Soap operas raised me, so I’ve always had a pull toward amnesia plots. They can be a catalyst for any genre: thriller, historical fiction, mystery, comedy, romance. When you can’t remember your past, how can you plan your future?
The heroine of romance-author-and-Jane-Austen-devotee Emily Harding’s new book, Thank You For Remembering, isn’t suffering from complete amnesia. When Marnie Stephens wakes up in a hospital, she’s only lost the past year. But what a year it was. In it, she left her life in Los Angeles to follow her boyfriend to Boston, only to get dumped. Even worse, she cut eight inches off her blond hair and now has bangs! With a box of mementos and her cute but grumpy neighbor as her guide, Marnie tries to relearn her new neighborhood in order to jog her memory. Will it lead her back to her old boyfriend… or to a new love?
Thank You For Remembering is a quick, light read that delivers its promises. Plucky Marnie, in her first-person narration, never gets too glum about her situation. When she is sad, she bounces back quickly. Romantic comedy is a genre in which protagonists get what they need (not always what they want), happily-ever-after is implied, and gentle jokes and funny situations abound. There are several chapters exploring Boston, the Red Sox, bars full of drinkers who sing "Sweet Caroline" and demand that people kiss. The twist at the end is easily predicted. No heavy lifting by the reader is required.
And yet, underneath this happy gloss are questions that go unprobed. Marnie was raised by a grandmother who told her to trust fate, even though “fate” killed her parents in a car crash and later stole her grandmother with dementia. Does “what was meant to be will be” mean avoiding responsibility for your choices? What does it feel like to give up your entire life to move across the country for a relationship that doesn’t work? These aren’t questions that Marnie engages in, and perhaps they’re not necessary in a romantic comedy. But I was angry on Marnie’s behalf, and there was no place in the book to deal with that anger.
Thank You For Remembering is really cute, and readers who love Boston will be especially enthralled. Thriller fans like me might want to stick to genres in which women come out of amnesia with both guns blazing.
Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
Listen to this book on Speechify!
No comments:
Post a Comment