As Dissolution opens, Maggie wakes up in a hospital bed, next to a man who wants to hear her story. Her memory is hazy but she gradually pieces together what has happened to her. The mysterious man, Hassan, helped her break her husband out of a care home. The home, Hassan tells her, was not helping Stanley’s dementia but causing it. But where is Stanley now?
What Is Dissolution?
In between Maggie’s revelations, we see snippets of Stanley’s early life. A difficult childhood, and an escape of sorts to a prestigious school; one he is able to attend because of his impressive intellect. Here, Stanley finds comfort with a small group of highly intelligent children and an aging schoolmaster who hopes to elevate them beyond the usual school curriculum.
Under his expert tutelage, they enhance their memories; playing chess games without using a board, remembering the order of decks of cards, and reciting great lengths of Shakespeare. Professor Waldman then takes Stanley further under his wing, and they begin a secret research project.
The project ends in tragedy and the end of Stanley’s school days are blighted. He falls out with one of the other boys from the special group and the tight-knit friendships he formed are fractured. Nevertheless, the seeds have been sown for a tale of intrigue and ambition. One that threatens the fabric of Stanley’s memories.
Maggie must piece together what has happened to her husband, whilst avoiding the terrible consequences of an experiment started years before she’d even met Stanley. Her husband holds the key to it all, but with his memories eroding with every passing moment can Maggie find him in time? Can Hassan and Maggie piece the puzzle together, and why is there a countdown to Maggie’s “Dissolution” at the start of each of her accounts?
Why Read Dissolution?
This is an excellent book. Not only does it deliver a complex plot that is layered like an onion (or maybe nested like a Matryoshka) it also sensitively handles the topic of dementia and elderly care.
The home supposedly responsible for Stanley’s demise was called “Sunrise.” This took the wind out of me, as my dad, who suffered from Parkinson’s spent most of his final years at a Sunrise care home, here in the UK.
The care home scenes do not take up much of the book, but I recognized my experiences and my dad’s experiences in Nicholas Binge’s depiction of Sunrise. Not only that, whilst my dad never had the mental prowess of Stanley, he was a fiercely intelligent man. Dissolution is suffused with the sadness that comes with mental decay; that feeling of a loved one slowly slipping away from you and the despair of being powerless to stop it.
But What About the Mystery?
Against that backdrop is a tremendous mystery. You can sort of see what is going on, as each piece of the past we are fed, informs Maggie’s subsequent conversations with Hassan. We can see some of the truth of things before Maggie does. We are willing her not to do, not to say, certain things, but we are powerless to stop her.
A curious aspect of how this novel is constructed is that Maggie is powerless to stop herself too. She is reporting what has already happened. If she has made a mistake, there is nothing she can do about it. But what if telling Hassan is a mistake? As I said, this is a many-layered narrative.
I thought I knew where the novel was going, yet I wasn’t quite right. The final reveal, the solution to the mystery is artful and unexpected. Chess is a theme throughout the book and its subtle reflection in the denouement adds another layer of satisfaction. Much like the memory palaces of Stanley and his friends, Dissolution is an impressive confection; a literary treat well worth consuming!
If you would like to pick up a copy of Dissolution you can do so here, in the US, and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
