What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

A few years ago the Gables Book Club read The Husband's Secret, which I enjoyed. Other members of the club did not feel the same way. The hostess felt this was a good follow-up and worth of some discussion.

Alice Love is at a spin class and falls off the cycle, hits her head, and in the process loses her memory of the last 10 years. She cannot remember having children, where she lives, and even that she is in the midst of a nasty divorce from her husband, Nick. This realization happens when she tries to call Nick and he is cold and antagonistic toward her. Her sister, Elizabeth, meets her at the hospital and cannot believe that Alice is totally clueless about the last 10 years. Elizabeth has had her own problems, (infertility and unable to conceive) that Alice knows nothing about and, consequently, cannot understand why their relationship is so icy. 

As the characters parade in and out of Alice's life, she tries to understand how she has lived the last 10 years. Each of her children try to understand her predicament in different ways. Madison, the youngest gives her a run for her money in the way that she has so much pent up anger over the issue of her parents' divorce. To complicate matters even more, it seems that Alice has been seeing or having an affair with Dominick, the principal at her children's school. She has no idea of how far the relationship has gone and can only guess from some of the gossip that she hears. 

Interspersed among the chapters of the narrative are private thoughts of Elizabeth as she confides in her psychologist and gives him homework for their next sessions. Also, Frannie, Alice and Elizabeth's surrogate grandmother, writes to her deceased fiancée, about beginning a new relationship. Each brings to the forefront the theme of moving on with life. At times these missives seem to interrupt the flow of the novel, but do illustrate the prominent theme. 

What seemed to be the pivotal event in Alice's life revolves around a friend, Gina. As she tries to find out why everyone is sidestepping what happened. Did Gina have an affair with Nick? Why is she not at the hospital with Alice? The reveal for such a climatic event, doesn't seem to match the anticipation leading to it. 

Throughout What Alice Forgot the reader wonders whether she will regain her memory and whether she will return to the young Alice's personality or the older Alice. Will she reconcile with Nick or continue a relationship with Dominick. Without giving any of the ending away, Moriarty does provide a few twists as she plots toward the culmination of the book. 

It was an easy read and did provide for some discussion, but seemed to plod along toward the middle and end.