Recursion (Crouch novel)

Recursion is a thriller science fiction novel by American writer Blake Crouch, first published in the United States in June 2019 by the Crown Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House. The novel explores themes of memory, identity, and time.

Plot
In 2018, NYPD detective Barry Sutton encounters a woman afflicted by False Memory Syndrome (FMS), a condition causing individuals to have memories of lives they never lived. After he fails to prevent her suicide, Barry investigates FMS, leading him to a strange Hotel Memory, operated by business magnate Marcus Slade, who captures him. Slade forcibly sends Barry back in time to the night his daughter Meghan died in a hit-and-run accident 11 years prior. Barry saves Meghan, altering the course of their lives, but the ripple effects of this action lead to widespread affliction of FMS among the population, including his family, resulting in Meghan's suicide due to the overwhelming influx of false memories.

In 2007, Helena Smith, a neuroscientist focusing on Alzheimer's research, works on a "memory chair" designed to replay past experiences. When her research runs into financial difficulties, philanthropist Marcus Slade offers her unlimited funds to continue her research at a remote oil rig. There, Slade's ambition is to create a deprivation tank intended for time travel through death and resurrection. He reveals that in another reality, he was originally Helena's lab assistant, and they accidentally time travelled to a memory. When Slade realized this, he sent himself back in time to become a billionaire. Realizing Slade's dangerous plans, Helena uses the technology to escape to the past, knowing that when time catches up, Slade will regain his memories.

As their paths converge, Barry and Helena unite to thwart Slade and prevent the misuse of the memory chair technology. They battle Slade's influence and the catastrophic potential of the memory chair in a series of shared timelines. In one timeline, Barry and Helena attempt to seize control of Hotel Memory, resulting in Barry's death and Helena's detention by DARPA. While detained, Helena works on reconstructing the memory chair for benevolent purposes, but the project is commandeered by the military, causing widespread chaos and the eventual proliferation of the technology among various governments and terrorist groups, escalating in threats of military conflict and global war. Helena then repeatedly travels back to her teenage years, attempting to rectify the situation.

Despite their efforts, each attempt to solve the crisis and eliminate false memories fails, while Helena's health deteriorates and she dies. Barry decides to end his life, only to be stopped by the resurgence of his memories. He realizes he must go back to the very first timeline, when Slade killed Helena to gain access to the technology. Barry kills Slade the day before he kills Helena, thereby restoring the original timeline. Finally, Barry reunites with Helena at a bar.

Critical reception
In a starred review, Publishers Weekly described Recursion as an "intelligent, mind-bending thriller". It stated: "Crouch effortlessly integrates sophisticated philosophical concepts into a complex and engrossing plot." Kirkus Reviews called Recursion an "exciting, thought-provoking mind-bender". It said the book is a stimulating exploration of grief and memory and how they define who we are. Rebecca Vnuk wrote in Booklist that readers may not understand the physics behind the story, "but, in a peculiar way, that's part of the fun."

In a review of the book in The New York Times, American author Victor LaValle described Recursion as "a heady campfire tale of a novel built for summer reading". He said the journey it follows "is a gloriously twisting line that regularly confounded my expectations." While all those paranormal podcasts are often rejected as fringe entertainment, LaValle stated "that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of these shows." He explained that "I'm a skeptic, though not quite an unbeliever". Novels like Recursion tend to be dismissed for similar reasons, but LaValle opined, "I believe they capture the disquiet of millions; they broadcast at an anxious frequency. The sense that our country’s center is not holding pulses through the novel. The fear that we are losing our collective memory, of a stable nation for instance, doesn't read to me like fantasy."

Translations
Recursion was translated into German by Rainer Schmidt as Gestohlene Erinnerung and published by Goldmann in March 2020. It was also translated into Portuguese as Recursão? and published by Intrinseca in January 2020.