A A THOMAS
EVERY WRITER OWES A DEBT TO THE PAST
CODA: HIS FINAL SOLO
2026
Memoir.
A deeply personal account of dementia and its impact on a family. In the final nine months of my father’s life, as his memory, cognition, mobility, and personality eroded, the question of who he is becomes a reckoning with who we are to one another.
More than dementia, the book explores the histories, relationships, and experiences that shape a family long before illness enters the picture—and the difficult search for meaning and acceptance in the face of loss.
How do we remember?
Recollection is a fractious conversation with oneself, with a disproportionate emphasis on petty details.
Denying this. Amending that. Veering off course.
Stalling at remembered amusements. Buoyed by past elations.
Crippled, at times, by a sorrow so engulfing, you find yourself on your knees.
'CODA' IN PAPER & LIGHT
INDIA DESIGN 2024, NEW DELHI
A conversation with paper artist Jenny Pinto on 'disintegration' and the dissolution of the self—the central concern of CODA—produced two sculptural works in her trademark handmade paper and light.
The pieces explore erasure as both intimate and collective, placing the fading of individual identity in dialogue with the dissolution of community and suggesting that erasure—whether intimate or collective—is total, either way, regardless of scale.
