Memory's Encouragement

On Language, Memory, and Illness. As Tony Gorry recalls scenes from his earliest childhood and adolescence, he weaves his present reality with these images to unlock meaning hidden in the remembered moments. On their surface they may appear ordinary, but as this book reveals, they point the way to a life well lived. Gorry also remembers events at which he was never present: the evening his parents first met, his fathers World War II experiences. He explores these recollections -- not really memory at all -- and finds them as important to the way he understands his life as those he actually lived through. At the centre of the book Gorry writes about his decision to study Greek in his late sixties; he wanted to read Homer in the original. As he began to learn the ancient language, Gorry, one of the first Ph.D.s in Computer Science from MIT, also came to realise that he was going to have to slow down in order to learn well. With careful introspection about his past and courage in the face of his current cancer treatment, Gorry offers a compelling narrative about how to discover significance in ones life.