What Alice Forgot – Liane Moriarty

Once in a while I like to just go into a bookstore and choose a book at random. It has to be a title I’ve never heard of before by an equally unknown author. It’s like a little game, my little book-game. The name of this particular book sounded intriguing so I bought it.

This is a book about travelling back in time and getting a second chance.

Alice, the main protagonist of the story, is a busy mom with a tight schedule and an even tighter outlook on life. She’s organized and always rushing about with a million things to do, until one day she suffers an accident that erases the last ten years of her life from her memory. She doesn’t remember her children, friends, or why she’s divorcing her husband who she was crazy about but now doesn’t seem to be the fun-loving amazing guy she married all those years ago.

We get to see the story from the point of view of different characters and in different forms: Elisabeth’s (Alice’s big sister) letters to her psychiatrist and the “honorary” grandmother’s blog (a nice touch that comes to emphasize the times we live in).

The plot unravels at a slow pace, as Alice starts to remember bits and pieces of a former life that seems very strange to her. Her efforts to fit in the life she’s apparently had for the last years are touching and she tries very hard to erase the word “divorce” that now stands between her and her husband Nick. And then one day something happens and she gets all her memories back.

This book has more or less the feel of a modern fairytale, even though the end is not as convincing as I hoped for. It makes one think about how much things can change in a decade and how it is possible to have it all back if you really want to.

Read between April 8-10, 2011

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2 Responses to What Alice Forgot – Liane Moriarty

  1. Esa says:

    Some books demand a deeper participation, and will touch us deeply. They leave indelible marks upon us, at times lasting for years. And then there are the books, which require less commitment, but still tickle just enough of our senses, to make it like a piece of dark chocolate, or a bowl of ice cream. A sweet pleasure, that satisfies for a short time only. But whats wrong with that.

  2. Delia says:

    Nothing wrong, but in the end you just wish there was more to it.

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