Brain Rose by Nancy Kress
"Brain Rose" is a 2022 narrative that explores the consequences of a memory-erasing plague affecting humanity. The story centers around a procedure called Previous Life Access Surgery (PLAS), which allows individuals to recover memories from their past lives. Key characters include Caroline Bohentine, who seeks to escape from her traumatic history, Joe McLaren, who hopes to find a cure for his multiple sclerosis, and Robbie Brekke, who discovers deep connections with others who have undergone the surgery. As they delve into their pasts through a reincarnation database, they uncover complex relationships: Robbie was once Caroline's son, and Joe had condemned Robbie's past life to death.
The plot thickens as Robbie grapples with violent flashbacks and hallucinatory experiences tied to his former identities, while Caroline and Joe navigate their personal struggles. A tragic event involving Caroline's daughter amplifies the emotional stakes, leading to conflicts around moral convictions and personal choices. As Robbie becomes entangled in memories of a past persona named Mallie, the group faces both internal and external threats, including FBI involvement due to Robbie's unintended release of the plague virus. Ultimately, the narrative suggests a philosophical reflection on memory and identity, culminating in the development of a vaccine that offers hope for the future amidst their interconnected and burdensome pasts.
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Subject Terms
Brain Rose
First published: 1990
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—inner space
Time of work: 2022
Locale: Rochester, New York, and other locations in the United States
The Plot
In 2022, a memory-destroying plague stalks humanity. Previous Life Access Surgery (PLAS) allows recovery of memories of former lives. After such operations, Caroline Bohentine, Joe McLaren, and Robbie Brekke seek information, through the reincarnation database, on their past-life ties. Robbie shows close links with virtually everyone who has undergone the surgery. While Caroline and Joe face personal tragedies, violent flashbacks seize Robbie. On a hallucinatory quest in Wyoming, he lapses into unending replay of others’ memories. These bring insights into his role as a central “memory node” in the evolving oversoul.
Caroline, Joe, and Robbie seek PLAS for different reasons. Caroline, a survivor of incest and two failed marriages, hopes to discover versions of herself that she prefers to the current one. Joe, a sober attorney, wants to be cured of his multiple sclerosis; the cure is an unexplained side effect of the operation. An underworld boss sends Robbie for the surgery.
Caroline and Joe are suspicious of Robbie’s facile charm, but in the clinic’s hothouse atmosphere, the three find themselves drawn together. Some reasons are revealed in memory flashes. Robbie was Caroline’s son in a previous life, and Joe, as boss in a Chinese porcelain factory, once ordered Robbie’s execution for careless work. These discoveries add guilt to the interpersonal dynamics.
A bomb explodes at the home sheltering Caroline’s young daughter, a plague victim. The daughter dies the following day. Angel Whittaker, Joe’s secretary, asks Joe to answer an urgent message from Robin, his former wife, and to defend Angel from a sodomy charge. Joe’s principles win against Angel’s pleas. Joe refuses to call Robin because she has joined the Gaeists, who insist that Earth needs no protection. He will not help Angel because of his own moral convictions.
A call from Caroline, telling Joe that Robbie is disoriented and hysterical in Wyoming, shakes his composure. When his friend Jeff Pirelli appears with a warrant, Joe joins Jeff and Caroline in their search for Robbie.
Meanwhile, Robbie has been drawn into a past persona. As Mallie, a young desperado, he relives heists in St. Louis and a massacre and lingering death in a Wyoming cave. In flashes of clarity, he hunts Mallie’s treasure and eventually finds it, near the skeleton of his past-life persona. Robbie flees to his motel, fighting hallucinations. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are waiting for him. He begins babbling other people’s memories.
In Robbie’s motel room, the others sort out the puzzle. The FBI wants Robbie because he released mice that carried the plague virus. Pirelli suggests that Robbie is a central node in all the memory phenomena. He speculates that the human racial memory or oversoul is evolving into a higher form. Deprived of memory input by AIDS and the plague, it is using Robbie as a conduit until it heals. Like Gaea, the oversoul is a self-correcting entity.
Joe rejects this idea, but Caroline considers it. A year later, a vaccine against the plague is developed. The burden of multiple linked pasts weighs on a still-disbelieving Joe.