What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

What Alice Forgot 

Author:  Liane Moriarty

Publisher:  Penguin

Publication Date:  June 1st 2010, Paperback

From Goodreads:

Remember the women you used to be...

Alice is twenty-nine.  She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick.  What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby.

But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step aerobics class and everyone's telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life.

In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures.  She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick.  In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy.  What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either.  And who is 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention?

Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on.  Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense.  Just how much can happen in a decade?  Has she really lost her lovely husband for ever.

---------------

What Alice Forgot is a book that makes you think, and reflect back on your life. Anyway I found myself doing that while reading What Alice Forgot.  There is so much truth to the journey Alice takes after she loses her memory of the last 10 years.  

How many times have we looked back at our younger selves and think how much more free and true to ourselves we were.  I know I was.  I know that I was Melissa, not just a mother and a wife.  Through time and responsibities I've changed so much, some for the better and some for the worse.   I loved how Alice couldn't figure out how she became this person that is so not like her.  A decade is a lot of living and I can see how time changes people as their situations change.  Ah..times are always a changin.  

I'm not sure if this is marketed as a chick lit, it certainly isn't to me.  There are hints of it but I think it is so much more than fluff.  Anything that can make you think so much about your life is a good read.   Ms. Moriarty is excellent in showing Alice's confusion, as well as the people around her who didn't know what to do with this new (though old) Alice.  They were perplexed especially Nick.  Nick, what a real character.  He is so much fun, and witty in flashbacks of the younger less jaded him.  As you are reading the present, you think what the hell happened to him?

Also wanted to point out that though the bulk of the book is about Alice, we also get two other small story lines. All done very well. My interest never waned.   Not once.

What Alice Forgot is flawlessly done.  I truly enjoyed it.