The rating system of most book sites (here, Goodreads, etc.) comes with the opportunity to affix star ratings to the books we read, 1-star being worst; 5 being best. In that crazy, sometimes corrupt world of online reviewing, the concept of how we rate books has been a bit sullied not only by the battlefield between well-minded friends vs. trolls, but the all-too-easily-assigned 5-stars for books that clearly don't deserve the "best label" vs. those who feel only literary masterpieces, classics, if you will, deserve such a numerical assignation. All of which conspires to make the exercise a little hard to authentically accomplish!
I bring this up on this particular book because it's one that best illustrates my own "star rating philosophy," which is this: I award stars based not only on how much I like a book and how it's delivered, both as an objective reader and a person who knows a bit about the craft, but on how well that book achieved its clear goal and purpose as a literary work, whether fluffy romance novel, science-fiction blood-fest, or well-conceived literary fiction. Now, since I tend to not read the two former and most often enjoy the latter, I have experienced a full spectrum of books between "I hate it" and "I love it" (as stars are defined here at Amazon) and to my mind, using my formula, and in a long-winded explanation, What Alice Forgot deserves a big, fat 5-stars!
Simply, I loved this book. I loved Alice. I felt the story was not only fresh and unpredictable, but it was real, believable, something that COULD happen and, if it did, would likely go down just as Liane Moriarity imagined it.
Her character of Alice is a befuddled woman who faints during a spinning class and wakes up to a life in which she's lost the last ten years of memories, inclusive of childbirths, changing friendships, a troubled marriage and her own basic personality. While initially this seems impossible to believe, we're led as readers right along with Alice as she slowly and painfully realizes, day after day, person after person, just how much of herself and her life she's lost, and the revelations bounce between painful and hilarious. But what's also clear is that the person she'd become in the years she now can't remember isn't really all that nice, nor someone she particularly likes, and the ensuing efforts to reclaim not only her memories but her true self, become the narrative of this fascinating story.
What I loved about this book is its deft mix of humor and pathos, its erring sense of when to spin wit and when to let us in on just how anguishing and disorienting it would be to suddenly not even remember the birth of your child. We experience the jarring realities, the stunning, shocking revelations of a once-delightfully happy marriage that has disintegrated into a snarling mess of rancor and recrimination. And, just like Alice, we feel a deep, visceral urge for her to sort out what went wrong.
Moriarity is obviously a brilliantly skilled storyteller who brings life, with all it many eclectic characters and startling plot lines, to fully realized, tangible existence, all while allowing us to see the grubby undersides of even the most beloved of the story's characters. As a writer she's candid and real, with a clear, sharp understanding of what makes humans tick -- whether in normal, everyday life or the strange, twisted environs of Alice's particular journey. This is an excellent book, a funny, compelling, deeply emotional story of how humans can wreck the very best things about themselves and still find a way back. Highly recommend.
What Alice Forgot
4.3 | 86,187 ratings
Price: 1.99
Last update: 12-20-2024
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Top reviews from the United States
Lorraine Devon WilkeA funny, compelling, deeply emotional story of how humans can wreck the best of themselves and still find a way back
Amazon Customerthe author does a great job of keeping everything suspenseful
Danielle