You Remind Me of Me

This book was extraordinary...a book that revived my faith that the novel is here to stay. The theme -- in Chaon's own words: "How can you be alive when every choice you make breaks the world into a thousand filaments, each careless step branches into long tributaries of alternate lives, shuddeing outward and outward like sheer lightning." That's solid writing by a master in control of the process. The novel is, ultimately, about choices and alternate lives: what would happen if you were born to a different mother? If you'd grown up in a different place? If you had some kind of proof that you were unlucky? These are questions that we all wrestle with at some point in our lives; Jonah more than most. There is ample foreshadowing that "something is wrong with Jonah": his child demeanor, the way he deals with the dog Rosebud as an adult, his own lack of involvement at the time of his mother's death. It is inevitable, then, that his appearance in Troy's life will eventually create what appears to be a crisis. Each character is carefully drawn, even the minor ones. I could picture each one -- the twitches, the yellowing sheets, the gnarled hands, and most of all, the scar which, of course, is symbolic of the schism that runs through Jonah's life. I highly recommend this novel!

A very touching book. So well written. I'm thoroughly impressed, as are many others, obviously. A few seem to want to slight this novel, but I can't help thinking they don't fully understand how difficult a book like this is to write. Chaon makes it look easy, really, and that's a trick of enormous skill. This novel could have seemed fragmented, but I don't think it does because each different time and location that he drops us into he creates completely. He grounds us on each page. Each line and scene is so complete that there is very little that's fuzzy or unclear about this. Complex, challenging, yes - but unclear or fuzzy, definitely not. Some reviewers have complained about the characters, but I think that's another strength of the book. Chaon has such empathy and understanding for his characters that they're compelling despite their obvious flaws. Yes, their decisions can be pathetic and painful and damaging, but people make decisions like that. Just because it can be difficult to read at times doesn't mean we shouldn't examine such characters, the lives they lead and the decisions they make. Personally, I feel for them all. I'm glad to have this time with them. I've more compassion and interest in adoption, and more appreciation of the family I have around me. Altogether, I learned from this book and enjoyed the writer's skills on every page. I highly recommend it.

This is a painfully exquisite book. Not only is each sentence beautifully and thoughtfully composed, but it is also a book in which all those amazing sentences make something big and important-- it's not just a pile of pretty words. I think many readers will find themselves transformed by the compassion this book inspires. These characters have such difficult lives, often due to circumstances imposed upon them, often from their own dumb mistakes-- and in a way, the distinctions don't matter. Jonah, Nora, Troy, Loomis, Judy--they're so human and you bleed a little with them and become a little more human yourself--in the best way-- because of them. You Remind Me Of Me is really about as good a book as anything I've ever read.

Chaon's been awarded acclaim and praise for his short story collections, but this, his first novel, will push him into an even higher realm. With gorgeous language, soaring metaphors, and utterly engaging characters (primarily a missing child, a pregnant teenager, and a disillusioned drug dealer), he weaves a rich and varied tapestry of memories, pain, and a search for redemption in a small Midwestern town. There are ghosts of haunted pasts that bring the characters, maimed both physically and spiritually, to the brink of irredeemable tragedy as their paths converge. Constructed in the newly popular but not always successful technique of fragmentary flashbacks into times of an indeterminate past, You Remind Me of Me is sometimes confusing, always engaging, and forever memorable.Highest praise.

Dan Chaon's first novel delivers on the promise of his impeccable stories. YRMOM is a haunting and desperately sad story with too many plot twists and turns to recount here, though suffice it to say the plot will sweep you along and before you know it, your heart will be breaking. Chaon writes well about completely average people, neither glamorizing nor denigrating their completely normal and honest hopes, passions, errors, what have you. This makes for a refreshing book free of unnecessary stylistic or intellectual showmanship; this is instead a classic, almost realist, American novel, the like of which is, sadly, seen all the more rarely these days. Pick this book up, definitely.