What would you do if you suddenly awoke to find that not only do you not recall any of the events in your life, the people with whom you have interacted your entire life, or even your own personality, i.e., likes, dislikes, temperament? How would you react to the people surrounding you, claiming to be your mother, sister, and spouse, when they appear to be total strangers? Whom would you trust as you attempted to learn what you experienced before losing your memory: who and what you loved, what your relationships were like, what profession you pursued, and even what types of clothing, furnishings, and music you preferred?

That's the premise of author Allison Winn Scotch's The Song Remains the Same. Thirty-two-year-old Nell's mind is a blank slate and she must try to rebuild her life, but with no frame of reference in the form of memories, she is baffled about how to start. Her instincts tell her that Peter, her husband, is not right for her, but she has no idea why. Worse, she feels she can trust reporter Jamie Reardon as she watched his reports about the crash, even though she has no idea why she finds herself drawn to him. She learns that she operates an art gallery in New York City, while her mother, Indira, is a grating hippie-like free spirit who seems to enjoy shocking Nell with details of her sex life with her boyfriend.

And then there's Nell's father, who is entirely absent, but none of her family members are forthcoming with the details concerning how long it has been since Nell has seen him or why he apparently disappeared so many years earlier. He was a famous painter, which only increases the media attention and curiosity focused upon Nell. But when she learns that he named her after Eleanor Rigby, the character in the icon Beatles hit, she is distraught, wondering what kind of parent would name their child after such a dour character and, worse, whether that set the stage for her pre-accident joyless existence.

Against a soundtrack of pop culture tunes that were among Nell's favorites, Scotch crafts a mesmerizing portrait of a woman whose authentic self has been suppressed for many years. Now aware of the dissonance between who she believes she is and the mounting evidence of who she actually was, Nell begins a journey toward understanding herself and her life thus far, and rebuilding her life in a manner that will bring her happiness she never previously knew. But before she can embrace her future, she must understand her past. That requires learning to trust, but should she follow her own gut instincts or believe the version of events relayed by her loving family members. As the story progresses, Scotch injects riveting details about Nell's relationships with Peter, Rory, her mother, and, of course, her absent father, that bring all of their motives into question. Scotch inspires readers to wonder, along with Nell, how others would explain their lives if asked? What salient points would they include in the narration and which would be deliberately omitted? Scotch deftly times the revelations for maximum emotional impact upon Nell, the supporting characters, and, of course, her readers.

The Song Remains the Same is an absorbing portrait of a woman at loose ends who has suffered harrowing trauma but been given a chance to start her life anew. Nell's journey toward healing requires her to stare down and exorcise long-lingering emotional demons and resolve years-old conflicts with and resentments toward her family members. She must also confront the truth about her marriage to Peter and either embrace the decisions about that relationship that she had made prior to the crash, or make new choices. Every aspect of The Song Remains the Same is believable. Nell, dubbed "The Ice Queen" in high school, is a sympathetic character to whom readers will become attached. The novel would make an excellent book club choice because the themes lend themselves to enthusiastic discussion about starting over, making new choices, reconciling oneself to the past, and healing old wounds.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. ( )

The Song Remains the Same
Allison Winn Scotch

I have to give it to Ms. Scotch, all of her books that I have read have this awesome plots that could become clichéd with another writer, but she manages to keep them fresh and interesting.
The Song Remains the Same follows Nell Slattery, one of only two survivors of a plane crash, who wakes up in a hospital remembering nothing of her former life. Instead she relies on her family- husband Peter, Mom Indira, Sister Rory and other friends and foes to help her piece together who she was in her former life. Much of her journey situates around her relationship or lack there off with her Father, a renowned artist who left the family when Nell was 16. Somehow, Nell feels that finding out more about her father will lead her to find more about herself. During all this she must cope with knowledge of the baby she miscarried during the crash, and what her feelings about the baby were. To complicate matters even more, she learns upon waking up that just prior to her accident, her husband confessed to a one-night stand and they were separated.
Nell’s world is a lot to handle for a normal person on the day to day and we learn that she had created her own coping mechanisms ( her friends referred to her as “Ice Queen”). Waking up to all this drama/discord provides an interesting opportunity for Nell to reclaim and change her reality. Unfortunately the road to finding herself is rocky and full of the clichéd cliffs and valleys we all find. Although it would be nice to have a “true clean slate” and to start over without everyone else’s hassles. Sometimes that the hardest part of reinventing ourselves.
Now I enjoyed this book, but I wasn’t really in love with it. I was all in for Nell’s journey of self-discovery but for some reason I just wasn’t completely into it. I got a little bored with her obsession with her dad and wanted to know more about the marriage, the baby and though it all came together perfectly, I just wanted more substances about her past current life.
With that said, this book is still a page-turner. I finished it one glorious Sunday afternoon and couldn’t put it down. I wanted to know about the old Nell just as much as she did and that is what makes this a great read.
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I received this book through Goodreads giveaway program. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel about a woman who loses her memory after a plane crash and tries recreating her past through other people's memories of her. I found Nelly utterly believable, though the people around her were almost stereotypical through her eyes. Sometimes a person wonders what life could be like if they got a chance to start fresh, with no influence from the past to hinder them. This novel delves into that, and tackles the question of whether a person is who they are despite the past or because of it. I enjoyed the fresh revelations that kept cropping up despite her family's best efforts to suppress them, and the way each new thing could entirely change Nelly's outlook on life. Great book. ( )

This one was a lot different than I expected it to be. There was a character who I found easy to hate that frustrated me during the whole book! I really enjoyed many of the descriptions throughout the book, but I found the book slow overall. It seemed like not much happened in a span of a hundred pages. ( )

In The Song Remains the Same by Allison Winn Scotch, Nell Slattery is one of only two survivors of a plane crash. She awakens in the hospital totally vulnerable because she can not remember a thing about her life. Nell must rely on others - her mother, sister, husband, and friend - to help her piece together the facts of her life. The question is how much of what they are telling her is the truth and how much is how they want things to be? How much information are people withholding from her? How much should she trust her inner voice, her own instincts, when she has nothing to based those feelings on?

As Nell recovers she discovers not only that people may not be telling her the whole truth, but that she doesn't really want to be the person she was. She wants to look at her survival of the tragic crash as a way to further her understanding of who she is and what she wants out of life. Nell wants to start over and explore and develop a whole new fabulous self. She wants to enjoy her new life... but is it really possible to change?

Music plays a vital role in the novel. When giving her photos and favorite DVDs, Nell's sister does something else that is essential to the story: she puts a mixture of songs Nell enjoyed on an iPod. It becomes "the Best of Nell Slattery." Each chapter is a song title from her play list. Nell's life and her memories are intricately linked to the songs she listened to. As Nell tries to untangle the truth, the songs help unlock memories.

In many ways The Song Remains the Same follows the same formula as a mystery. Nell must follow the clues she is given to try to figure out what is true. At the same time it is a character study as the character tries to pry loose the clues about her past. While the novel flagged a little, especially when Nell's focus turned to finding her long absent father or clues to why he left, Winn-Scotch did a nice job pulling it all together in the end.

Allison Winn Scotch's website includes an excerpt and a reader's guide.

The Song Remains the Same is highly recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

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