What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this despite a friend who told me she was confused by the content and she did not like it. I understand part of her objections: it is written with more stream of consciousness than other books by Barr, plus the stream of consciousness narration may be unreliable. Is the unreliability because Rose has Alzeheimer's or because Rose has been drugged by someone unknown to her for unknown reasons? I also think my friend was also confused by many of the allusions used by Rose while she is thinking and many of the shorthand communication between Rose and Mel that is never fully explained in the text. Because I am the same age as Rose, I think I was more likely to understand some of the tv and movie references than my friend was. For example, I was an avid watcher of Kung Fu so I understood the terms of affection when Rose calls Mel, Grasshopper, and when Mel calls her Gigi Rinpoche as being between student and elder teacher.
I recommend this book because I enjoyed it.


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