Mystery and Brain Injury
By Barbara Djimopoulos
The Bethsaida Team
If you like to read mysteries, then The Bethsaida Team would like to recommend The Memory Book by Canadian writer, Howard Engel. It is the latest in a series of books about an Ontario detective named Benny Cooperman.
In this latest mystery, Cooperman wakes up in a hospital with memories of being in a train wreck. He finds, instead, that he had a skull fracture from being hit on the head and tossed into a dumpster. He is suffering from short-term memory loss and a condition called alexia sine agraphia - the loss of the ability to read without the loss of the ability to write.
As Cooperman stuggles to understand and come to grips with the damage to brain function, he also has to deal with an assortment of reactions to his condition by family, friends, colleagues, suspects, and last but not least, the medical profession. The condescension he suffers from those who know him arise out of their ignorance of what has happened to him. The condescension he suffers from some of the medical profession comes from their knowing all too well how Cooperman's condition and recovery will proceed - they've seen it all before.
One of the things you learn with this book is that the loss of brain function does not mean loss of intelligence. Cooperman finds his brain playing tricks with his ability to get the information he needs to solve the mystery that landed him in the hospital. His solution is to use other brain functions to get around the gaps.
Given the mystery tradition that has the detective picking himself up, dusting himself off, and starting over again, I thought truly that at any moment Cooperman's brain would right itself and he would walk out of the hospital and do the usual heroic detective stuff and solve the mystery. But, in a classic gathering of all the suspects, Cooperman solved the mystery while still in the hospital and still with major gaps in his brain functioning.
The real surprise comes after you've finished reading the mystery. It turns out that the author, Howard Engel, suffered a stroke that left him with the same loss of brain function, alexia sine agraphia. He afflicted his detective with the same condition for two reasons. One, to give people a more accurate picture of how brain injuries affect people; and two, as his own therapy in recovering from the condition.
There is an afterward by Dr. Oliver Sacks explains the injury, its effects, and the path to recovery that the layman can understand. Sacks' essay conveys his respect and admiration for the struggle and ingenuity Engel and others go through to restore their lives.
P.S. don't forget the train wreck.
