What Alice Forgot

The Peanut Butter Fingers books club selection in December was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. I was really excited to read this book and I had plenty of time to do it. Chris and I were on vacation earlier this month, so I started it while we were traveling and finished during one of our Christmas drives. It was a pretty quick read and I probably would have finished it earlier if we hadn’t had so much going on.

Reading on the plane

The story begins with Alice waking up on the gym floor at age 39 but she believed she was only 29. She had fallen, hit her head, and forgot the last 10 years of her life. She had no recollection of how she got there or why she was there. Her last memory was being pregnant, happily married to her husband and enjoying fixing up their home. Today, 10 years later, she has three children, is in the middle of a bitter divorce and has a very distant relationship with her sister.

As the story progresses, Alice begins remembering small pieces of her past but nothing is really making sense. She tries to maneuver her way through a life she finds hard to believe is her own while trying to piece back together the life she once new. **SPOILER** In the end, Alice does remember the time that she lost but is a better person for it. (Even if I would have known this from the beginning I would have read the book because I wanted to find out why her life took the turns it did.)

The story is not only told from Alice’s point of view but also has snippets that are from her sister (Elizabeth) and grandmother’s (Frannie) points of view. I always enjoy reading books that do this because I think it gives the reader more insight into what is going on.

I found this book entertaining and thought-provoking. Think about it, how would you feel if you woke up and couldn’t remember a chunk of your past? Looking back at your life, did you think you would end up where you are today?

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