Just finished reading Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson, about a woman who wakes up each morning not knowing who she is, remembering nothing from her life. Although she can keep the memories of the day intact as long as she is awake, she loses even those memories each night when she goes to sleep. If you can't remember anything or anyone, who do you trust?
It left me thinking about memories. How much of what we are is governed by memories? How different would we become if our memories were erased?
A good example of this is the William Monk series by Anne Perry. Monk is a policeman who has lost a large slice of his memories. He can carry on with his work and forms new memories with no problem, unlike the character in Before I Go To Sleep, but Monk has to forge a life with no knowledge of, for example, how he alienated so many people.
A different problem is shown by the Ian Rutledge character in the Charles Todd books. Rutledge remembers all too well, and one memory in particular haunts him. How different would his life be if just that one memory could be excised?
It is scary to think about waking up and not knowing who you are and remembering nothing about your life. But it is also scary to think about how much of our vision of who we are is influenced by memories of who we have been.
