The Memory Palace

The Memory Palace
By Mira Bartok
Free Press, 2011. 320 pgs. Biography

This memoir by artist and children’s book author Bartok describes a life dominated by her gifted but schizophrenic mother. After trying for years to help her mother, she finally changes her name and cuts off all contact with her; the estrangement leaves her mother homeless, wandering with her belongings in a knapsack, writing letters to her daughter’s post office box. Reunited 17 years later, Bartók is suffering memory loss from an accident; her mother is 80 years old and dying from stomach cancer. Only through memories do they each find solace for their collective journey. Using a mnemonic technique from the Renaissance—a memory palace—Bartók imagines, chapter by chapter, a mansion whose rooms secure the treasured moments of her reconstructed past.

This book is both beautiful and difficult to read. I kept putting it down to take a break, because Bartók’s writing is so vivid that I could feel the emotional pain and confusion life with her mother caused her. This book really helped me understand not only what it would be like to live with a family member that is mentally ill, but also what it might feel like to be the person affected by schizophrenia. I think the strength of this book is the fact that Bartók manages to convey how much love she feels for her mother and provides glimpses us of her humanity that exists beneath the symptoms of her illness. I like that she includes passages from her mother’s writings as well as some of her own original art in the book.

JC