Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

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by Gabrielle Zevin. This book is ultimately a love story, but one that involves a girl who, after taking Naomi is an ordinary high school student who goes to an international school. One day, she loses her memory for the past 4 years. But gradually she begins to search for her identity,

Zevin offers an interesting and fresh premise, memorable characters grappling with relationships and life-and-death questions, along with an appealing romance.”— The Buffalo News (New York) She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. Naomi is not the type of girl I’d want to be friends with. In fact, she doesn’t seem to have many girlfriends that she does things with. (I did like her two sort of friends who were a lesbian couple and appreciated that that subplot was told without any fanfare.) I did appreciate Naomi’s honesty about herself. And I enjoyed reading about her, and the other people in the book.

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Naomi geht wieder zur Schule und versucht, sich anzupassen, ihr altes Leben wieder zu erlangen. Doch je mehr sie von ihrem alten Leben erfährt, desto unsicherer ist sie, ob sie dieses Leben tatsächlich wieder aufnehmen will.

Zevin does a great job of portraying a person who is lost and directionless in life and who is trying to get a grip on her own self. But what is the most impressive is the realness (if there is such a word) of all characters. They are flawed, they are damaged, they are often unlikable, but ultimately very real. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac ( Japanese: 誰かが私にキスをした, Hepburn: Dare ka ga Watashi ni Kisu o Shita, lit. "Someone kissed me") is a 2010 teen drama film directed by Hans Canosa and based on the 2007 young adult novel of the same name by Gabrielle Zevin. The film stars Japanese actress Maki Horikita, Japanese actors Kenichi Matsuyama and Yuya Tegoshi, and American actor Anton Yelchin. I was surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did. Surprised because despite loving the premise of I kinda got bored in it. By exploring amnesia, Zevin has selected an apt, multifaceted metaphor for the process of growing up. After losing her memory of her teenage years so far, Naomi is forced to develop an identity over the course of weeks, not years, as most teenagers do. Denied the kind of personal and social history she possessed before her fall, Naomi becomes almost a new person, making different (but not always better) choices. Also, I hated her entire relationship with James. I liked his character, and I understand why he acted the way he did, and what he was going through, but I didn't like their relationship.

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My favorite character was James, although he did concern me at times. I immediately knew that he and Naomi were doomed. Even adults who are dealing with mental issues have trouble making their romantic relationships work. I felt that there was no hope for Naomi and James because he had to deal with his own inner demons before he could be free to love and be with a girl for the long haul. Finally, Naomi's amnesia, during which she has forgotten not only why she was interested in yearbook in the first place but also what makes the popular girls so well-liked, is a fitting metaphor for the process of forgetting that marks all of our lives. Naomi's father, on the verge of his own new beginning, sums it up: "'You forget all of it anyway… You forget your junior year class schedule and where you used to sit and your best friend's home phone number and the lyrics to that song you must have played a million times…. You forget who was cool and who was not, who was pretty, smart, athletic, and not…. You forget all of them. Even the ones you said you loved, and even the ones you actually did. They're the last to go. And then once you've forgotten enough, you love someone else.'" Naomi's amnesia gives her a certain naïveté, but it also grants her a perspective that is usually achieved only through time, a perspective that finally enables her to see herself and others clearly for the very first time. Once in a while you come across a book that grabs your attention by its profound understanding of human nature and skillful characterization. "Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac" is one of these books. While you read about a teenager that could be any teenager, you read about a very particular person that has to deal with things that most people won’t recognize in their lives. It’s not a sad book. Like a good book, it has some sad parts, but you can also have a good laugh and overall it’s a positive book. Honest and complex characterization grounds a thoughtful, suspenseful examination of memory and identity.” — The Horn Book

Als sie im Alter von 16 Jahren auf den Stufen vor ihrer Schule ausrutscht, kann sie sich an nichts mehr erinnern, was in den letzten fast vier Jahren geschehen ist. Sie weiß nichts von der Scheidung ihrer Eltern, kennt ihren besten Freund nicht mehr und weiß nicht mehr dass sie einen festen Freund hat. This book was fun and creative, like I expected. I just wanted to keep reading it. If you like Young Adult books you should read this one. The simple writing and the original plot made it a light and pleasant reading. I think to enjoy a head trauma/amnesiac book, it's best just to go along for the ride and read the story not getting all caught up in the logistics of the scenario, yeah?Once Naomi starts the school year everything becomes more complicated. She has to deal with people that knew her as she was before the accident and change her behavior based on their cues. She begins to analyze her life and make decisions about what is important to her now - and sometimes she realizes that what was once very important to her might not be as important to her now and visa versa. Naomi, the main character, is a seventeen-year-old teenager with a past that you’ll get to know while you read it and sometimes you find about her past at the same time as her. Naomi's dad and the whole orphan plot arc. This book is very 'coming of age'-y, very 'finding yourself'-sy. Just brilliant. The concept of losing one's memory allows the reader to wonder how they would cope if they forgot absolutely everything about themselves, contemplating on the essence of one's identity... all those good things associated with adolescence and growing up.

I enjoyed this book mainly because of the characters and the way they were described. I liked Naomi a lot because I could relate to the internal struggles that she was feeling with her relationships between friends and family. I also really liked Will, he treated Naomi really well throughout the story and had respected and supported Naomi with all the decisions she made. The film was originally planned to be shot and produced in the United States. However, the director decided that it would be better to make the film in Japan where the cultural aspects of the setting would enrich the story. The high school setting in the original story was changed to an international school for the film. This meant the film contained approximately a quarter of the English conversation as was in the original story. GABRIELLE ZEVIN is a New York Times best-selling novelist whose books have been translated into forty languages. Naomi Porter has always had holes in her personal history --- abandoned in a Russian church as an infant, Naomi has had to piece together her origins from the few tidbits of information her adoptive parents know. But when, in the middle of her junior year of high school, she falls down the stairs, suffering a traumatic head injury and losing her entire memory of her life post-puberty, Naomi has to try to recover her identity, to rediscover who she was before the fall. The doctors can't explain why Naomi has such long-term amnesia, but it appears that her last memories are of the sixth grade. Some doctors suspect that Naomi may be using the accident to suppress past trauma, but Naomi is not convinced. Naomi asks for her mother, only to learn that her father and mother divorced four years before. When her mother arrives in the hospital, Naomi asks her what happened to cause the divorce, and her mother admits that she got pregnant with a former high school friend's baby, and left Naomi and her father to move to the city. Naomi is enraged at her mother and thinks she's a slut.I was excited when I saw Emma Roberts in it. I thought she should have been given a bigger role (yeah, I remember this is a Japanese movie). The English being spoken was awkward and funny. The narration of the whole story is a fun ride. Zevin blends romance, changing friendships, and familial dysfunction with themes of chance, loss, and choice, and the result is a quiet exploration of identity and self-realization that is simultaneously thought provoking and entertaining.” — Voice of Youth Advocates