Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji

From Goodreads:
 In the indeterminate future in an unnamed western city, physical impediments to immortality have been overcome. As society approaches the prospect of eternal life, a new problem must be confronted: with the threat of the brain's storage capacity being overwhelmed, people want to move forward into the future free from redundant, unwanted and interfering memories. Rejuvenated bodies require rejuvenated identities--all traces of a person's past are erased and new, complete fictions are implanted in their stead. On occasion, though, cracks emerge, and reminders of discarded lives seep through. Those afflicted suffer from Leaked Memory Syndrome, or Nostalgia, whereby thoughts from a previous existence burrow in the conscious mind threatening to pull sufferers into an internal abyss.
Doctor Frank Sina specializes in sealing these memory leaks. He is satisfied in his profession, more or less secure in the life he shares with his much younger lover, content with his own fiction--a happy childhood in the Yukon, an adulthood marked by the influence of a mathematician father and poet mother. But one day, Presley Smith arrives in Frank's office. Persistent thoughts are torturing Presley, recurring images of another time and place. As he tries to save Presley from the onslaught of memory, Frank finds clues that suggest Presley's past may be located in war-torn, nuclear-ravaged Maskinia, a territory located in the southern hemisphere, isolated from the north by fiercely guarded borders and policy barriers. Frank's suspicions are only intensified when the Department of Internal Security takes an interest in Presley. They describe him as one of their own, meaning his new life was one they created for him, and they want him back. Who was Presley before the Department remade him, what secrets are buried in the memories that are encroaching upon him? As Frank tries to save Presley from both internal and external threats, cracks emerge in his own fiction, and the thoughts that sneak through suggest a connection with the mysterious Presley that goes well beyond a doctor and his patient. 

Sigh. Nostalgia was shortlisted for the Canada Reads award this year, along with Fifteen Dogs and a few others. When I picked up this book for 40% off (for it being a Canada Reads title), a few of the clerks at the store were excited that I was reading this. Between that and the concept of the book - memory, immortality, death-denying, and coming to grips with mortality, I was excited to read this to see a version of the future. I was excited to read this, and to see why it was up for the best book of Canada of 2016. This was me going into this book: 

And this was me coming out of this book: 

This book really disappointed me. While the concept was great, everything else was lacking. The writing style was everywhere. Sentence structure did not exist; I had to re-read lines and paragraphs multiple times before I could make sense of it. Vassanji uses the same quoting technique that James Joyce did, using dashes to denote when someone is speaking. When Joyce did it, it was done in a way that was effective, made the reader feel as if they were intruding upon something that they shouldn't be. When Vassanji does it here, it makes it all the more confusing. Also, there were so many things that got past the editor that shouldn't have - like the fact that Frank is from Yellowknife in the Yukon??? Last time I checked, Yellowknife is in the Northwest Territories. Things like that, and the weird sentence structure should not have made it past the editor's desk. 

This book was such a chore to read. Like I said, the concept for it is really intriguing but it doesn't really have a payoff. Nothing really happens in the book all that much. You don't know anything about the characters beyond their credentials and what they're wearing, making them even more cold, detached, and unlikeable. I had no idea who any of these people were beyond their names. They were nothing more than vessels to me, just carrying the plot along. While plot-driven novels are fine and well, they're a lot better if there's something at stake. I know speculative fiction focuses more on speculation than it does on character, but I'd like to know what makes Frank and Presley tick. In not focusing at all on the characters, it removes a lot of dynamic that could have made this book a lot better. 

Overall, this book was far too easy to put down in favour of doing something else. It was really forgettable, despite having an interesting premise. The characters were really underdeveloped, and there were many plotlines that did not amount to much or anything at all. This book was a chore to read, and was not very memorable overall beyond the interesting concept. I'm giving Nostalgia a 1/5.