It starts out with Alice dreaming about being in a pool and her toenails are all painted a different color, as are the person who is next to her in the pool. It's a peaceful dream but suddenly someone from the real world is calling out to her and won't let up. This is when she finds herself surrounded by people as she lays next to a stationery bicycle in a gym. She's being told that she fell off the bike and hit her head but it doesn't make sense to her because she doesn't go to the gym, much less work out!
As she's being wheeled out of the gym, people she doesn't know are making comments that make no sense to her. And her big concern is for the baby she is carrying.
She calls her sister who seems standoffish to her and the secretary at her husband's office is downright rude to her and she doesn't understand why. When her sister arrives at the hospital she notices that her sister looks . . . old. This is when she is told that it is ten years later than she thinks it is. Not only is she not pregnant, she has three children - that she doesn't remember. And she's going through a very contentious divorce.
Last month I reviewed a time travel book and this was kind of like that, but in a different way. Alice hadn't really traveled through time but her mind was stuck ten years in the past. "Watching" her go through this was fun because she was so sweet and innocent. But, through the interactions with the people she loved, you discover that maybe in the present time, Alice isn't this sweet and innocent person anymore.
At one point I found myself comparing What Alice Forgot to the movie Regarding Henry, starring Harrison Ford (I love this movie!). In that movie Henry (Harrison Ford) is a corrupt, heartless attorney until he is shot in the head and loses his memory. He becomes this endearing, gentle man that you just want to hug and take care of. With Alice you don't know what caused her to be the way she is because she doesn't remember and no one is telling her but I felt the same way about her as I did Henry.
Then, I started thinking about the changes that I've been through in the last ten years. A lot has changed. I've lost two of the three dogs I had ten years ago. Instead of going into an office daily, I volunteer once or twice a week. There have been major physical changes to my body. Relationship changes. Things that would be difficult to process. But, like Alice, if I woke up next to a stationery bike at a gym and told I'd fallen off of it, I too would wonder, when did I start going to the gym? :)
In any event, I very much enjoyed this book and reading about Alice's journey over the past ten years as she slowly gets her memory back. I highly recommend this book.
For more book reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.
