Its been quite a while since I last read a novel, no real reason – just been through a phase of reading memoirs, history and little else. I started reading this book a week after starting a new job so my attention and thinking have been a little less than totally focussed on the book. Apologies in advance if you find this review lacking.
Without going into a detailed plot summary, “Recursion” is basically the story of two people. We first encounter Barry, 50-something New York police detective. He’s living an unhappy life after the death of his teenage daughter and the resulting break-up of his marriage. He encounters a suicidal woman suffering from “False Memory Syndrome”, an apparent medical condition that makes its sufferers believe they had led whole different lives up the point that the new memories arrived. Intrigued, Barry starts investigating and begins a crazy adventure.
Helena’s story starts about a decade ago when she was a research scientist investigating the nature of memories and how to capture and possibly replay them. She is driven by the possibility to help her mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Given the offer of unlimited funding by a billionaire she leaps at a chance to advance her work beyond her dreams.
Its giving nothing away to say that the two main character’s stories eventually meet and intertwine. Together they investigate and eventually try to save the world from a unique form of time-travel and its dire fall-out effects. To go into any more detail would ruin quite a few surprises.
Although it touches on some deep philosophical ideas including memory, loss and the meaning of life, the book isn’t heavy-going. Its written as a taut thriller and moves along at quite some pace. There are faint similarities with Ken Grimwood’s classic novel “Replay’ and pushes many of the same buttons but with a techno-thriller edge.
I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a nice diversion that will also make you think.
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