Elephants Can Remember

She was, of course, a wonderful writer. She understood psychology and this made her characters come alive. She also learned much about murder and the different methods which could be used. The science involved, the investigative procedures used during her life, how the truth was covered and uncovered by her sleuths were amazing examples of her studies and writing ability. But most of all was the loving way she created the heroes we have grown to love. I read her stories many times and there are so many that they continue to bring pleasure. The tragedy, the evil, the honesty, the satisfactory conclusion. I\’m very glad I discovered some of her books in well read condition at my mother\’s house. I collected many of her paper books, and sadly had to give them away when I moved into a small apartment. It\’s wonderful to have most of them now in my Kindle, but I miss the feel of the book, the folded corners that saved my place, just looking at them in my bookcase. But time changes things and technology brings benefits and losses. But the writers are still the same.

I have seen this novel discussed as evidence of Ms. Christie\’s earlier stages of dementia. Hmm, we should all be demented in this manner. Yes, there are probably statistically correct indications of a shrinking vocabulary, and a few sentences seem odd. The obsession with \’elephants never forget\’ as a figure of speech and driver of plot — well, that is not singularly tied to the author\’s possible fear of fading memory, but rather firmly in line with Ms. Christie\’s habit of taking the most childish of rhymes and stories, the most commonplace phrases, and weaving a plot with that little figure of speech or rhyme or story as the central metaphor. The plot is always more sophisticated than the kernel of language from which it grows. In this case, Christie is — as in \’Five Little Pigs\’ — reaching far into the past. She aims to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding the tragic and shocking deaths of an apparently happy married man and woman while they are out taking their afternoon walk. Fifteen years later, the ever-delightful Avatar of Christie, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, is rudely asked to look into the matter. Together with Poirot, she goes hunting for \’big game\’ in the form of critical bits of the past that the humans who have elephantine memories have not forgotten. If you are long-experienced with the doyenne of death, you may be able to hazard a pretty good guess at the answer to this puzzle. But you won\’t ferret out all the really interesting details. I greatly enjoyed this satisfying read.

I had heard she wrote this at the end of her life, possibly while suffering from the onset of dementia. I understand that some people\’s vocabularies shorten as they age. However, there were too many \”something\’s\” within and that made every instance distracting. Even the most celebrated crime novelist benefits from a strong editor.

I read somewhere that Elephants Can Remember was Dame Christie\’s last novel, written while she was in the first stages of dementia. This explains the quality of the writing when compared with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Nemesis. However, I thought the plot was wonderful and the clues are the result of a first class mind at work.

My only complaint is the cost of these books on Kindle and the fact that they cannot be read on Kindle Unlimited. I really believe whoever is getting the royalties could certainly bring the cost down!

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