Memory loss spurs midlife crisis in ‘What Alice Forgot’

Imagine hitting your head and not being able to remember the last 10 years of your life.

Gone are the crucial events of those last 10 years, such as the birth of three children or the fact that your beloved husband is no longer living with you.

That is exactly what happens to Alice Mary Love in the lively novel “What Alice Forgot” by Australian author Liane Moriarty.

After an accident in spin class, Alice wakes up on the gym floor with a concussion. And worse, she seems to have forgotten everything she has been though in the past decade.

She thinks she’s 29 and pregnant with her first child and deliriously happy with her husband, Nick, when in actuality, she is 39, on the verge of a divorce, and the mother of three rambunctious children.

As the blurry pieces of her present-day life come together, Alice discovers she doesn’t like the person she has become. Her life is falling apart.

Loaded with determination, Alice sets out to try to find out where her life went wrong and how she can fix it, beginning with getting her husband back, even though everyone is telling her once she remembers she is going to regret it. But determined she is, and conquer all odds she will — as soon as she remembers where she has put the keys.

Moriarty spins a fast-paced story of the ultimate middle-age crisis in this delightful book. In addition to the story of Alice’s recovery and new goals, Moriarty weaves in several mini-storylines that include Alice’s sister’s battle with infertility, her adopted grandmother’s new fling with love, and her widowed mother’s startling new life with her dancing partner and new husband, Alice’s widowed father-in-law.

“What Alice Forgot” is a charming book that will resonate with all women, no matter their proximity to the dreaded midlife crisis.