Remember Me Like This (Johnston)

Remember Me Like This 
Bret Anthony Johnston, 2014
Random House
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400062126


Summary
A gripping novel with the pace of a thriller but the nuanced characterization and deep empathy of some of the literary canon’s most beloved novels, Remember Me Like This introduces Bret Anthony Johnston as one of the most gifted storytellers writing today. With his sophisticated and emotionally taut plot and his shimmering prose, Johnston reveals that only in caring for one another can we save ourselves.
 
Four years have passed since Justin Campbell’s disappearance, a tragedy that rocked the small town of Southport, Texas. Did he run away? Was he kidnapped? Did he drown in the bay? As the Campbells search for answers, they struggle to hold what’s left of their family together.
 
Then, one afternoon, the impossible happens. The police call to report that Justin has been found only miles away, in the neighboring town, and, most important, he appears to be fine. Though the reunion is a miracle, Justin’s homecoming exposes the deep rifts that have diminished his family, the wounds they all carry that may never fully heal.

Trying to return to normal, his parents do their best to ease Justin back into his old life. But as thick summer heat takes hold, violent storms churn in the Gulf and in the Campbells’ hearts. When a reversal of fortune lays bare the family’s greatest fears—and offers perhaps the only hope for recovery—each of them must fight to keep the ties that bind them from permanently tearing apart. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1974
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., Texas A&M University; M.A., Miami University;
   M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Awards—Pushcart Prize (more below)
• Currently—lives somewhere in the Northeast...don't they all?


Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the 2014 novel, Remember Me Like This, and the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, which was named a best book of the year by the Independent (London) and Irish Times.

He is the editor of Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer and also teaches in the Bennington Writing Seminars, as well as at Harvard University, where he is the director of creative writing.

Johnston' work has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Paris Review, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. His nonfiction has appeared in New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Tin House, Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.

His awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, and the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction. He is the recipient of both a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a James Michener Fellowship. And he received the "5 Under 35" honor from the National Book Foundation. (Adapted from the publisher and the author's website.)

Book Reviews
There’s real humanity in Johnston’s writing, and it’s heartening to spend time with these folks as they relearn how to be a family. Rendered in these compassionate, candid chapters, theirs is a struggle that speaks to those of us who have endured far less.
Washington Post


[Bret Anthony] Johnston’s scenes are exquisite, the internal and external worlds kept in taut balance.... [A] fully immersive novel in which the language is luminous and the delivery almost flawless.
Boston Globe


I know the novel you’re looking for. It’s the thriller that also has interesting sentences. It’s the one with the driving plot but fully realized characters as well, the one that flows like it was plotted by Dennis Lehane but feels like it was written by Jonathan Franzen.... It’s a surprisingly rare breed.... Fortunately, there’s Bret Anthony Johnston’s Remember Me Like This.... The book is riveting, with the elements of suspense neatly folded into an elegant series of interlocking arcs.... There is nowhere you want to stop.
Esquire


[A] strong debut.... The novel offers a melodrama that tries to sympathetically portray the devastating effects of loss on a family.... Johnston has a talent for drawing well-rounded characters, although verbal excess weighs down the novel’s pace. In the end, this is a convincing and uplifting portrait of a family in crisis
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) An admirable achievement.... The story starts where other stories might end.... [Readers] will find their expectations continually defied as characters refuse to follow a formulaic plot trajectory.... This is ultimately an uplifting reading experience owing to the believable love and warmth of the family.
Library Journal


[Johnston’s] first novel is so spellbinding, so moving, that one’s only complaint is that we had to wait ten years to read it.... Johnston is a master at creating honest portraits of family members that could easily be your neighbor. Make no mistake about it: Bret Anthony Johnston is a writer to watch.
BookPage

Discussion Questions
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, use our generic mystery questions.)

GENERIC QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers

1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they more one-dimensional heroes and villains?

2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you, the reader, begin to piece together what happened?

3. Good crime writers are skillful at hiding clues in plain sight. How well does the author hide the clues in this work?

4. Does the author use red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray?

5. Talk about plot's twists & turns—those surprising developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray. Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense? Are they  plausible? Or do the twists & turns feel forced and preposterous—inserted only to extend the story.

6. Does the author ratchet up the story's suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? How does the author build suspense?

7. What about the ending—is it satisfying? Is it probable or believable? Does it grow out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 2). Or does the ending come out of the blue? Does it feel forced...tacked-on...or a cop-out? Or perhaps it's too predictable. Can you envision a better, or different, ending?

8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?

9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?

(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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