'The man without a shadow' by Joyce Carol Oates

‘The man without a shadow’ by Joyce Carol Oates was the second book by Joyce Carol Oates I picked up from that bargain bin. I read it, I was fascinated, captivated, appalled – and stopped reading at page 85 because I just could not bear it any more.

Her skill of captivating my interest is within the first few pages. Repetition. The book opens with notes on amnesia. The next sentence is repeated 4 times. In the first paragraph every line ends with ‘he forgets her’, then ‘he has forgotten her’.

 ‘He is standing on a plank bridge.’

‘He is standing on a plank bridge in this place that is new to him and wondrous in beauty.’

‘In this place new to him and wondrous in beauty…’

Lots of different times, situations, events in the first few pages, acknowledgment that EH has shaped her life, her career, and it dates the time of their meeting, at 9.07 am on October 17, 1965; the single defining moment of Margot Sharpe’s life and career.

A lot to take in in these first few pages, and the introduction to the main characters – Margot Sharpe and patient EH – is gripping indeed.

EH suffers from amnesia, he can’t retain information for longer than 70 seconds. What this means is portrayed vividly. In the memory laboratory EH is an important research subject. 

I was intrigued. I wanted to read the book. Yet, the cruelty inflicted on man in disguise of science was more than I could take.

Joyce Carol Oates is quoted as saying “When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they are saying is there is too much reality in life. 

Why do I read? To be inspired. To be informed. To learn about something. This book is informing me how a brain damaged man is treated as a research object, day after day, week after week, year after year. It’s horrific – more than I could handle.

I wonder if today research into brain injury and amnesia is different, more humane?

What intrigues me too is the author’s story. Joyce Carol Oates was married for 47 years to fellow writer Raymond Smith, publisher of the Ontario Review. Despite their shared livelihood in books and writing and their close relationship Raymond never read one of JCO’s books. Devastated when he died, as documented in her book ‘A widow’s story’ Joyce Carol Oates is remarried within a year of Raymond’s death. This book is dedicated to her husband, Charlie Gross, a neuroscientist and - her first reader. She has obviously delved deeply into her personal experience, her intimate conversations with her new husband, to explore this new area…