What Alice Forgot
Description
FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE HUSBAND'S SECRET AND BIG LITTLE LIES .
A “cheerfully engaging”(Kirkus Reviews ) novel for anyone who’s ever asked herself, “How did I get here?”
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over—she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over.
From Publishers Weekly
Mar 14, 2011 – This winning not-quite amnesia story parses what happens when Alice, a married mother of three whose marriage is disintegrating, takes a knock on the head and comes to thinking she is herself, but 10 years younger and in the middle of a blossoming young marriage, with her first child on the way. As younger Alice adjusts to her older life and body, she finds much to be surprised at: a wealthy lifestyle she never dreamed of, a rejuvenated mother with a surprising love interest, and a sister whose life has turned out unexpectedly disappointing. And everyone is so sorry for something that happened with her best friend Gina, whom she doesn't remember, but apparently who helped sow the seeds of her marriage's collapse. But as the young Alice takes over the older Alice's life and applies her goofy, laissez-faire approach to living, the tension builds: what will happen if old Alice regains her memory? Alice's journey of reconciling herself to how her life came to be what it is, and her slowly building understanding of how the threads of her marriage began to unravel, is moving, well-paced, and thoroughly pleasurable.
Customer Reviews
Makes you rethink your priorities
I read this book thinking it would be a fun read, but instead found it to be touching and, in an odd lighthearted way, rather profound. I couldn't put it down as it cleverly worked its way backward, revealing Alice's life, pre-accident. It touched a place in me that made me rethink how I've lived the last ten years of my life. I was almost jealous of Alice for having lost her memory of the last ten years when I saw how she became a better person, wife, and mother because of the amnesia. A truly prophetic book masquerading as a quirky summer novel. I loved it.
This story really made me appreciate my life and my husband. So many of us get caught up in the rat race and children, and forget why we got together in the first place. I could really see myself and my husband in this story.
Such a good book. I fell in love with the characters. Such a sweet, real, affecting story. Great beginning, middle, and beautifully wrapped-up ending. Buy it, you won't regret it for a second.