Remember Me?
by Sophie Kinsella
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Book Reviews of Remember Me?
Book Review: Trying to remember who you really are
Summary: 4 Stars
Remember Me? happens to be the first Sophie Kinsella book that I have ever read but definitely not the last.
Lexi Smart is 25 years old and works for a carpet manufacturer. She is going through a quarterlife crisis with a loser boyfriend and a menial low end job, but she still has her best girlfriends whom she parties and hangs out with. We meet Lexi on the night before her father's funeral out with her friends when she has a nasty fall and gets a bump on the head. She wakes up in a hospital bed the next day and has no recollection of the night before. She looks in a mirror and has no recollection of the face before her. She is no longer snaggled tooth, her hair is no longer mousy brown, she is the best shape of her life, and has a Luis Vitton purse. She can't remember who this person in front of her is and how she came to look this good overnight.
She actually wakes up and it is really 3 years in the future and she is 28. She had been in a car accident in her Mercedes and has had a nasty bump on her head causing amnesia. She can only remember the events of her life up to the night of her father's funeral three years ago. She wakes up to a life that one can only dream of. She is married to a handsome wealthy man, moved up to a senior manager position in the carpet company, and lives in a huge loft with all the designer clothes and accessories one can dream about. The question remains is how this cinderella life came to be, but of course she can't remember.
She journeys through her present life trying to find out if this cinderella life is all that it seems to be. Those around her try to fill in the missing pieces of her life as best they can. She has changed her appearance, is no longer friends with her best friends, everyone hates her at work and thinks she is the boss from hell, she has supposedly had an affair with her husband's friend and coworker, and her mother and younger sister are different. Her life is a mess and she is trying to come terms with who she is and is she really happy in this life. The old Lexi was happy and carefree but the new Lexi doesn't seem a right fit to her.
The journey that Lexi goes on keeps you entertained and in suspense. There are quirky characters, such as Fi (one of her best friends), Eric (her dream husband), Jon (her lover), Lexi's mother and sister, and Loser Dave (her ex-boyfriend) that Kinsella is known for. The reader wants to know what happened in Lexi's life in the 3 years that are missing and what this means to her present life and future. Will she stay in the present cinderella life or find the life that will make her happy like she was before? One will have to read this enjoyable book to find out.
Book Review: One major problem...
Summary: 4 Stars
Honestly, when I'm reading fiction, I only judge a book by how entertaining it is. I'm fairly educated, but unless I'm reading the classics, or at least higher-brow fiction like John Irving or Wally Lamb, I don't rip a book apart based on story structure, continuity, believablity, or even character development. I know they're important, but I don't really care. There have been times I've loved books that had no strengths in these areas, and books I've hated that have had all of them. SOmetimes, I don't even know why I dislike them--even if the plot appeals to me, I either get into a book or I don't, and I can't put my finger on why.
So, I'm not even going to get into Kinsella's habit of creating one dimensional characters, or their unbelievability, or that they weren't given their full potential. Her books are entertaining as hell, and that's all I care about.
Remember Me? wasn't as good as her others. I've already re-read it, it's not awful, but it just fell a little flat--maybe as one of those "Gotta meet my deadline when I have so many better things to do" books. Everyone that has a favorite author has had to deal with one of these--when the author's heart just isn't in it. I think that's what happened here. Lexi wasn't the type of character I could be invested in--I'd love to hang out with Becky Bloomwood and Emma Corrington, even have afew drinks with Samantha Sweeting. Lexi just seemed weak and depressed, and the famous Kinsella humor failed to inject her with any warmth.
My main issues--
For one thing, I --SPOILER ALERT--wish her memory had returned.
I NEVER understood the whole marriage thing. I know she --SPOILER ALERT--struggled with her father screwing her family financially, but she was obviously successful in her own right, why marry a guy that prints invoices for his own wife? How could she have stomached the Monte Blanc in the first place?
And, my main problem--why the infedility in the first place? They never explained it. Okay, the sunflowers showed they had obviously been at it quite awhile, and the fact that Lexi was her "real self" over there shows she never drank the Kool-Aid. She obviously didn't love her husband--why wait so long to leave him? It didn't make sense.
Book Review: A fun, flawed heroine as only Kinsella can write them
Summary: 4 Stars
When Lexi Smart wakes up following an accident, it's to learn that it's three years later and her life is nothing like she remembers it. The last thing Lexi remembers is clubbing with her girlfriends, and falling down some stairs while trying to get a cab home. The girls were drinking away their problems--in particular, that everyone in Lexi's company got a bonus except her, because she was too junior, her loser boyfriend stood her up, and that her father's funeral is the next day. In the hospital, Lexi learns that not only has her father's funeral come and gone, but that she's now a member of the senior management team at her company, she's two sizes smaller and much more sleek and sophisticated, and she's got a husband who is rich, successful, and gorgeous.
Thinking she's woken up in a fairy tale, Lexi jumps headfirst into her new life. She moves into her immaculate and pristine loft with her real-estate developer husband and is determined to fit in with her new image as a woman who only dresses in neutral colors, whose ambition and drive are what she is known for, and who bears no resemblance at all to the woman who Lexi remembers. Despite her frustration at her inability to remember, Lexi is determined to persevere. But when her husband's lead architect gives Lexi some more startling information about her past, things begin to turn a little topsy-turvy in Lexi's already confusing life.
Remember Me? is classic Sophie Kinsella. Lexi is an fun, flawed, laugh-out-loud heroine as only Kinsella can write them. She's full of self-deprecating charm, witty banter, and quick retorts, despite the fact that half the time she doesn't know what she's talking about. I have to admit that at first the whole waking up three years later with amnesia plot seemed a bit too Alias for me, but it worked out well. It was interesting to navigate the twists and turns of Lexi's life with her as the tried to acclimate herself to the person she'd become. It was also great to read a fun and clever story with such a (partially) unique storyline. Sophie Kinsella fans won't be disappointed with this new offering, and anyone in the mood for a lighthearted and amusing story will appreciate it as well.
Book Review: Reclaiming what you used to be
Summary: 5 Stars
"I was a normal girl with frizzy hair and snaggle teeth and a crap boyfriend. And a fairly crap job, and friends who I had a laugh with, and a cozy little flat." - Lexi Smart
"I gaze into the mirror and my twenty-eight-year-old face stares back. How on earth did I get from me ... to her?" - Lexi Smart
Sophie Kinsella is author of the enormously humorous - and frivolous with a capital "F" - SHOPAHOLIC series starring Becky Bloomwood, spendthrift shopper extraordinaire. I know; I've read them all. In REMEMBER ME?, Kinsella takes a more sobering, but just as enjoyable, tack. I devoured it over the July 4th weekend, stopping only for unavoidable chores that I couldn't unload onto the wife.
Here, the heroine is Lexi Smart, who awakens in a hospital bed several days after suffering a severe crack on the head. To her dismay, the past three years of her life are totally forgotten. During that period, she had apparently morphed from a fun-loving but unremarkable, low-paid drone in Deller Carpets, where she worked with her chums Fi, Carolyn and Debs while dating Loser Dave, into a gorgeous, poised and driven senior executive of the same company and married to Eric, a handsome and charming multi-millionaire property developer. Her new existence contains everything beyond her wildest dreams, if only she could remember how she got them. But, as she gets acquainted with her "new" self, her apparently ideal lifestyle begins to show frays around the edges that threaten to unravel towards the center. Perhaps it's not so perfect? Indeed, Fi, Carolyn and Debs now snub her horridly. And what is Eric's reference to "Mont Blanc" all about?
For the reader who may wonder where life went wrong and wishes one could go back again, REMEMBER ME? demonstrates that, at least in fiction, it can be done. Like Becky Bloomwood, Sophie conjures Lexi with a fierce affection for the persona while putting her in situations that threaten to spiral deliciously out of control. Like Becky, Lexi has the core intelligence, goodness, and strength of character to muddle through.
Kinsella writes chic-lit par excellence. But even this male continues to be charmed.
Book Review: Fantastic, escapism chick lit!
Summary: 5 Stars
The world's reigning queen of frothy chick lit (translation: literature for women, girls, grandmothers, mothers, non-male creatures in general), Sophie Kinsella (author of the Confessions of a Shopaholic series and more) is back at it again with her seventh novel, a stand-alone titled "Remember Me" about a twenty-something London executive's bout with amnesia. The plot centers around 28 year-old Deller Carpets employee Lexi Smart, previously a snaggly-toothed, frizzy haired, slightly overweight low-level employee who wakes up after a three-year car-crash-induced coma only to realize she's now a slim, sleek, polished spitfire who is dubbed "The Cobra" by her subordinates. Not only that, she also has a gorgeous millionaire husband, a posh mansion in one of London's ritziest neighborhoods, and a whole plethora of glamorous, nouveau riche socialite friends! What more could a girl ask for? Only nothing is that easy for Lexi, as she realizes that her new life is not exactly what it's cut out to be, and that being rich, slim, gorgeous, and popular isn't everything (especially when all your friends turn their back on you and your nasty elitist new attitude).
The premise is interesting (albeit rather cliche, which is to be expected) with a hilarious execution; however at times the plot tends toward meandering, and the ending is a bit abrupt. In general, it's a highly amusing, entertaining and quick read. Perfect escapism for a lazy Sunday afternoon or a long plane ride. Kinsella is the master of this sugary genre, and no one else in the field (including Marian Keyes, Bridget Fielding, Jennifer Weiner) can touch her when it comes to pure, unbridled, romantic comedy style hilarity. Don't expect a "War and Peace" style experience with this book. If you enjoyed any of Kinsella's Shopaholic series, you're not going to walk away disappointed with Lexi's adventures. Beware of the "Mont Blanc" chapter of the novel, as it will most likely have you gasping for breath after laughing like a hyena for half an hour. Do not hesitate to pick up this latest slice of Chick Flick delight!