Maybe we should all forget What Alice Forgot

Last night, I reread the book What Alice Forgot  by Liane Moriarty. A friend of mine casually mentioned it months ago, and I added it to my “I should maybe read this if I have the time” list. I should have put it on the “Carve out a weekend and be ready to not move until you’re done” must read list. Alice is a deceptively simple read. It’s not “great literature,” and yet it’s story line had me rethinking almost every relationship in my life.

The story opens with Alice Love falling at the gym and “carelessly misplacing” the last ten years of her life. What follows is her struggle to understand and accept everything that changed – from the birth of her children to her impending divorce- from the time she was 29 until weeks before her 40th birthday. What follows is an intriguing look at how our learned behaviors and automatic responses to others shape the way we react towards each other.

I loved this book. I loved it so much that I begged friends to read it, and even bought one a copy, just so that I could have someone to talk about it with. It was a wonderful fast read that left me deep in thought and re-examining much of my life.

I’ve now read it three times, and each time Alice has left me pondering 40 years’ worth of  family fallings-out and friendships that have quietly died. I’ve reconsidered hurt feelings and yearned to “make things right again” with people I’ve lost along the way. Last night, I sat down at my computer and sent out emails to the friends I wish hadn’t fallen victim to fast-paced and transient lifestyles.

I simply wrote, “Hi. I miss you.” and then hit Send before I had the time to reconsider.

I don’t know if I will hear from them soon, if ever, but I certainly hope so. They were all people I’d loved and still hold special places in my heart. My life is poorer without them in it, and that’s what I wanted them to know. I fell asleep last night wishing that we could all have the grace of even a brief moment where we could forge the pain and remember only the optimistic love of years ago. How different would our world be if we didn’t look at it through the prism of pain, but of the innocence of our younger selves?

How would the world be different if for just a short time we could all forget What Alice Forgot?

**The link in this post is an affiliate link. While I didn’t get compensated in any way to write this review, I do make a little bit if you buy the book through this link. Just being honest about it. The book is great, and you should buy it no matter which link you use. (Please use mine.)