The Memory Collectors

The Memory Collectors / Kim Neville
NY: Atria, c2021.
400 p.

This was an unexpected find for me, a book I picked up from the New Books shelf at the library because of the cover and the back blurb. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was also Canadian, set in B.C.! 

It's a great read, full of plot and imagination. Evelyn is a young woman who makes a living dumpster diving and selling items in Vancouver's Chinatown Night Market. She holds herself back from the world because she feels "stains" on physical objects -- the memories and emotions attached to items. And these emotions are not always pleasing. She's had experience in her past, through a terrible family tragedy, of the way these dark stains can seep into a sensitive life and destroy it. 

On the other side of town, Harriet is a old woman who also feels these sensations from objects. However, rather than avoiding objects she has become a hoarder, trying to find everything she can that holds any emotion at all. This is affecting her life, since she is about to be evicted because of the mess that overflows her apartment and disturbs the neighbours in the regular way, as well as with a wash of emotions they don't recognize but feel anyhow. 

Harriet has a secret, though -- she's very rich, and since she's being kicked out of her apartment she decides to buy an old bank building to live in, and in which to create her lifelong dream: a museum of objects imbued with positive emotion, to provide uplift to viewers. 

When she comes across Ev and her friend Owen scavenging some of her boxes in the alley where her neighbours have dumped them, their lives collide and change everything for both of them. 

With some great side characters -- Owen, Ev's self-centred sister Noemi, and a potential love interest for Ev as well, there is a lot going on, but it all fits beautifully. Ev and Noemi's family history is horrific and there's a bit too much detail there for me in parts, but it explains both of their reactions to life. 

The relationships are well drawn and believable, and there's a lot of backstory that isn't obvious in beginning. There's a slow reveal of both people's characters and their past and what has shaped them. There's also a growing explanation of the unusual talent that both Ev and Harriet hold, and both the pros and cons of such a skill. I really liked the fact that the story has internal cohesion -- the structure of this talent and its effects make sense and are consistent within the story, and the relationships ring true. 

The narrative is a mix of family dynamics, a coming of age story for Ev, and a sprinkling of magical ability. This allows the author to explore some deep issues more metaphorically (what are objects for? where do we locate our emotional memory? what's worth holding on to? and more). It's also a look at consumerism and overconsumption. Here's a quote that highlights that: 

Retail stores disturb her, rows and rows of empty objects. Products with no soul, no energy, people buying and discarding them before they have the chance to take on any kind of life, the world growing more cluttered and at the same time more barren every day.

I was drawn in to this story quickly and engaged with the concept and the characters immediately. The plot and characters really depended on one another, and the Vancouver setting was an unexpected benefit. I really feel that there was a profound meaning at the core of this novel, one that gives it a heart and makes it memorable. It will make you look at your belongings, and the way your emotional energy shows up in the world, in a new way.