Greenpoint

Collection of ‘Humorous’ mini-stories examines memory

Brooklyn BookBeat

March 2, 2015 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
“The Book of Memory Gaps,” by debut author Cecilia Ruiz, will be featured at Greenpoint’s WORD Bookstore on March 12. Image: Copyright Cecilia Ruiz 2015
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“The Book of Memory Gaps,” by debut author Cecilia Ruiz, is a collection of darkly humorous mini-stories that examine the curious and capricious nature of memory.

Ruiz’s book launch will be from 7 to 9 p.m. March 12 at WORD Bookstore in Greenpoint. The event is free and open to the public.

Each of the fourteen stories reveals a character with a compelling and poetic memory condition; all are inspired by real memory disorders or phenomena.

As an MFA student, Ruiz was asked to read a short story (“Ostracon” by Alex Rose, about a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s) and develop a project around the story.

“I began thinking and reading about memory: its mysteries, affections, mechanisms, and how it defines who we are,” Ruiz says.

“The Book of Memory Gaps” evolved from that project; she found inspiration in Jorge Luis Borges’s “Funes the Memorious” and researched the psychiatry of memory disorders.

“The Book of Memory Gaps” is a unique, charming, and poignant book. With concise, lyrical prose and a discerning command of color, Ruiz captures the delicate and fleeting nature of memory, as well as its immense power—after all, who would we be without it?

Cecilia Ruiz is an illustrator and graphic designer who lives and works in New York. She has a BFA in graphic design from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and an MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. This is her first book. Her website is www.ceciliaruiz.com.

To watch the animated book trailer, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsivIcxRo7E.

 

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