Memory Wall
Anthony Doerr
267 Pages
Scribner, 2011
One day about a year ago, I was riffling through books in the fiction paperback section at Barnes & Noble, a bit bored, none of the passages I read piquing my interest, when I opened a book titled The Shell Seekers. I turned to a page somewhere in the middle, picked a passage at random, and began to read. I don’t remember precisely what the particular paragraph was about (other than that it was nature-related), but I do remember my startling reaction to it: the unconscious holding of my breath, the delicious chill that rippled down my spine. I had a visceral response to the words I was reading, the kind you get when discovering an unbearably beautiful line of poetry or music that is so eloquent it hurts.
I bought the book of course. And that’s how I was introduced to the work of Anthony Doerr.
