book, What Alice Forgot" by Liane Moriarty. Those present were
Julie, Kathy, Betsy, Madeleine, Nancy and Nettie. All had read
the book and liked it.
Liane Moriarty is Australian and the book is set in Sydney and is full
of Aussie vernacular which everyone finds charming. The protagonist,
Alice, has bumped her head in the gym and has lost the last 10 years of
her memory. So that makes her mentally 29 not 39 and she thinks she
is pregnant with her 1st child when in reality she has 3 children of whom
she has not a clue. She also finds that she is divorcing her husband whom
she still loves and that she has some how offended a number of people
in her life including her sister Elisabeth. She also gathers there is a Gina
who was very important to her and she has no memory of her and even
wonders if she had somehow become a lesbian. Yet she is dating the school
principal whom she is not comfortable with.
So we accompany Alice on her road to remembering her past and seeing
how her marriage unraveled not by any major drama but steady day to
day deterioration in relationships. Fortunately for her, due to this incident,
Alice is able to reconstruct her life and marriage, striving to go back to
the nicer person she was before she became the Stepford wife she was
becoming.
Two methods were also used by the author to relate her story. Elisabeth,
the infertile sister mentally writes to her therapist and has such clarity of
thought and understanding of situations which she probably does not have in
the actual sessions. The "grandmother" Frannie also writes to a dead fiancee
and has good insight on all the events and characters in the book. This book
was a light fun read.
Nancy chose a book called, "The 19th Wife" by David Ebershoff. It is 2
parallel stories of the Mormon Sect and the First Latter Day Saints one set
in present day and the other set in 1875. It is about murder that is provoked
by multiple marriages. It is available in Kindle and hard copy at the library.
February 27th, 2013 is targeted for our next meeting.
