Twenty-nine-year-old Alice Love wakes up on a gym floor believing she is pregnant and happily married. In reality, ten years have passed; she is thirty-nine, mid-divorce, and a mother of three. After a head injury wipes her memory of the previous decade, Alice must reconstruct her identity while grappling with the harsh woman she has become. She discovers her marriage to Nick has disintegrated into legal battles and her close relationship with her sister Elisabeth has cooled into polite distance. Alice examines her current lifestyle to find why she abandoned her old values for a sharp, organized, and lonely existence.
Readers who enjoy character-driven domestic drama find this story provides a perspective on how small, daily choices accumulate into a different personality over time. It appeals to those interested in the mechanics of long-term relationships and the friction between youthful ideals and middle-aged realities. The reader walks away considering whether their younger self would approve of their current life and recognizing the ways grief and habit reshape human character. This narrative functions as a thought experiment regarding personal growth and memory.
Inward-looking; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
Insights from What Alice Forgot
“She was a person she didn't even like.”
Alice wakes up thinking she is twenty-nine and pregnant. She finds out she is forty and getting a divorce. It makes me wonder how much of my current self would horrify my younger self.
“She wanted to see the man she’d married.”
The way Alice looks at Nick as a stranger is so sweet. She remembers why she fell for him before years of resentment piled up. It shows how easily we bury our original love under small daily annoyances.
“Her sister’s life was a series of medical appointments and disappointments.”
Elisabeth is trying so hard to have a baby while Alice is forgetting the kids she has. The contrast is heartbreaking. It reminds me that someone always wants the life I am currently complaining about.
Alice becomes a gym-obsessed mean girl without even noticing the transition. She lost her softness one spin class at a time. It is scary how quickly we can trade kindness for a perfect schedule.
- Published
- 2010
- Publisher
- Penguin Books
- ISBN
- 9781101515372
- Language
- EN
