So Many Ways to Begin: A Novel

So Many Ways to Begin: A Novel by McGregor, Jon. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781596912229.

In this potent examination of family and memory, Jon McGregor charts one mans voyage of self-discovery. Like Kazuo Ishiguros The Remains of the Day, So Many Ways to Begin is rich in the intimate details that shape a life, the subtle strain that defines human relationships, and the personal history that forms identity. David Carter, the novels protagonist, takes a keen interest in history as a boy. Encouraged by his doting Aunt Julia, he begins collecting the things that tell his story: a birth certificate, school report cards, annotated cinema and train tickets. After finishing school, he finds the perfect job for his lifetime obsession―curator at a local history museum. His professional and romantic lives take shape as his beloved aunt and mentors unravels. Lost in a fog of senility, Julia lets slip that David had been adopted. Over the course of the next decades, as David and his wife Eleanor live out their lives―struggling through early marriage, professional disappointments, the birth of their daughter, Eleanors depression, and an affair that ends badly― David attempts to physically piece together his past, finding meaning and connection where he least expects it.