Memento Park by Mark Sarvas (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) March 2018- In 40 words or less: Matt Santos, a B-list actor, plays parts on screen and in his own life. A phone call suggesting he’s the rightful owner of a painting seized by the Nazis in 1944 raises questions about his identity, his family, and the choices he’s made.
- Genre: Literary fiction
- Locale: United States and Hungary
- Time: Contemporary
Matt Santos seems to be living the Los Angeles dream. A regular role in a series. Living with his girlfriend Tracy, a model and activist working to free a death row inmate she believes wrongly convicted. Things are rarely what they seem. Matt isn’t really into the show and Tracy is spending a lot of time with a lawyer on the case. Out of the blue, a phone call from a New York law firm upends the delicate balance of their lives.
The lawyer insists that Matt may be the rightful owner of a painting wrongly transferred during WWII and now in the restitution process. Matt argues he knows nothing about it and is told his father has declined any claims in Matt’s favor. Matt has had a fractious relationship with his father and wants nothing to do with the painting or his father. Tracy has been the go-between for father and son, and a weekend visit cross country by Gabor does little to assuage the ill feelings.
With this as the background, Matt begins the search for the truth about the painting, its ownership, and the history of his family in Hungary during the war. The attorney provided Matt for this process is Rachel, a young woman from a traditional Jewish family, whose relationship with her father is in stark contrast to Matt’s. The richness of Rachel’s family life, despite their modest means, awakens a mix of curiosity and envy towards Judaism. The discovery the other possible owner of the painting is a woman rabbi further adds to the complexity.
In Memento Park Mark Sarvas has written several stories swirling around one another. The story of Matt the actor touches on the emptiness of a life built on good looks and mediocre acting skills. Matt’s research into the life of the (fictitious) artist provides his first look into the struggles of the years between the wars and the toll it took on individuals and Jews, in particular.
Throughout the novel, Matt’s ongoing yearning for his father’s approval/love and his conditioned response when disappointed is the real grabber. It is only through the larger quest surrounding the painting that Matt learns of the experiences that shaped his father’s childhood and made him such a difficult man. Coming to terms with it all is key to Matt reclaiming his life.
While the Holocaust and the infamous history behind the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial are critical to the novel, I wouldn’t characterize it as a part of that genre. This is a story of family and the secrets that color every aspect of life. Achieving this balance requires a delicate touch and Mark Sarvas has carried it off. The success of Memento Park is weaving together all the elements into cohesive work without straining credulity. The result is a novel with interesting plot twists that will provide book groups with ample material for discussion.
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