Here's a tip from the olds at Shmoop: If the best years of your life took place in high school, you're in for a long downhill slide. There's nothing wrong with remembering the good times, but living in the past just leads you to tragedy (or at least to being a major bore). In An Abundance of Katherines, Colin revels in the past because it's where Katherine is, but he soon learns that memories can be fickle things. They change over time, and pretty soon, the memory of Katherine is all he has left. But those can't keep him warm at night, and it would serve him well to remember that.
Questions About Memory and the Past
- Does Colin remember the past realistically? What parts of his memories seem unlikely?
- Colin calls his memory the "one facility he'd always trusted." Why does he cherish his memory so much?
- Is Colin driven by his memory of the past, or his dream for the future?
Chew on This
Colin is alone and a major snore because he only wants to live in the past.
Even though Colin's memory lets him down, it still comforts him enough to keep around.