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hmselden 's review for:
What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty
4.5 stars that I'm rounding up. My one quibble with the story is that I generally don't like Epilogues that have major plot points in them. It's one thing to vault into the future to give some updates to characters (as in the Harry Potter series), but this book ends and the Epilogue essentially changes the ending (no spoilers here really). I would have liked to have seen how the characters reached that point in the Epilogue--especially with such a big change happening between the end and the Epilogue. Yes the book is 459 pages, but there's a lot of white space on the page and I think that some time should have been given to the evolution of the relationships instead of just tacked on at the end.
What I loved about the book is that the portrayal of a marriage/this marriage seemed real. It's easy to think in absolutes--she *always* does this; he *never* is around--especially when things aren't going very well. For Alice, losing 10 years of her memory in a freak accident was to step back in time to when their marriage was easier (pre-kids, pre-hurt, anger, grief, etc.) and to erase all of that and the "absolute" type of thinking that often happens when you're divorcing (not that I speak from experience myself, but in witnessing those I love divorcing). I enjoyed reading about how she reconciled her thoughts about her marriage when her memory was erased with how she felt once all of her memories came flooding back. I wish there was more of *that* aspect of the book, too.
I think the trick for all of us, in any relationship, is to bring back some of who we were in those simpler times, and try to find a balance between who we were back then with who we were now. Maybe there would be more understanding and giving the benefit of the doubt and not thinking in absolutes. Perhaps all of our relationships would be better for it.
What I loved about the book is that the portrayal of a marriage/this marriage seemed real. It's easy to think in absolutes--she *always* does this; he *never* is around--especially when things aren't going very well. For Alice, losing 10 years of her memory in a freak accident was to step back in time to when their marriage was easier (pre-kids, pre-hurt, anger, grief, etc.) and to erase all of that and the "absolute" type of thinking that often happens when you're divorcing (not that I speak from experience myself, but in witnessing those I love divorcing). I enjoyed reading about how she reconciled her thoughts about her marriage when her memory was erased with how she felt once all of her memories came flooding back. I wish there was more of *that* aspect of the book, too.
I think the trick for all of us, in any relationship, is to bring back some of who we were in those simpler times, and try to find a balance between who we were back then with who we were now. Maybe there would be more understanding and giving the benefit of the doubt and not thinking in absolutes. Perhaps all of our relationships would be better for it.