TheKaitlynBlog

★★★★

Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson

A really, really, realllyyy interesting read, and a novel worth the times because get this: it’s a memoir, but it’s also…not?

What it is, is a recovered manuscript which details the establishment of the new society (new world). The “memoir” is by Dr. Miriam Gregory, a visionary psychologist whose research discovered the link between memory and trauma. She failed to return home from work one day in 1977 and her body was discovered in stockholm in 1996. Hidden under the floorboards of her attic was a manuscript.

In 2021, Yuritan Press decided to recover, annotate, and publish her work. They worked diligently in trying to corroborate her story and try to clarify the facts. Most of Gregory’s story was written long after her work had finished and life had slowed down. I believe she sat down to write her manuscript in her late 50’s through her 60’s. Because of this, her story is believed to be completely fictitious, though there’s a wide variety of controversies that surrounds her story and her work’s experience.

From what I understand, it’s supposed to be real; a real story and real told experiences — but by the end of the novel, Gregory and Yuritan Press urge you to decide for yourself.

I found this novel to be completely fascinating and also wildly disturbing — I’m still not sure what even I think. I definitely recommend, just for the experience of the thing as a whole.