The Man Without a Shadow A Novel
The Man Without a Shadow A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates is a reprint edition published by HarperCollins on January 3, 2017, featuring 384 pages in English. This novel delves into the intricate themes of memory, personality, and identity, exploring the profound impact of love on human lives. Set in 1965, it follows neuroscientist Margot Sharpe as she encounters Elihu Hoopes, a man suffering from severe amnesia, whose inability to form new memories makes him a subject of fascination and study.
Readers will find a compelling narrative that tracks the complex relationship between Margot and Eli, blending elements of psychological and literary fiction. As Margot conducts her experiments, she grapples with the ethical dilemmas of her feelings for Eli, who remains an enigma throughout their time together. The Man Without a Shadow invites exploration into the nature of memory and love, questioning whether genuine connection can exist in the absence of recollection. Oates’s detailed prose provides a profound examination of the human psyche, making this novel a thought-provoking journey into the depths of emotional and intellectual exploration.
Official synopsis Publisher
In this taut and fascinating novel, the bestselling, New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of The Sacrifice, The Accursed, and Lovely, Dark, Deep examines the mysteries of memory, personality, and identity and pierces the enigmatic force that drives human lives—love.
In 1965, neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets the attractive, charismatic Elihu Hoopes—the “man without a shadow”—whose devastated memory, unable to store new experiences or to retrieve the old, will make him the most famous and most studied amnesiac in history. Over the course of the next thirty years, Margot herself becomes famous for her experiments with E. H.—and inadvertently falls in love with him, despite the ethical ambiguity of their affair, and though he remains forever elusive and mysterious to her, haunted by mysteries of the past.
The Man Without a Shadow tracks the intimate, illicit relationship between Margot and Eli, as scientist and subject embark upon an exploration of the labyrinthine mysteries of the human brain. Where does “memory” reside? Where is “love”? Is it possible to love an individual who cannot love you, who cannot “remember” you from one meeting to the next?
Made vivid by her exceptional eye for detail and her keen insight into the human psyche, The Man Without A Shadow is a unique story of forbidden love, a kind of secret, evolving marriage, depicted in Joyce Carol Oates’s tight, impassioned prose. It is an uncanny, ambitious, and structurally complex novel that penetrates the mind and illuminates the heart.
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