The Memory Palace

Most mothers call their adult children occasionally, sometimes with requests for grandchildren. Bart—k's mom, a schizophrenic pianist who ended up homeless, phoned up to 30 times daily, with warnings for her daughter about the dangers of backpacks and pending Nazi attacks. Hillary Huber's melodic voice and crystal-clear diction provide a strong framework for this memoir of a chaotic life. As Bart—k builds her palace of remembrances, Huber's steady and calming tones provide the mortar that binds listeners to the heartbreaking story. Drawing on her brilliant mother's journals and the science of understanding memory, Bart—k recounts agonizing years of fear and difficult decisions. Huber's straightforward narration is punctuated with notes of pain as Bart—k's mother rants. Fascinating portrayals of Bart—k's European friends provide balance and relief. Few listeners will leave this palace dry-eyed. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 13, 2010
This moving, compassionately candid memoir by artist and children’s book author Bartok describes a life dominated by her gifted but schizophrenic mother. Bartók and her sister, Rachel, both of whom grew up in Cleveland, are abandoned by their novelist father and go to live with their mother at their maternal grandparents’ home. By 1990, a confrontation in which her mother cuts her with broken glass leads Bartók (née Myra Herr) to change her identity and flee the woman she calls “the cry of madness in the dark.” Eventually, the estrangement leaves her mother homeless, wandering with her belongings in a knapsack, writing letters to her daughter’s post office box. Reunited 17 years later, Bartók is suffering memory loss from an accident; her mother is 80 years old and dying from stomach cancer. Only through memories do they each find solace for their collective journey. Using a mnemonic technique from the Renaissance—a memory palace—Bartók imagines, chapter by chapter, a mansion whose rooms secure the treasured moments of her reconstructed past. With a key found stashed in her mother’s knapsack, she unlocks a rental storage room filled with paintings, diaries, and photos. Bartók turns these strangely parallel narratives and overlapping wonders into a haunting, almost patchwork, narrative that lyrically chronicles a complex mother-daughter relationship.

Most mothers call their adult children occasionally, sometimes with requests for grandchildren. Bartók's mom, a schizophrenic pianist who ended up homeless, phoned up to 30 times daily, with warnings for her daughter about the dangers of backpacks and pending Nazi attacks. Hillary Huber's melodic voice and crystal-clear diction provide a strong framework for this memoir of a chaotic life. As Bartók builds her palace of remembrances, Huber's steady and calming tones provide the mortar that binds listeners to the heartbreaking story. Drawing on her brilliant mother's journals and the science of understanding memory, Bartók recounts agonizing years of fear and difficult decisions. Huber's straightforward narration is punctuated with notes of pain as Bartók's mother rants. Fascinating portrayals of Bartók's European friends provide balance and relief. Few listeners will leave this palace dry-eyed. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine