when that door opens, all of their questions will be answered. Sharon Guskin has written a captivating, thought-provoking novel that explores what we regret in the end of our lives and hope for in the beginning, and everything in between. In equal parts a mystery and a testament to the profound connection between a child and parent, THE FORGETTING TIME marks the debut of a major new talent." --… (more)
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Noah is a 4-year-old boy who lives with his single mom, Janie. She has always thought
Jerome Anderson is a psychology professor who has been diagnosed with aphasia and is gradually losing words and his understanding of language. He longs to have enough time to finish his work researching children who have memories of previous lives. Noah may be the child whose memories can help Jerry finish his work.
This is a book for everyone, no matter what your beliefs may be regarding any type of afterlife. It’s beautifully written and will touch your heart in so many ways. But be prepared to have your mind opened, if it isn’t already, to the possibility of lives other than the one you’re living at the moment. This fictional novel is very believable and contains quotes telling of actual case histories of children with memories of previous lives from the book “Life Before Life” by Dr. Jim Tucker.
This is Sharon Guskin’s first novel and it’s obvious that she’ll have quite a career ahead of her. This book has so many layers to it. It’s a thought-provoking study about reincarnation. It’s a suspenseful murder mystery. It’s a story about the strong bond between a mother and child. It’s the story of a man losing both written and spoken language and facing the end of his life. It’s about the connections that humans have to each other.
Highly recommended.
Jerome is not without his life struggles, too. He has recently been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a progressive form of dementia. He fears that time is quickly running out for him to complete a book summarizing his life's work. Can Jerome, who feels awareness slipping away, help a skeptical mother find the solutions for what is troubling her son?
If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult novels, you will like Sharon Guskin's debut novel. It portrays well the anguish of a mother trying to help a troubled child and the grief of another mother grieving over a missing child. The periodic inclusion of excerpts from actual cases of children remembering previous lives added verisimilitude to this work of contemporary fiction.
I liked the storyline and the characters
Although i am open minded, its not necessarily my belief however it still was a page turner and the right length i would recommend it with out giving anything away i
I enjoyed this novel, primarily because it was unique and made me think. I'd not previously read anything -- fiction or non-fiction -- about reincarnation. Reincarnation is one of those subjects that I dismiss pretty easily. An interesting concept, but not something I'd take very seriously. Sharon Guskin manages to write a fairly believable story about "What if....". The story has several layers, with several different plot lines, but she manages to weave them together in a mostly cohesive manner. As a debut novel, it was not flawless, but impressive enough to definitely make me look forward to any future works by this author. I look forward to my next book club meeting, as it should lead to thoughtful discussion.
I found this to be a thought-provoking fictional account of an American child with unexplained memories of a past life. Between chapters, the author inserted real life (non-fiction) accounts from research about childhood memories of reincarnation, which added interest to the story. Although I found the last 20% of the novel to be a little tedious, as the story was basically over and it involved wrapping up loose ends, I liked the novel and found it was an excellent pick for our book club to discuss and hypothesize about death and reincarnation. I have to admit, it made me become more open to the idea that reincarnation may indeed by a possible and regular occurrence that our culture has overlooked due to skepticism and inconsistency with our Western cultural paradigms of life and death.
My only tiny but funny problem was that I was listening to this as a CD and when Susan Bennett, a great reader, came to the parts where Jamie is calling out for Noah, her son.....she really DOES call out and playing this CD on a speaker system almost scared me with how LOUDLY she called!!!
Janie Zimmerman, finds herself pregnant after a brief encounter (one-night
Does he have love within him from another person?
She attempts to address this situation by visiting psychiatrists and specialists resulting in draining Janie’s savings and in a tentative diagnosis of early-onset schizophrenia. She is overwhelmed and frustrated. She begins researching specialists, with alternative, scientific, or more "out of the box" thinking.
Dr. Jerome Anderson, a psychologist - has been studying young children who seem to recall details from previous lives. Dr. Anderson has his own problems with aphasia, a form of dementia that involves the gradual loss of language. He has written a book, and needs another case for more history to complete. However, he may not have a lot of time left.
Soon Noah, Janie, and Anderson will find themselves on a journey--knocking on the door of a mother whose son has been missing for eight years - and when that door opens, all of their questions will be answered.
Denise Crawford lost her nine-year-old son six years ago. Her life has been torn apart, as well as her marriage. Another bond between a mother and son. How do the two connect?
Quotes and references to: Life Before Life: Children's Memories of Previous Lives by Jim B. Tucker (Author), Ian Stevenson (Foreword) presents the cases in a straightforward way and explores the possibility that consciousness may continue after the brain dies. A provocative and fascinating book that can challenge and ultimately change readers' understandings about life and death.
Was reminded a little of Eight Minutes by Lori Reisenbichler, The Other Life by Ellen Meister, The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson. —Reincarnation with a different twist. The belief in past lives and the use of perceptions and knowledge of these to help with one's current life is central to the New Age movement.
Sometimes you have to make the best of what you have. You will fall in love with Noah and the desperate need of Dr. Anderson. From despair, sorrow to hope, and love—a mother who wants desperately to understand.
Two families drawn together by higher forces for an intriguing twist of paranormal. When lines are blurred between two worlds. Memories, meditation, forgetting, connections, and letting go. Strong bonds between mothers and sons. “Focus on the Love.”
I listened to the audiobook —the presentation was mesmerizing and almost hypnotic, performed by Susan Bennett and David Pittu. The novel proposes many thoughts. What happens to us after death is perhaps the greatest mystery of life. One belief is that we reincarnate; that there is life, after life.
Beautifully written. Look forward to more from this new author!
I think there are fragments of past memories of past lives that can filter through into our current one. How else to explain how as a 2 year old girl I was convinced I had a husband named Rudy and could talk about him, but he wasn't an imaginary friend. I've also visited places I've never been and had memories of them in other times in history. The world and universe is deeper than we know.
This book is not at all the sort of thing I normally gravitate towards. I've never read Jodi Picoult or Nicholas Sparks nor, for that matter, any other bestselling author targeted to a female audience. And as an atheist, I make a point of completely avoiding Judeo-Christian propagandist clap-trap like Heaven is Real. And yet, something in the description of The Forgetting Time spoke to me, maybe it was the vaguely fantastic element of reincarnation [which is a huge part of the story]. For whatever reason, I decided to give it a go and was rewarded with a tight, well constructed story and a bunch of very believable and relatable characters.
Psychiatrist and researcher Jerome Anderson is in a race against time after receiving a dire diagnosis. Marginalized by the scientific community for his years of research into reincarnation, he must find a current American case study in order to convince an editor to publish his life’s work on the subject. This quest ultimately leads him to two very different families. Jane Zimmerman, a middle-aged single mother in Brooklyn is struggling to help her young son Noah, who is exhibiting disturbing behavioral issues, including an intense fear of water, apparent delusions and night terrors. And in Ohio, Denise Crawford is trying to come to terms with the fact that her beloved youngest son Tommy, who disappeared ten months earlier, may never return. Fate brings them all together and enables them to answer seemingly unanswerable questions, resolve their issues and heal their wounds.
Through the various characters, Guskin illustrate the basic human need for connection, whether it be a mother's overwhelming love for her child, the constant, tacit negotiations between a husband and wife or, on a larger scale, the professor's burning need to communicate his message to the world before it's too late. In addition to all that, it's also a sly murder mystery, which imbues the book with a page-turning urgency. For me, the most enjoyable thing about this was the author's obvious affection for all of her characters. Nearly everyone has their chance at the forefront of the story so we fully understand their points of view. The reader is even given the opportunity to see through the eyes of the ostensible "antagonist" of the piece, so that he becomes a fully realized human being and not some caricature of evil.
Perhaps I'm a bad person (or is it just that I'm not a mother?) because I admit I was mostly annoyed by Noah, the little boy who acts extremely bratty and fears water to the extent that he won't even wash his hands, let alone bathe. The semi-frequent references to his "sour" smell due to the never washing as well as his wholesale destruction of his mother's social life tested my patience to the max, but in the fullness of time, I found sympathy for him. Even despite that, I really enjoyed this book.
I would say it definitely has bestseller written all over it. And next? Maybe Hollywood.
Every mother thinks their child is unique. But when Janie's four year old son, Noah, starts talking about a previous life, she knows this is way beyond unique.
I really connected with the characters, mostly because I have a son around the same age as Tommy and Noah. I've never
The child psychiatrist in this had an ongoing
I am interested because I have Mild Cognitive Impairment and know frustrating it is to think of a word but forget the name of it! The experience is scary for me so it must very disturbing for a person with the much worse diagnosis.
The mother of the child in this story, Janie, has a little boy named Noah who had fierce
nightmares of drowning. When he is upset he says that he wants to go home and see his mother, not Janie who he calls Mommy Mom. When Janie reaches a stage of desperation when she is told that her child might be schizophrenic. she contacts Dr. Anderson. Could her son be the reincarnation of another child?
I highly recommend listening to the abridged version of this story. It will give you so much to think about.
But there’s his
When Noah begins talking about shooting guns, about being underwater, held there and unable to breathe, his preschool teachers become concerned. They insist on a psychiatric evaluation for Noah and Janie’s world tumbles into disbelief.
Jerome Anderson’s life comes to a screeching halt when he receives the devastating aphasia diagnosis. There are still things he wants to do, questions for which he still seeks answers.
He abandoned a promising career to investigate children who remembered past lives. Despite the ridicule of his colleagues, Jerry is convinced there is something beyond what we see or comprehend and he’s spent his life searching for a case that would prove that belief.
And Noah may be that case.
Mesmerizing and intriguing, Janie’s quest for answers for her son will captivate readers. The riveting narrative speaks to the things that matter most as it explores connections and reveals the lengths to which mothers will go for their children. It’s a suspenseful exploration of lives marching inexorably forward.
The characters, well-drawn and believable, will touch readers’ hearts as the evocative tale unfolds its thought-provoking exploration of hope, regret, and the meaning of the most important things in our lives.
Highly recommended.