The text W, or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec, is multiple different stories that are woven together in which the reader has to make sense of the novel. To begin with, the novel itself was incredibly confusing for me. I found that while the novel’s content was interesting, I was left confused from most of the initial reading. The text relates to the concepts of childhood and memory to me. The notion that the text is about childhood and memory is reflected based on the title. The title itself states that the novel is about the Memory of Childhood; and thus relates to the themes of childhood and memory. An aspect of the story that drew my attention was the narrator’s stance on how they “have no childhood memories,” which struck me as odd (Perec, 6). The lack of childhood memories may be due to traumatizing memories in their adolescence or the fact that the main character was put into a situation in which they had to grow up and mature. Additionally, what struck me as odd was that the narrator also found “comfort in such an absence of history” regarding their childhood (Perec, 6). The reason as to why this struck me as odd is that I believe that the history of someone stems from their childhood memories, as they are memories that define a person and their actions in the future. 

The lack of clarity that the narrator has on their childhood and their past may contribute to the confusion that the novel itself has. The initial confusion in the novel for me was from the title W, or the Memory of Childhood. The lack of clarity in the title reflects the different storylines in the novel, which the reader has to understand. Additionally, there is either a lack of clarity or a means to obscure information, but the naming of places with “K,” and “H,” also shows the gaps in the main character’s memory (Perec, 6). The obscuring of the name of the locations, while those add some anonymity to the novel, also confused me for the most part. As the characteristics were being listed for places, it seemed as though it was hard for me to follow what was occurring in the novel. Additionally, since these locations are based on the narrator’s memory, and as a narrator, as previously stated, they do not remember much from their childhood, I would question the reliability of the main character as a reliable narrator.

A question that I would ask the others about this novel is: based on the novel, does knowing childhood memories or knowing history seem an essential part of building a character?

-Muskan Shukla