"Turn of Mind" is a novel about a retired orthopaedic surgeon suffering
from onsets of dementia just when her memories are needed the most: she
is the main suspect-cum-witness in the murder of her best friend.
The flow of the story can be found as exasperating every now and
then, because she will remember certain bits and pieces of conversations
from her younger days (which are long-term memories) and her breakfast
menu that day (which are short-term memories).
The book is divided into four parts: The first two parts are written
on the days when she still has her sanity and (half of) her memories
and hence, written in the first-person. The third part is written on the
days after she is committed into an old people's home. Here, she starts
losing most of her sanity. The switch to second-person perspective in
this part is striking, because readers can finally see her world thru
her shoes, sometimes reliving memories from her childhood too.
The fourth part of the book, which is written on the very last 15
pages or so of the novel, focusses only after the discovery of who the
murderer is (which is a shocker, I tell you!). It takes her off the sane
world altogether. Here, despite her mental delusion, she somehow
regains most of her memories back on what she remembers out of that
murder event.
Sort of an odd turn of events, I say...but on the whole, it is a satisfactory read.
Verdict: 6 out of 10 stars
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