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You Remind Me of Me: A Novel | 
| Author: Dan Chaon
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: CDN$ 18.95
Buy New: CDN$ 9.61
You Save: CDN$ 9.34 (49%)
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 4400
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0345441400
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345441409
ASIN: 0345441400
Publication Date: April 26, 2005
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Delivery from the USA in 10-14 Days via Canada Post (Max 21 Days). Brand New and Factory Sealed Product.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Worthwhile January 12, 2007
Mark Twain, Sam (Here)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
YOU REMIND ME OF ME is not your ordinary book. Jonah was dead once. He is a six-year-old boy living with his grandfather and his mother, who tells him of the baby she put up for adoption before he was born. Elizabeth, an elderly Doberman trained by Jonah's grandfather to be a guard dog, also lives with them. Lonely Jonah, ignored by his depressed mother, adores Elizabeth. When he constantly plays with her, his grandfather says, "Quit pestering that damned dog! I hope she bites you someday." And then she does. Elizabeth bites off part of Jonah's ear. She savages his face, scalp and chest. She kills Jonah. The paramedics resuscitate him. The scars he bears forever symbolize internal wounds caused by his upbringing. br /Around the time of Jonah's death and resurrection, ten-year-old Troy avoids his adopted parents' unhappy marriage by hanging out with his drug-dealing cousin and his pot-smoking teenage customers. Troy becomes a drug-dealer himself eventually, even after his wife leaves him with custody of his much-loved son, Loomis. br / br /A scene from an earlier period reveals Nora as a lonely girl in a bleak unwed mothers' home: "It is not quite a prison, not quite a hospital." She does not want the baby --- at first. Her feelings reluctantly change, but it's too late. By the time she voices her wish to keep her son, he's been taken to his adoptive parents. br / br /Moving back to the past and forward into the present, the reader learns the story of Jonah, Troy and Nora --- two boys and their mother. The stories give the reader the emotional underpinnings necessary to empathize with each character, and are brilliantly dovetailed together into one big meaty tale. Author Dan Chaon also pays loving tribute to Midwest prairie and small towns, making the setting a vital element to the story. br / br /Each character is disconnected and yearns for someone. Nora has never recovered from the loss of her first son. That sorrow has twisted Nora's personality until she is mostly unable to give love to her second boy. Jonah obsesses about his older brother, the baby his mother gave up for adoption. He wonders about the hand he's been dealt. Who is better off --- the brother whose life was mauled by his despondent mother, or the one who escaped via adoption? br / br /Jonah's longing to connect with his half-brother leads him to search for Troy. When Jonah finds him, Troy is in agony. After being arrested for dealing drugs, his son Loomis is in the custody of his grandmother, who won't allow Jonah to visit or speak with him. Troy is so painfully distracted by missing Loomis that he can't quite focus when Jonah approaches him as his brother. Inevitably, Jonah decides to act, hoping his drastic feat will somehow give him the family he's craving. br / br /
A must read January 3, 2007
Garrick O. (Vermont)
While childhood horror memoirs are all the rage and sometimes helpful---books such as "A Child Called It" and "Children of the Self-Absorbed" come to mind---this is nevertheless a book that falls somewhere in between. Someone mentioned "Little Children" which I think is a great companion book. Dan Chanon has written a superb novel that is at times funny, at times extremely sad, but then I suppose that's what you'd want in a goood story.
It'll remind you of you October 3, 2006
Brenda E. (Vancouver)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ever since Tolstoy's famous quote, or rather the beginning of one of his books, about happy families and unhappy families, the world has been fascinated with the dysfunctional and weird. Who wants to read about normalcy--as if it really existed anyway. YOU REMIND ME OF ME is one of these books that fits perfectly into this category: Dysfunctional. I was reminded at times of two other great novels: Tom Perrotta's LITTLE CHILDREN which is a fresh look at suburbia, and Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, which shows possibly THE MOST dysfunctional familiy in years---think a cross between "Mommie Dearest" and something by David Sedaris. But Dan Chanon has his own take and twist on stress, angst, and perversion, and it rings not only true in this book, but goes deeper and gets under your skin. Frnkly, I'm surprised at any negative review of this book, for it is very insightful and knowing---and funny and disturbing. It'll either remind you of you, or of someone you know. In this case, it reminded me of me. But then, that IS the point, I suppose.
Skillfully Crafted June 30, 2005
Ondre (Chicago)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A very touching book. So well written. I'm thoroughly impressed, as are many others, obviously. A few seem to want to slight this novel, but I can't help thinking they don't fully understand how difficult a book like this is to write. Chaon makes it look easy, really, and that's a trick of enormous skill. This novel could have seemed fragmented, but I don't think it does because each different time and location that he drops us into he creates completely. He grounds us on each page. Each line and scene is so complete that there is very little that's fuzzy or unclear about this. Complex, challenging, yes - but unclear or fuzzy, definitely not. pSome reviewers have complained about the characters, but I think that's another strength of the book. Chaon has such empathy and understanding for his characters that they're compelling despite their obvious flaws. Yes, their decisions can be pathetic and painful and damaging, but people make decisions like that. Just because it can be difficult to read at times doesn't mean we shouldn't examine such characters, the lives they lead and the decisions they make. Personally, I feel for them all. I'm glad to have this time with them. I've more compassion and interest in adoption, and more appreciation of the family I have around me. Altogether, I learned from this book and enjoyed the writer's skills on every page. I highly recommend it.
Below the Surface April 4, 2005
Ben West
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"You Remind Me of Me" is an absolutely gripping story. I was literally on the edge of my seat as I read. There is great sadness as Dan Chaon makes very vivid the pain of the inner scars one wears in a world of poverty and disfigurement (emotional far worse than physical, but also far better because emotional disfigurement can be rectified). I was reminded of "My Fractured Life" and "Middlesex" and truly impressed.
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