Searching for Memory

On Yom Kippur, October 9, 2000, Kandel received an early morning phone call informing him that he had just received the Nobel Prize, which he shared with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard. Kandel offers his readers a rare glimpse into the process and pageantry of the Nobel experience. In December we travel with Kandel, Denise, and their two children, Paul and Minouche, with several grandchildren in tow, to Stockholm, where the red carpet is rolled out and the festivities begin. While the adult Kandel carries the narrative, we get occasional glimpses of the young Jewish boy from Vienna wandering wide-eyed throughout the ceremonies, marveling at the occasion. The days are punctuated by banquets, speeches, and press conferences, and, of course, somewhere along the line a medal is bestowed. Some weeks later, Kandel received a letter from the president of Austria, Thomas Klestil, congratulating him. What happened next should come as no surprise to readers, who by now have gotten to know that Kandel does nothing by half measures. He suggested to the president that they should organize a symposium in Vienna that would provide a vehicle, as Kandel puts it, for “comparing Austria's response to the Hitler period, which was one of denial of any wrongdoing, with Germany's response, which was to try to deal honestly with the past.” The president agreed. Kandel then set about organizing this meeting with the help of a close friend, Fritz Stern, a historian at Columbia University. The symposium took place in June 2003, where Kandel, together with another Nobel laureate, Walter Kohn, himself a Viennese emigre, recounted their early, life-altering experiences in Vienna. Kandel then returned to Vienna in September 2004 to celebrate the publication of the papers delivered at the symposium. He provides us with extremely personal and deeply moving accounts of his many interactions with members of the Jewish community during both of these visits to Vienna, including a celebration of Yom Kippur in the main synagogue. On their last day in Vienna, Kandel and his wife returned to his old neighborhood and stopped outside of the apartment from which he had been driven sixty-five years earlier. He did not enter, he simply remembered.By the time readers turn the last page of this book, they have come to appreciate the complex interplay of historical, scientific, and personal events that shaped Kandel's life. Interweaving these events in sometimes idiosyncratic ways, Kandel recurrently takes risks, allowing the reader intimate glimpses of his personal life, even those that are not wholly flattering, and moving repeatedly from his own experiences and the historical context within which they occurred to detailed discussions of the history and content of the scientific field that he clearly loves. The book is thus not for the intellectually faint of heart. Both the personal and scientific histories are rich in detail and complex in exposition. But in the end, In Search of Memory is well worth the effort. Readers, laymen, and scientists alike, are given the opportunity to accompany an extraordinary human being on his fascinating journey in search of the biological foundations of memory, his own and ours.View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint Slide