 2008-10-03 - Lightweight page turner
Enjoyable chic-lit, in the vein of Bridge Jones Diary. Plucky British working woman, trying to find love and happiness, confused about who the right man is.
The book does raise the issue of what kind of person you are, whether you are defined by your memories, your actions, your past, your intentions. But it doen't hit you over the head with it.
 2008-09-30 - Another success!
I have yet to come across a Sophie Kinsella novel that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. They are light-hearted, sometimes silly, and fun. Remember Me? was not an exception to this. I read it when I was on vacation in Germany, and finished over 2 nights; I simply could not put it down. My only complaint was that the characters were not really fleshed out much, and the reader never really got understand their personalities. I would really like a sequel to this novel, so that I could get to know the characters a little more. Overall, I found this book to be a quick, entertaining read, and I am looking forward to Kinsella's next novel.
2008-09-07 - GREAT Read!
I realize after reading this book how great of an author Sophie Kinsella is. I loved this book and was actually sad when I finished it. The characters are great, the story was wonderful and so much fun.
A MUST read!
2008-09-06 - From S. Krishna's Books
What happens if you wake up one morning and realize that all of your dreams have magically come true overnight? That's what happens to Lexi Smart. She wakes up in a hospital one to find that she doesn't recognize herself - literally. The frizzy hair is gone, replaced by a sleek, shiny mane, and the lifelong nickname "Snaggletooth" just doesn't apply anymore...and why do her lips look suspiciously plumper? She doesn't even believe the Louis Vuitton handbag that the nurse hands her is actually hers. Why? Because Lexi has no memory of the past three years. In her mind, she's a struggling assistant manager at a flooring company who just had a typical crazy night out with her girlfriends in 2004. In reality, she's actually a member of the Board of Directors of that flooring company and is waking up from a minor car accident in 2007.
Lexi finds that she has everything she has ever wanted: she is beautiful, married to a ridiculously good-looking guy, makes a lot of money, and lives in the most beautiful loft she has ever seen. So what if everyone at the office not-so-secretly wishes she hadn't recovered from the car accident? And so what if her oldest friends don't want anything to do with her anymore? And does it really matter if her new husband scolds her like a child for not putting her shoes away properly? Remember Me? is the tale of Lexi's quest to discover what happened to her during those three years to turn her into a person whom she doesn't physically or emotionally recognize, and what she does when she finds out that her new life may not be as picture perfect as it seems.
Remember Me? is funny, witty, and absolutely charming; it is perhaps Kinsella's best work yet. The characters are extremely well written and appealing. Like all of Kinsella's protagonists, Lexi is quirky and a bit off-center. What makes this book fresh and unique, however, is that when she wakes, Lexi is the woman that every chick lit heroine loves to hate: sleek and polished, beautiful, refined, and very unpleasant in the workplace. It's interesting to see what Kinsella does with that role reversal, how the reader sympathizes with the snooty boss in charge instead of condemning her. The most interesting parts of the book come when Lexi is trying to discover what drove her to this complete personality change. She looks at what her husband and friends demonstrate that her life has become and searches for some fragment of the Lexi she knows within it.
Ironically, it is not with her husband that Lexi finds remnants of the woman she used to be, but with his architect partner, Jon. Jon delivers startling news to her soon after their first meeting and, unsure of whether to trust him, she holds him at arm's length while trying to decipher the puzzle of the last three years.
Remember Me? is a fresh look at what might happen if that fairy-tale wish comes true: "I wish I could wake up to find a new me, someone completely different than I am now." Its hilarious situations and witty humor make it a real force to be reckoned with in the chick-lit genre. The fact that it comes with some definite introspection makes it that much better. It is an absolutely enjoyable experience; readers will race through the pages to find out what happens to Lexi as they try to discover the secrets of her past together. Kinsella has really outdone herself with this work. Any fan of chick lit should pick this up immediately.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book
2008-09-05 - One major problem...
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.
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