The Great Forgetting: A Novel

by James Renner

Overview

The Great Forgetting is another genre-bending novel from James Renner, author of The Man from Primrose Lane.

When history teacher Jack Felter gets a call that his father, a retired pilot suffering from dementia, is quickly losing his last, precious memories, he reluctantly returns to bucolic Franklin Mills, Ohio. It’s been years since he’s been home. Jack has been trying to forget about Franklin Mills ever since Sam, the girl he fell in love with, ran off with his best friend, Tony. But Tony is gone, now. Vanished. Everyone assumes the worst.

Soon Jack is pulled into the search for Tony, but the only one who seems to know anything is Tony’s last patient, a paranoid boy named Cole. As Cole pulls Jack into his web of conspiracy theories, the two of them team up to follow Tony’s trail—and maybe even save the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250097415
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	01/10/2017
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,035,599
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

JAMES RENNER is the author of the novels The Man from Primrose Lane and The Great Forgetting, as well as several works of nonfiction, including The Serial Killer's Apprentice. His true crime stories have appeared in The Best American Crime Writing anthology, Cleveland Scene, and Cracked.com. His method of using social media to solve cold cases was the subject of a CNN profile, in 2015. He lives in Akron with his wife and children.

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE GREAT FORGETTING

“If you like your fiction tidy and predictable, look elsewhere.”—The Washington Post

“The Great Forgetting is blasphemous, riveting, insane, and glorious.”—Andy Howell (Copernicus), Ain’t It Cool News

“Renner is skilled at constructing intricate puzzles in his books....Here the author makes the most outlandish conspiracies plausible not only to his protagonist but to readers as well....The plot might be over the top, but it’s a fun ride.”—Library Journal

“Renner weaves conceivable means and motive through a variety of conspiracy theories and a reimagined reality to create a unique blend of genres. Anything but predictable.”—Courtney Ophoff, Booklist

“A fascinating concept . . . worth the read.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Packed with thrills.”—Publishers Weekly

"A tale you won’t forget."—New York Post

PRAISE FOR THE MAN FROM PRIMROSE LANE

“Ambitious and innovative...If you like your fiction tidy and predictable, look elsewhere.”—Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

“Fascinating and unpredictable, with shades of Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft as well as Douglas Adams, [The Man from Primrose Lane] never loses touch with the human story of loss, guilt and fate that is at its core.”—Laura Wilson, The Guardian

“The Man from Primrose Lane barrels along, fueled by Renner’s addictive storytelling....It’s quite the interesting ride.” —Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post

“[The Man from Primrose Lane] features superbly drawn characters and escalates into a genre-bending narrative (noir, sci-fi, and more) of thrills and twists. A great choice for readers who enjoyed Tana French’s In the Woods or any work by Philip K. Dick.”—Library Journal

“Brilliantly intricate...[with a] fantastic finish [and] compelling, interesting characters...I couldn’t put [The Man from Primrose Lane] down.”—Jessica Strider, SF Signal

From the Publisher

09/14/2015
In his second novel, Renner (The Man from Primrose Lane) brings readers a sci-fi journey in which the dystopia isn’t set in the future, but the present. Jack Felter, a history teacher in Cleveland, begrudgingly heads back to his hometown of Franklin Mills, Ohio, to visit his ailing father, “the Captain”; Jack’s sister, Jean; and her daughter, Paige. Once there, Jack finds more to do than just worry about the Captain’s fading mind—namely, helping his ex-lover Sam Brooks find her husband and Jack’s former best friend, Dr. Tony Sanders, who disappeared three years earlier. Jack’s search starts with a teenage mental patient, Cole Monroe, who quickly brings Jack into his delusional world, just as he did Tony. “First things first,” Cole says, “you have to start boiling your water.” But are Cole’s conspiracy theories about fluoride, HAARP radio waves, Nazi artifacts, and memory control all just fantasies, or truth? Unraveling Tony’s disappearance brings Jack, the Captain, Cole, Sam, and others into a different world and an alternate history where “the government rewrote people’s memories and reset the calendar.” Though packed with thrills, Renner’s historical revisions put the reader on the defensive, making it difficult to be fully immersed in the action. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

10/15/2015
Jack Felter returns home to rural Ohio when his father's dementia worsens. He reconnects with former love Sam, whose husband, Tony, has gone missing. Tony was a child psychiatrist at the local hospital, and one of his patients, a boy named Cole, seems to have information about what might have happened to him. In order to find out what young Cole knows, Jack must follow him down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Cole believes that the government is drugging Americans to make them forget their history, and substituting a more palatable version of events. This great forgetting might mean that we are doomed to repeat the violent acts we are meant to forget. VERDICT Renner is skilled at constructing intricate puzzles in his books (such as in the marvelous The Man from Primrose Lane). Here, the author makes the most outlandish conspiracies plausible not only to his protagonist but to readers as well. Inventive Easter eggs are scattered throughout as part of the alternative history that Cole is convinced we have forgotten. The plot might be over the top, but it's a fun ride.—MM

Library Journal

2015-08-16
When a man returns home to care for his dying father, he's sucked into a vast conspiracy involving his estranged childhood best friend and a paranoid (or is he?) teenager at a mental hospital. History teacher Jack Felter wanted to leave his whole past behind in Franklin Mills, Ohio—his first love, Samantha; his one-time closest confidant, Tony; his tangled family relationships—but when his father, nicknamed "The Captain," spirals further into dementia, Jack leaves his new life in Cleveland to help his sister, Jean, with caregiving duties. The Captain, a former pilot and Vietnam vet, is lost in a fog of wartime memories, and Jack must contend with his father's diminishing capacity without the help of Tony, who disappeared three years before. A long-ago betrayal split the best friends and Sam apart, but Jack's feelings for Sam burn hot, and he agrees to help her find Tony; his search leads him to Tony's job at Haven Hospital and Tony's last patient, 16-year-old Cole Monroe. It's here that Renner (The Man from Primrose Lane, 2012, etc.) shifts to a more audacious storyline, one that not all readers will embrace. Cole draws Jack into a mysterious world of alternate histories centered on the Great Forgetting, where, for example, the Allies lost World War II, and time is reset every so often because larger malevolent forces control our collective minds. It's heady stuff—Jack, Cole, and the Captain eventually set off for the mythical island of Mu, where the inhabitants still "remember" world events and where Tony might be hiding—and it doesn't always succeed. A fascinating concept that's not entirely well-executed but is worth the read.

Kirkus Reviews