Shorts: Nina's Memento Mori

By -
Near the end of Nabokov's Lolita, Humbert makes an honest admission: "[A]nd it struck me...that I simply did not know a thing about my darling's mind." That line sums up the isolate game of memorializing a deceased loved one, which is the basic tension in Nina's Memento Mori, an elegy to Mathias Freese's lost wife. The profound responsibility of answering the question "Who was Nina?" is left to the lone memoirist:
I can say or write anything I want about her...There is much writerly power in that. I am the executor of her probate in all things now. She is mine now in ways she could not be when alive. I am the steward of her memory.
Freese ends up analyzing himself, putting the "me" in "memento" and the "i" in "mori," thanks to ever-giving Nina posthumously providing a therapeutic mirror or "Rosebud," which Freese appropriates from Citizen Kane. But Freese mourns more over the burden of existence than over its loss. Appropriately, for Kane is not about the symbolic sled as much as it's about the cumulative snow that buries it.

About the Author

MATHIAS B. FREESE is a writer, teacher, and psychotherapist who has authored seven books. His I Truly Lament: Working Through the Holocaust won the Beverly Hills Book Award, Reader's Favorite Book Award, and was a finalist in the Indie Excellence Book Awards, the Paris Book Festival, and the Amsterdam Book Festival. In 2016 Tesserae: A Memoir of Two Summers, his first memoir, received seven awards. The following year his second memoir appeared, And Then I Am Gone. Find him on the internet in the following places:-


Reviews
A soul-bearing, heartbreakingly-beautiful memoir that strips away the frivolities of life; it speaks of loss and the pro-
found depths of sorrow experienced after the death of a loved one. I was incredibly moved and brought to tears more 
than once.” —Bobbie Crawford, Book Publicist at Nurture Your BOOKS

P.S: Information courtesy the author. All the best Mathias B Freese. Review will follow shortly.

Popular posts from this blog

Tainted Lionheart

By -
Image
Tainted Lionheart is a collection of prose and poems that touches every chord of human heart.  The collection deals with all the phases of heartache that a person is bound to go through. Divided into three parts, this collection uses a mix of prose and poetry to bring out varied emotions. Sometimes, life brings in pain. Along with it come feelings of anger, contempt, grief, remorse and a host of other negative emotions. This collection attempts to deal with these. The entire collection resonates a powerful message. This anthology succeeds in bringing out that its okay to grieve, feel pain, get angry and hurt.  Christine is an amazing writer, or rather, a prose poet. The choice of words amplify the feelings that each  piece of writing evokes. The imageries are vivid, narration is heart wrenching at times and language is sans profanity. To sum up, the entire collection is a symbol of a lion heart or a lioness heart aka braveheart, who has the courage to go through all the phases associat
Read more

Nina's Memento Mori

By -
Image
Sometimes pain tends to get masked behind a sense of narcissism, especially when it involves your significant other. Nina's Memento Mori is a kind of self introspection that the author indulges in as he writes about himself remembering his wife. He focuses on himself as he narrates incidents revolving around his wife. This elegy is more of an autobiography as per me. Mathias does write straight from the heart. Some readers might find it hard to relate through the narration, however, those who have lost their spouses to death would very well understand the emotions underlying this piece of writing. There are breaks in the narration but these are like deliberate attempts to both break the monotony in writing as well as to portray the train of thoughts as they happened. The language is not simple but that is a trademark of a writer with vast amount of writing experience behind him. To say that Nina was his inspiration to write would be an understatement. In fact, she is exa
Read more

Secret Magic: Evie Everyday Witch

By -
Image
Every child is unique, a universal truth. However, the moment he or she is able to discover the magic within him or her, it becomes priceless. Unfortunately, the very need to be accepted by peer group might hamper the child's development. The plot revolves around Evie Everyday, a witch who has magical powers within her. But she prefers to change herself and hide her magic so that she is liked by her friends. But does this turn out to be in her favour? Well, to know that please read about Evie in this delightfully wonderful story. Elena Paige is a writer to look out for because she creates magic in this piece of her writing. The language used caters for the reading needs of 9 to 11 years old children. The writer also uses imageries extensively. These imageries are vivid and appealing. The only major issue I found as I read it out to my 6 year old was that the narrative was a bit jerky. There were breaks which could have been avoided. Despite the discontinuity, the story is
Read more