“At some point we’ve got to stop trying to restore our lives, and start actually living them.” – Jonathan Hooper
When thirty four year old Jonathan Hooper wakes up after six years in a coma following a stroke the world is a blank slate to him. He doesn’t remember who he is or how he ended up in the hospital, he can’t talk, his muscles have atrophied, and he has no concept of numbers or time.
Not having expected him to ever recover, his family and girlfriend have moved on with their lives, a situation which may bother Jonathan more if he actually remembered any of them. The fact is, however, there’s very little Jonathan does remember. And so begins the arduous task of relearning how to live.
During the course of physical therapy Jonathan meets Rebecca Chase, who’s also in the process of recovering from a stroke suffered at an unusually young age. Unlike Jonathan, Rebecca didn’t lose her memory after her stroke. Not her memory of people and events anyway, she just doesn’t remember why she ever found any of it appealing…including her husband.
Together the two of them help each other rediscover who they were, and who they want to be.
Okay, I know. On the surface it sounds like Lifetime Movie of the Week material, but there’s more to it than that.
“It was believed that only the death of someone young and without sin could appease the bad moon.” – Professor Reid
It happens far too often now. A child — sometimes a baby, often an adolescent — suddenly disappears. It hits the local news. Then goes national. Then Nancy Grace is spouting theories and pointing fingers. Overnight, everyone knows the child’s name. They see the same family-selected photo printed in their newspapers and flashed on their TV screens. Time passes — be it days, weeks or months — and the child is found. Sometimes the news is happy. Usually, it isn’t. And then the names, the photographs, the incident itself fade from memory.
It’s only for a couple of days, she told herself. Just a few days. Keep it together. I can do this. – Jodie Sykes
In the passing drama of life, I’m usually the heroine, but occasionally I’m simply a minor character in someone else’s play. – Kinsey Millhone
You know, I’ve made so many fucking mistakes in my lifetime that one more wouldn’t hurt. – John Rockne
Do not call up what you cannot put down. – The Little Book of Night
Audacity.
