The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack

The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack– 366 pages

Book Blurb:

Bryan Pierce is an internationally famous artist whose paintings have dazzled the world. But there’s a secret to his success: Every canvas is inspired by an unusually vivid dream. When Bryan awakes, he possesses extraordinary new skills…like the ability to speak obscure languages and an inexplicable genius for chess. All his life, he has wondered if his dreams are recollections, if he is re-experiencing other people’s lives. Linz Jacobs is a brilliant neurogeneticist, absorbed in decoding the genes that help the brain make memories, until she is confronted with an exact rendering of a recurring nightmare at one of Bryan’s shows. She tracks down the elusive artist, and their meeting triggers Bryan’s most powerful dream yet: visions of a team of scientists who, on the verge of discovering a cure for Alzheimer’s, died in a lab explosion decades ago. As Bryan becomes obsessed with the mysterious circumstances surrounding the scientists’ deaths, his dreams begin to reveal what happened at the lab, as well as a deeper mystery that may lead all the way to ancient Egypt. Together, Bryan and Linz start to discern a pattern. But a deadly enemy watches their every move, and he will stop at nothing to ensure that the past stays buried.

My Review: 3 stars

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The Memory Painter had a captivating premise filled with history, science, romance and adventure. It was this storyline that kept me reading, however it was the execution and writing style that fell short for me. I felt the book was too character heavy and storylines became disjointed.

The second half of the book was much more exciting and written with more precision. The addition of a few good twists kept the story from being predictable which I credit the author for creating.

The historical references into past lives were interesting to read about however there was no connection between them. Their vast differences seemed far-fetched but for the sake of the story, I went with it. Overall, I enjoyed the book despite some of the execution issues.

Quotes I liked:

The truth was, he wrote as he breathed and could not have stopped the words if he wanted to. Even now he felt the beginning of a poem swirling among his dark thoughts.”

– “Strange, how memories cold have their own fragrance.”

-“Between the beginning and the end, this life is but one moment.”

-“One thing Michael had begun to see through these memories was how beauty was not fixed, but always changing, determined by a trinity of time, place and perception.”