WHAT ALICE FORGOT by Liane Moriarty

I loved this book. I always like discovering a good writer and tend to read all their books. I also love books that deal with family dynamics. "What Alice Forgot" is one of those books. It is charming, clever and insightful. It allows the reader to see how false perceptions can change people, relationships and outcomes. It makes you to wonder if there is such a thing as truth and if people's perceptions is all there is. As Alice sustains a head injury in gym class she loses her memory of the past 10 years. She goes back to the time of her first pregnancy when her love for her husband was new and fresh and 'exhilarating and light and bubbly'. What Alice has forgotten is 10 years of three children and a marriage that hasn't survived its' challenges so well. Instead of 1998, it is 2008 and Alice is in the middle of a nasty divorce, the only problem is that Alice has forgotten that she hates the husband she is divorcing and loves him like they are newlyweds. Because the theme of the book is 'lost memories' Liane Moriarty uses the medium of reflection by three main characters to piece Alice's story together. Alice puts events of her life together through snippets of memory, her sister Elizabeth reflects on their relationship through the diary she is writing for her therapist and Alice's adopted grandmother Franny writes a blog. The rambling of these three women makes the characters very real and true to life. The diary Elizabeth keeps chronicling struggles of her infertility is both fascinating and heart wrenching. It shatters the inadequate perception you might have of women whose bodies betray their longing for motherhood. The ending of the book is extremely fitting with characters stepping up to the maturity that the situation asks for. This book is true to complexities of family dynamics, devoid of unnecessary sentiment and highly entertaining.

THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters

This book was very well plotted and executed. It was recommended to me by our book store's sales assistant. She said she loved all the books written by Sarah Waters. What I didn't know is that this author is known for novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists. She has won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. The story was incredibly clever and the characters very believable. Despite my aversion to lesbian sexual encounters I appreciated the authenticity of the period the book was set in and the dynamics of a lesbian relationship within it. Set in early 1920's, following the Great War, a mother and daughter left without male support in middle class England find themselves obliged to rent spare rooms in their house to keep them financially viable. The rooms are rented to a young married couple who transform Wray's lives forever. A love affair blossoms between Frances Wray and the married Lilian Barber which not only leads them to the dangerous and uncertain future but also to crime. What starts off as a view into hardships of a genteel family slipping into demise ends with suspense and reflection on complexities of a lesbian relationship in a society that offers no recognition of such liaisons. Sarah Waters is an excellent writer who has found her niche in the literary world and for that I admire her.