{"id":1298,"date":"2013-06-11T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2013-06-10T06:56:20","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T11:56:20","slug":"being-henry-david-by-cal-armistead-book-review-memory-gone-called-to-walden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=1298","title":{"rendered":"Being Henry David, by Cal Armistead (book review) – memory gone, called to Walden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>No luggage, no memory<\/a>,
\nNo memory, no past…
\nWhy? Why did he erase his own memories<\/a>?<\/p>\n

From wherever home was, teenage “Hank” finds himself alone in a train station with only a copy of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden<\/a>\u00a0<\/em> and knows that he must get to Walden Pond<\/a>, just as the author did, to discover truth through nature and perhaps find the strength to face his past.<\/p>\n

Read an excerpt of the book here<\/a> as you dive into the story of why a young man abandons his memory and decides that Being Henry David<\/em>\u00a0 is much better than being himself.<\/p>\n

Can deciding that a memory doesn’t exist change the past?
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>: Being Henry David \/ Cal Armistead. Albert Whitman, 2013.\u00a0 [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 [video author interview<\/a>]<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: Waking up in Penn Station alone, no memories. None. Looking in washroom mirror, he sees a teenage guy with black hair, gray eyes, a big lump on his head. He has ten bucks in his front pocket and a copy of Walden<\/i> \u2013 that\u2019s it. He\u2019ll be Henry David, after its author, until he can remember his own name or past or why he can\u2019t remember\u2026<\/p>\n

Another teen rescues him from a homeless guy who wants to eat the book, nicknames him Hank because Henry David is too long, takes him to a hidden place to sleep, and gets him involved with some drug dealers who need more runners. After a knife fight, running seems like an excellent idea, so Jack splits the drug money and Hank gets on the train for Concord, looking for answers at Walden Pond, the only glimmer of memory he\u2019s got.<\/p>\n

Thoreau\u2019s cabin site is easy to find, says Hailey, the girl he meets at the station. But Hank can\u2019t understand why there is no cabin at the cabin site, just four rock cornerstones and a slab\u2026 cold sleeping tonight, and dreams where Thoreau speaks to him.<\/p>\n

Is Thoreau there in the flesh in the morning? No, it\u2019s Thomas, who does historical interpretations at Walden Pond and is the town reference librarian, heavily tattooed and riding a Harley. He shares breakfast with Hank, shares hia appreciation for Thoreau\u2019s vision of a simpler life, but doesn\u2019t pry into Hank\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n

In Concord, Hank scopes out Hailey\u2019s high school as a place to stay over the weekend, trying to avoid the blackness that erupts when he probes his memories. Visiting the town library to read more about Thoreau, Hank passes out as the infected knife wound clobbers his system and Thomas takes him home.<\/p>\n

Hank\u2019s fingers remember how to play the guitar \u2013 can he help Hailey in the Battle of the Bands?
\nThomas suggests checking the missing teens database – can he find himself?
\nThe blackness holding back his memories wavers \u2013 can he live with what he remembers?<\/p>\n

Whether runaways or kidnapped, lost, strayed or stolen, so many stories of teens gone from home have unhappy endings \u2013 read Being Henry David<\/i> to see if Hank\u2019s story is one of them. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No luggage, no memory, No memory, no past… Why? Why did he erase his own memories? From wherever home was, teenage “Hank” finds himself alone in a train station with only a copy of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden\u00a0 and knows that he must get to Walden Pond, just as the author did, to discover truth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,51],"tags":[90,22,4,174,11,20,5,16,18,49,56,15,21,35,33,3,6,8,61],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-mystery","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-belonging","tag-blogathon2013","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-memories","tag-reading","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-teens","tag-travel","tag-us-author","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1300,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}