Good reads for a memory-impaired intellectual?
November 8, 2024 11:43 AM Subscribe
What are some good books of short stories or essays that would appeal to a person who is severely memory impaired but is otherwise very bright? She is 86 years old, Turkish is her first language but she is fully fluent in English for speaking and reading.
My mother-in-law has recently moved to a memory care facility. Her main form of entertainment in the past has been reading. She has been in the habit of reading long novels but with her memory condition she's not really able to read them anymore and she's finding it frustrating. Her favorite author is Orhan Pamuk. She is interested in history, psychology, and classical music, and historical fiction, especially about the Middle East or other non-Anglo-American cultures. She will be insulted by anything that seems "dumbed-down" ("Chicken Soup For The Soul" is right out.) I'm looking for literary fiction or essays that can be read in small bites. Extra points for anything involving Istanbul (where she grew up) or the Chicago area (where she spent most of her adult life).
My mother-in-law has recently moved to a memory care facility. Her main form of entertainment in the past has been reading. She has been in the habit of reading long novels but with her memory condition she's not really able to read them anymore and she's finding it frustrating. Her favorite author is Orhan Pamuk. She is interested in history, psychology, and classical music, and historical fiction, especially about the Middle East or other non-Anglo-American cultures. She will be insulted by anything that seems "dumbed-down" ("Chicken Soup For The Soul" is right out.) I'm looking for literary fiction or essays that can be read in small bites. Extra points for anything involving Istanbul (where she grew up) or the Chicago area (where she spent most of her adult life).
Italo Calvino's novels and novellas. I love Invisible Cities.
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
Kelly Link maybe?
Nature Stories by Jules Renard
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:19 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
Kelly Link maybe?
Nature Stories by Jules Renard
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:19 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]
Borges?
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:23 PM on November 8
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:23 PM on November 8
Best answer: Umberto Eco essays are short and very interesting. I didn't read them in English but it looks like Chronicles of a Liquid Society might be a good collection.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:49 PM on November 8
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:49 PM on November 8
Best answer: Maybe Parmuk's Memories of Distant Mountains (possibly she already might have read it of course)
"Every day for over a decade, Orhan Pamuk has written and drawn in his notebooks. Translated into English for the first time, these stunning snapshots of his life and creative process are a wonderful accompaniment to his bestselling works of fiction.
They include daily events and reflections, dialogues with his imagined characters, notes on his works-in-progress, his experience of writer’s block and the unfolding of his difficulties with the current Turkish government. Each entry is illustrated in the author’s uniquely idiosyncratic and charming style."
posted by 15L06 at 1:03 PM on November 8
"Every day for over a decade, Orhan Pamuk has written and drawn in his notebooks. Translated into English for the first time, these stunning snapshots of his life and creative process are a wonderful accompaniment to his bestselling works of fiction.
They include daily events and reflections, dialogues with his imagined characters, notes on his works-in-progress, his experience of writer’s block and the unfolding of his difficulties with the current Turkish government. Each entry is illustrated in the author’s uniquely idiosyncratic and charming style."
posted by 15L06 at 1:03 PM on November 8
E.B. White has a collection of essays and poems. He wrote about New York City and for the New Yorker along with the childrens books he's famous for.
I don't know about Chicago specifically, but maybe try famous newspaper columnists from Chicago and see if there's essay collections there?
posted by Art_Pot at 2:17 PM on November 8
I don't know about Chicago specifically, but maybe try famous newspaper columnists from Chicago and see if there's essay collections there?
posted by Art_Pot at 2:17 PM on November 8
Here'a ask question with more essay recs too that might give you more jumping off points.
posted by Art_Pot at 2:24 PM on November 8
posted by Art_Pot at 2:24 PM on November 8
This question was about reading aloud, but might be relevant: Short stories to read to a person with Alzheimers.
posted by paduasoy at 2:26 PM on November 8
posted by paduasoy at 2:26 PM on November 8
Best answer: Some slightly haphazard suggestions:
(And finally, bracketed off because this is a VERY inexpert suggestions, I know basically nothing about Turkish literature, but Leylâ Erbil's A Strange Woman is great and weird and touches on some of the things you say your mother-in-law is particularly interested in - it's not straightforward to follow and I wouldn't recommend it for her but Erbil has a couple of short story collections and an essay collection that haven't been translated into English, and with the match in interests it seems like they might be worth looking into if she hasn't read them?)
posted by severalbees at 3:25 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]
- Primo Levi's Other People's Trades: a collection of short essays, 4ish pages each, around different interesting things - children's games, his home, history, science, education, pretty much anything. Every essay is thoughtful and generous and beautifully written. Out of print I think but readily available second hand - I've given copies of this as a gift two or three times.
- Italo Calvino, as suggested by Lawn Beaver; my specific suggestion would be Marcovaldo, a series of short stories moving through the seasons, following a man who lives in the city but is preoccupied by the natural world, and who has minor misadventures with eg trying to sleep in a park, collecting mushrooms from the median strip in the middle of a road, etc.
- Sei Shōnagon's The Pillow Book - a collection of short essays and musings and jokes and anecdotes by a woman who was in the court of the empress in 990s and 1000s Japan - feels very novelistic and characterful, but also extremely amenable to being read in a casual browsey kind of way
- Ayşegül Savaş' The Wilderness is a short book about the first forty days after giving birth, constructed in fragments - Savaş mostly writes literary fiction and The Wilderness very much has that tone to it - that said it does touch on things like not being able to remember things that happened in her sleep-deprived post-childbirth days so might not be appropriate, dunno
- Victoria Finlay's Color: A Natural History of the Palette is maybe a bit of a weird one but it's a very enjoyable book about how different pigments are made and it's very wide ranging, taking in a lot of different places and bits of history, and is in fairly short sections - Finlay also has a similar one about jewels that I haven't read
(And finally, bracketed off because this is a VERY inexpert suggestions, I know basically nothing about Turkish literature, but Leylâ Erbil's A Strange Woman is great and weird and touches on some of the things you say your mother-in-law is particularly interested in - it's not straightforward to follow and I wouldn't recommend it for her but Erbil has a couple of short story collections and an essay collection that haven't been translated into English, and with the match in interests it seems like they might be worth looking into if she hasn't read them?)
posted by severalbees at 3:25 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]
There are annual collections of "Best Short Stories" such as this one
posted by TimHare at 8:09 PM on November 8
posted by TimHare at 8:09 PM on November 8
I read The Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty islands I have not visited and never will (link to someone else’s review) to my newborn. Little stories of history, crime, strange creatures.. there is a pocket version which I have, maybe easier to handle.
posted by AnnaRat at 3:39 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
posted by AnnaRat at 3:39 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
Perhaps a subscription to McSweeney's Quarterly or the Believer. The first is more short stories (fiction) and the second a literary magazine.
posted by chiefthe at 7:21 PM on November 9
posted by chiefthe at 7:21 PM on November 9
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posted by AbelMelveny at 12:01 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]