I have always enjoyed Grant's fiction, and so when I discovered this account of her mother's experience with Alzheimer's, it seemed like a wholly natural and logical read. Grant has always written engagingly and beautifully. Take one of her descriptions (of which there are many) of having a relative with dementia: ‘being held prisoner in a secret society with its own rules and customs and justifications and even language’. Remind Me Who I Am Again, however, is a much broader account than just a consideration of dementia. It is about identity — a particular touchstone for Jewish immigrants — how these identities are constantly mutable and how relationships accordingly change with them. There is no shortage of (Jewish) guilt in this work, but it is also balanced by mordant humour. Any journey with dementia is, of course, non-linear. At heart lies Grant's valid observation that ‘without memory there's chaos, without memory we don't exist’.
By Linda Grant