SOURCE: A review of Highcastle, in World Literature Today, Vol. 70, No. 3, Summer, 1996, pp. 726–27.

In the following review of Highcastle: A Remembrance, Lewis commends Lem's insight into the workings of memory and the details of his physical world, but finds shortcomings in his lack of “curiosity about emotions and how they work.”

Unlike most autobiographies, which explore the life of the autobiographer in relation to other people, Stanislaw Lem's “remembrance” [Highcastle: A Remembrance] examines his life in relationship to man-made objects. As he explains, it was an awareness of things—principally unusual and curious objects—that triggered his awareness of and interest in other people. As a child he remembers crawling over his father and rummaging through his pockets in search of unusual objects, such as speculums, a small silver box with ink in it, and a metal pencil holder. Describing himself when a little older, he focuses upon...