Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribe for this copy of Prosopagnosia by Sónia Hernández.

Prosopagnosia tells the story of a woman, her daughter and a famous Mexican painter that they meet. It's difficult to describe the plot of this book. Basically, a woman and her daughter are struggling to get along. In turn they meet a famous Mexican painter, who effects their lives in different ways. There isn't much more to the plot but there is more to say about Prosopagnosia.

It's possible that something of the rhythm of the story was lost in the translation of Prosopagnosia. It felt like a book that was trying to make big statements about life that were just not possible to grasp in this translation. It was an okay read but I found myself drifting away and thinking about other things while reading, not the greatest endorsement I know. It is a short read so if you're looking for something you can read in a couple of days, this would probably work for you.

I did like bits of this but it didn't work for me all the way through and when it got to the final.end it got kind of messy as the author tried to wrap up everything. The writing was good but it just felt messy for me and it needed to be edited again so some of the unclear things were examined out.

𝑺𝒐, 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒋𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅, 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉.

Prosopagnosia is defined as a neurological condition characterized by the inability to recognize the faces of familiar people. In this strange story prosopagnosia pulls a man who claims he is the famous Mexican artist, Vicente Rojo, into the orbit of fifteen-year-old schoolgirl, Berta and her mother. It all begins with a game, one that helps Berta reject whatever it is that reality is trying to communicate to her. Berta feels ‘obliged to live alongside the ugliest things in the world’, believing that one can construct reality, with memories as stories. Communication between she and her mother is filled with static, so how can her mother improve upon their fractured family, make a happy life after her husband abandoned her if she can’t decipher Berta’s troubling behavior? If she expected to have ‘arrived’ somewhere with meaning herself by the age of 43 and instead is living a life in ruins?

The game entails standing in front of a mirror without blinking nor breathing, then staring at the reflection of your face but seeing with your brain and not with your eyes. Berta stares fixedly until the point of disassociation, when the face is no longer a face, until it is a mass ‘without meaning or purpose’. Fainting in the process is an after effect and when Berta stares into a painting someone has left against the wall at the school entrance and passes out, she comes to surrounded by teachers, staff and the very man who caught her. The old man intends to see her home safe, the artist of the very painting that has left her in shame after fainting. Strange things happen to her as do unpleasant situations, like her father walking out on them. Her mother understands nothing, especially her request to have a pet Ibis. Nor does she understand Berta’s rejection of said artist and her desire to decline his gracious gift, a painting. Worse, her mother wants to seek out Vicente! Both mother and daughter are caught in a stubborn dance, unable to see anything clearly. One is trying to lose meaning and the other find it.

Berta’s mother is struggling with her age, the end of her marriage, her weight gain, a career she doesn’t care for and the distance between she and her child. Reality, she tells us, is calling out to her in the form of her very troubled daughter. The calls from school are disheartening, she wants things to be happier but in many ways prefers to keep her eyes shut tight, even thinking of the game Berta and her best friend play as creative, harmless. For as much as Berta rejects Vicente, her mother is drawn to the gifted artist and his rich life, who is suddenly giving her own life meaning, by extension. She is in awe, dazzled by their meeting. The very pleasure of their communion washes over her sealing a plan in her mind, she will write an interview for the newspaper she works for to publish. Soon, they are all running circles around each other, misinterpreting reality. Berta’s mother is absorbing only what suits her truth, while Berta herself constructs her own. What happens when we decide what is real based on deception? What if we are the ones deceiving ourselves?

It is a leap into the unknown, our own minds. I felt the story is more about the mother, not Berta. It begins with her ruminating about her own failures, especially her need to wake up to the situation with Berta. Where she is numb and asleep at the wheel, Berta wishes to disassociate from world that is becoming too much, with the pain of her friend’s illness and her father exiting stage left… Vicente is painting his own colorful existence too but how will it effect Berta and her mother’s strained relationship?

I focused on the trials of motherhood, the balm of art and beauty and the painful confusion of youth when reading but it did drag at times. I think it is also about invention of the self versus the trajectory the rest of society forces us to accept. We tell ourselves and each other stories, if a, b and c happen d always follows. It’s hard to abandon preconceived notions of how life is supposed to be. What matters is what we decide can happen. This book may not be every reader’s cup of tea but it had it’s moments for me.

Publication Date: January 5, 2021

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