The Last Book I Read

Wow, I loved this just as much as Three Wishes and What Alice Forgot.  I can’t wait to read her latest, which apparently has only come out in Australia so far.

The Last Anniversary has the same good writing style I so enjoyed in the other two books–a variety of characters with interesting traits (both flaws as well as positive attributes), some eccentric/quirky types, humor, and then an underlying serious thread which halfway through the book you say to yourself, “my goodness there’s no way any good can come of this and what seemed like just kind of darkly funny at the beginning is now very serious.”

The story here is so strange I’m not sure I can wrap it up in a few sentences, but here goes. A small island is home to just one extended family.  The matriarchs of the family, Connie and Rose, have brought prosperity to their family by turning a strange circumstance into a profitable business.  The strange thing? The discovery when they were teenagers of their neighbor’s baby left alone and the parents had vanished.  Their bodies were never found and the whole thing was very mysterious.  Connie and Rose raised baby Enigma as their own and capitalized on the public interest by hosting tours of Enigma’s house.  Now baby Enigma is a great-grandmother herself and Connie has died.  To the family’s astonishment she leaves her house to…Sophie, a former girlfriend of Enigma’s grandson.  Sophie, a charming character whose biological clock is ticking away madly, is thrust into the middle of this kooky family.  She is delighted with Connie’s gift and intrigued by a note Connie left her, suggesting that the perfect man is very nearby and she’ll find him soon.  Unfortunately Sophie finds herself attracted to Callum, the husband of lovely Grace and father to a new baby. Various storylines and family secrets  build to a head, all coming together on the anniversary night of the discovery of Baby Enigma.

I really liked this book so much-all the storylines, and especially the dark plot involving Grace and Callum. Highly recommend!

Well I enjoyed this just as much as What Alice Forgot! Isn’t it great when you find a new author you like? And even better when they are not really new so that you have many of their books to choose from. Let’s see…are there more than just these two titles?? Yup, looks like there’s another one.

Many of the qualities I like in What Alice Forgot showed up in this book two-varying points of view, the exotic Australian setting (likely not exotic to the Australian author, but I enjoyed it-a hot Christmas day!), very funny bits, but also very moving and emotional and sometimes sad bits.

The story focuses on three women-Cat, Lyn, and Gemma-who are triplets. They are all quite the characters, intensely involved in each other’s lives, and they have a wonderful mad family.  Each of them has a role in the family and a personality that they each feel obliged to stick with-Lyn is the super successful has-it-all working mother, Gemma is the free spirit without a career or permanent lodging, and Cat is married to Dan, desperate to have a baby.  Everything starts to fall to pieces for everyone when Dan cheats on Cat.

My favorite thing about this book was that scattered throughout were occasional one page pieces that were stories people we don’t know were telling to other people. And the stories were all anecdotes about the triplets (who are strangers to these narrators.) What I loved about these stories was that even if you are not part of a noisy triplet group with gorgeous tall legs (which of course would make an impression on someone), you never know what role you are playing in someone else’s life.  For all you know someone out there tells a story about the time they saw someone doing something and you are that someone! So, although the story is told basically from the triplets’ points of view, you also get these objective narrators giving a peek into how other people see them (and they cover all ages of them-from toddlers to adults.)

A really wonderful read.

This is my new favorite book to recommend to people, and I’ll be passing along this prepub to many.  I anticipate it will be popular this summer, it’s being touted on the back cover (already?!) as the “smart woman’s beach read.” What exactly is that supposed to mean?

Anyway, the basic premise is that Alice is a 28 year old woman in Australia, married to Nick, whom she madly loves, and they are deliriously happy renovating their big old house and expecting their first baby. But then Alice regains consciousness.  She doesn’t recognize the people around her, is shocked that she in a gym (what’s a spin class??), and is very puzzled. Her sister meets her at the hospital (why is she fatter and looks unhappy??) and it turns out that it is 2008 and Alice is 38.  A bump on the head has made her forget the past 10 years of her life.  Turns out that Alice has three children now and is, shock!, getting a divorce from the beloved Nick. What the what?! Alice is completely shocked by all this, finds it hard to believe, and is overwhelmed by her life and her discoveries of how it has all turned out.
What is so great about this book is Alice’s perceptions of everyone without having the background of events and feelings that have led to situations or people being the way they are.  The obvious example is her husband, who she sees with the same joy and love in her heart that she felt 10 years ago.  She is seeing her family and the world with an almost childlike sense of wonder (and a few very funny bits are quick references to her puzzling over new-to-her vocabulary like “texts”, “Google”, and “spin class.”) Alice’s naivete in believing her relationships with friends and family are the same is at once a blessing and a curse.  In many ways she is getting a fresh start with people and her cluelessness makes it easy for her to say to people “why are we like this? what happened?”.  She also responds to things as 28 year old Alice would-with compassion, sweetness, and enthusiasm.  She senses from people’s reactions to this that perhaps 38 year old Alice is a person she wouldn’t like herself and wonders what on earth she turned into and how she got there.

Although there were many sad bits, and really I found the premise so deeply sad, this was not a sad book. It was thoughtful and emotional, with a fair amount of humor in it.  I truly was not certain how it would end until I finished reading the epilogue (Lord knows I love an epilogue.)

I’ve come away from this book feeling I’ve learned two things:

1. If I ever have amnesia to be perfectly clear with people exactly how much I don’t remember. I couldn’t believe how easily she was released from the hospital and left on her own (with children she doesn’t remember!!) without assistance.

2. To make sure I don’t turn into a future Alice!

And finally, another note on the actual structure of the book.  Although it is told primarily from Alice’s point of view, at times the story also unfolds via the use of the letters to a long dead fiancee, journal entries written by her sister Elisabeth, and the past memories Alice has up until her accident.  All these read together build a cohesive world.

A really wonderful story and absolutely by coincidence my mom handed me a book the other day she thought I might like and it turns out to be by the same author! I’ll be reading that very soon..