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1-Page Summary of Memory Wall
Overall Summary
Memory Wall is a collection of seven short stories written by Anthony Doerr. The title, which comes from the first story in the book, suggests that all of the stories are tied together somehow through memory or its impact on our lives. The author has received four O. Henry Awards and his works have been translated into over 40 languages.
The story is set in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s about a woman named Alma Konachek who has dementia and her servant Pheko raising his son Temba on his own. The wealthy Alma pays for the procedure to record her memories so she can preserve them before they’re lost forever. One such memory is when her deceased husband Harold discovered a rare fossil in the desert and then died of a heart attack shortly after.
A con man named Roger hires a “memory tapper”—a young man who has had the same memory procedure so that he can access the memories of rich people for financial gain. The two break into Alma’s home every night, certain that she won’t remember them in the morning. She is always awakened by them and sits with Roger, chatting while Luvo reviews his next batch of memories in search of her fossil. He becomes fascinated with her despite knowing she isn’t very nice.
On the night that Luvo discovers Alma’s memory of a fossil, he accidentally shoots and kills Roger. In his escape, he runs into Temba and is moved by her poverty. He finds the fossil and sells it for a large amount of money; he gives Pheko and Temba a large sum from his heart. While staying in an hotel from Alma’s memories, Luvo dies during surgery to remove the implant in his head.
In the first story, “Procreate, Generate,” Herb and Imogene have been happily married for ten years. They want to start a family but are unable to conceive after trying for some time. The couple decides that artificial insemination is their best option, as it’s more affordable than IVF and has a higher success rate. However, they’re unsuccessful at achieving their dream of having children with this method also, which negatively impacts their relationship. Herb begins to imagine having an affair while Imogene fantasizes about simply packing her bags and leaving him behind forever so she can start over on her own. They decide to take one last shot at becoming parents through IVF before giving up completely on the idea of being parents together; however, we don’t know whether or not they succeed or fail in doing so by the end of the story.
The story “The Demilitarized Zone” is about a man named Davis who reads letters from his son, who serves in the military in Korea. He also deals with his father, who is slowly going insane and his wife, whom he has recently divorced after she cheated on him. In one of the letters that Davis’ son writes to him, there’s a scene where a crane flies into some wires and dies. The son buries it because he feels sorry for it. However, this act of kindness causes more trouble as he gets punished by being cashiered for AWOL (Absent Without Leave) status and will be sent home soon. Davis worries about telling his son about the divorce when he returns home from Korea since they are both close friends and have been through many things together before this incident occurred between them. In another part of China called Village 113, an old woman observes how her village will be completely flooded once the Three Gorges Dam project is complete; thus submerging her village under water permanently. She contemplates how memories get erased like their village being destroyed by flooding and how seeds are similar to memories because they’re able to preserve themselves despite all odds against them such as erosion or natural disasters wiping out everything else around them.
