Donald E. Westlake’s The Actor (aka, Memory) follows actor Paul Cole who sustains a concussion and ends up in a hospital. The brain injury affects Cole’s memory. He struggles to remember his pre-concussion Life and has to deal with an iffy short-term memory, too.

Memory is Westlake’s last novel and a departure from the crime novels he’s most celebrated for. The actor, whose memory problems steal the joys of his Life, lurches from one pitfall to another. His friends try to help Cole, but even they get frustrated by his inability to remember recent incidents. Cole’s inability to remember wrecks his hopes of returning to acting. But…what other jobs could he do? How can he cope with daily Life if he can’t recall what that Life consists of?

Westlake wrote Memory in the ‘60s, but couldn’t get it published. Westlake then focused on being a successful genre writer. Memory ended up in a desk drawer and where it languished, even after Westlake achieved success. Westlake’s friend Lawrence Block read Memory shortly after it was written and considered it a great book. After Westlake’s death in 2008, Block asked Westlake’s widow to look for a copy of Memory in Westlake’s files.  Abby Adams Westlake found it, and Block helped get it published. GRADE: B

Memory is being filmed as a major motion picture starring Andre Holland (Moonlight) and Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians) directed by Duke Johnson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Stephen Cooney. The movie has a planned 2025 release date.