Book Review: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

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.

I'm not sure what to say about this book.  I've had it on my reading list for ages and finally got to it, just to find it wasn't as spectacular as I'd hoped or imagined.  Alice, after she lost her memory and thought she was twenty-nine and pregnant for the first time, was a sweet character.  Her story was written in third person, but the author didn't take advantage of that "all knowing" style of writing, everything was shown as Alice perceived it.  Interspersed in Alice's story, there were diary entries from Elisabeth, Alice's sister made to a psychiatrist, Dr. Hodges; as well as letters to an old beau written by Frannie, their adopted grandmother.  These didn't add to the narrative at all, and would have made Alice's story flow better if just left out.

For me, What Alice Forgot was just an ok book.  There are some really good moments with the children as she tires to learn to relate to these little people she doesn't remember.  There are good lessons to be learned about moderation, in life, in family, in friendship.  

 I give this book 3 Bookworms.