The Comet's Tail: A Memoir of No Memory

By Amy Nawrocki

I do not remember the tubes, the tests, or the icy cold of space. I do not remember losing six months of my life. At age nineteen, Amy Nawrocki returned from her first year of college, scribbled a few notes in her journal, and took a terrifying summer trip. She remembers one night of disorientation, then nothing until Christmas, when awareness slowly restarts. The Comet’s Tail is the story of these missing months: the seizures and fever spikes, the deep nothing of coma, and the unexpected, dramatic recovery. Memory is recreated around EEG transcripts and doctors’ notes, family vigils and blurry Polaroids. From her unique perspective, Nawrocki investigates the connections between memory, trauma, and identity. She illuminates what it means to truly return to consciousness in this extraordinary memoir of illness, healing, and writing over the blank pages of our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Homebound Publications
• Release date: Jun 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781938846328

Book preview

These are the things I do remember: I do remember driving home on lightless highways from my summer job in New Haven, windows half-rolled, thick June air blowing around me. I do remember emptying my bank account to buy a fish tank for fish that died. I remember falling asleep to James Brown and recordings of electrical thunderstorms. I remember my bedroom—there were three white walls and one red one. The bed’s brass frame probably needed polishing as it always did. I remember not feeling like myself, and something about yelling, and I remember calling for friends from work. I think I remember Dad rattling into my room: What’s wrong? I do not remember dread or panic. I do not remember seizures, quivering like a wind-up toy let loose from its coil. I do not remember the tubes, the tests, or the icy cold of space. I do not remember losing six months of my