| Amnesia | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Douglas Cooper |
| Country | Canada |
| Publisher | Random House of Canada |
| Publication date | 1992 |
| Media type | Print (paperback)and Kindle digital |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-394-22232-6 |
| OCLC Number | 31045866 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 20 |
| LC Classification | PR9199.3.C6435 A8 1992 |
| Followed by | Delirium |
Amnesia (1992), the first novel by Douglas Anthony Cooper, chronicles the unraveling of a Toronto family and the amnesiac girl who undoes its scion, Izzy Darlow. The novel is obsessive and fragmentary—a structurally complex work opposing the manic power of Eros to the compulsive need to forget.
Reviewed by Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times, its "elliptical narrative style recalls works by D.M. Thomas, Paul Auster, Sam Shepard and Vladimir Nabokov," and as a postmodern addition to the genre of architectural fiction, it combines Cooper's study of architecture and philosophy. Cooper deals with memory theory throughout the novel, and emphasizes its relationship to classical rhetoric. He studied Latin rhetoric, and was a serious competitive debater in college at the University of Toronto—he was Canadian National Champion in 1985, and Runner-Up Best Speaker at the 1985 World Championships.
Amnesia gained a following among architecture students and academic theorists, and Cooper has been deeply involved in the architectural community as an artistic collaborator. [1]
Published to good reviews,[2] it was a national bestseller in Canada and shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Amnesia was published for Amazon's Kindle in 2011.