That’s right, Blanche’s Book Club is rolling right on with the summer reads! Over the weekend, I finished reading “What Alice Forgot” by Liane Moriarty. And where do I begin with this one? It was SO good!
From Amazon.com (and also the back of the book), “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…”
The interesting part about the way this book is written, is that the reader meets Alice as she’s coming to on that gym floor, having forgotten 10 years of her life. So, the reader is discovering Alice at the same time Alice is. It’s a very interesting take!
There is a reader’s guide in the back of the book, so I really looking forward to utilizing that to guide this blog post. But when I looked at all of the questions – I didn’t really like them. So, screw that. But there are a few things I’d like to discuss.
One thing I took note of in this book was the sense of time. The entire book (about 450 pages in length) takes place over the course of about a week. And within that week, we learn about Alice’s forgotten 10 years, along with the stories of her friends, neighbors, and families. It’s a lot of information, all at once, but it’s delicately placed and easy to take in.
When Alice comes to, she doesn’t recognize ANYTHING about her life. She doesn’t understand why she’d be at the gym, or why her gym bag is packed with beautiful clothes, or why she is so thin, or HOW she possibly has three children.
I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately; mostly how it seems to slip by when you don’t want it to, but when you’re sitting at work waiting for 5:30 to come, it moves so slow. This book got me thinking a lot about the person I’ve become over the course of the years… so much so, that I’m sure I’ll touch on this more in a post later this week.
But in short, I’ll say that I think it’s really easy to wake up one morning – any morning – and wonder how your life came to be the way it is; whether those were good decisions or bad, or moves that were totally out of your control. Is it how we thought we’d end up? Or totally different?
I looked up reviews for the book once I finished reading, just to see what other readers were saying, and the reviews were very mixed. Many people didn’t like Alice, or some liked her younger self instead of her older self. Interesting thoughts. Lots of people found self-reflection in this book, and although I can’t relate to most of the topics discussed – marriage, divorce, motherhood, infertility – I thought a lot about myself and my friends (over the years).
Two things I will say is that my favorite character was Tom, Alice’s son. His quotes often made me laugh out loud, and I felt Moriarty truly captured the different personalities of children in Alice’s kids. I will also say that I wish we got to learn more about Gina – Alice’s best friend – more throughout the book, instead of just in the very end.
“What Alice Forgot” is slated for film, with Jennifer Anniston supposedly in talks to play Alice – which I think would be perfect!
Since this was my first book of Moriarty’s (I have already purchased two others), I wanted to look up a little info on her. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she started off in the corporate world as a marketing manager, then moved to be a freelance writer, and of course, now she’s a New York Times Bestseller! Inspiring!
The next book Blanche’s Book Club will be reading is “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins. Want to read it with us? We’d love to have you! Share your thoughts on the book with us via the comments, email (holly@thebitterlemon.com) or on Twitter & SnapChat @OrangeJulius7.
The Bitter Lemon 