I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia

A whack on the head by a ceiling fan when she was 22 resulted in the wiping clean of Su Meck’s memory, including marriage and the birth of two children. In this tenebrous, strangely compelling memoir, Meck, with the help of journalist Visé and many people along the way who helped fill in the gaps of her life, re-creates the freak accident in her Fort Worth kitchen that evening in May 1988 that left her with a precarious “closed-head injury.” Despite dizziness and balance issues, Meck seemed physically fine after several weeks in the hospital, though she suffered devastating memory loss (a rare form called “complete retrograde amnesia”): essentially, she did not recognize anyone from her past, including her family, and had to relearn the basic skills familiar even to a six-year-old. The challenges, of course, were enormous, especially since her husband, Jim, was often traveling for work, and the care of two small boys was overwhelming. As Meck went through the motions of being a wife and mother, she felt and acted like a “weird imposter” who was good at “copying” other people without there being any substance behind her facade of normalcy. Meck relates with excruciating honesty her journey out of oblivion. Agent, Peter Steinberg, Steinberg Agency. (Feb.)