Geezer Literature

When I give presentations as an author of geezer-lit mysteries, occasionally people in the audience recommend other good books with older characters. One of these I’ve recently read is The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Set in Japan, this is the tale of a retired mathematics professor who has a rolling eighty minutes of memory. A housekeeper hired through a placement agency comes to help him. She discovers that if she runs an errand under eighty minutes the professor will still remember her, but if she returns after eighty minutes he doesn’t know who she is. The professor takes a liking to the housekeeper’s son and the threesome become friends, given the limitations of the professor’s memory. He keeps notes attached to his suit coat to remind him of people and events. I enjoyed this story immensely.

In my Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery series, Paul Jacobson has a memory that resets overnight, so he experiences the same problem on a daily basis. He keeps a journal much like the professor relies on notes.

Have you dealt with a person who has short-term memory loss?