Remember Me?
Sophie Kinsella, 2008
Random House
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780440242406
Summary
When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed,
Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be.
That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all. Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Madeleine Wickham
• Birth—December 12, 1969
• Where—London, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Oxford University, M.Mus., King's College,
London
• Currently—lives in London, England
Madeleine Sophie Wickham (born Madeleine Sophie Townley) is an English author of chick lit who is most known for her work under the pen name Sophie Kinsella.
Madeleine Wickham was born in London. She did her schooling in Putney High School and Sherborne School for Girls. She studied music at New College, Oxford, but after a year switched to Politics, Philosophy and Economics. She then worked as a financial journalist (including for Pensions World) before turning to fiction.
While working as a financial journalist, at the age of 24, she wrote her first novel. The Tennis Party (1995) was immediately hailed as a success by critics and the public alike and became a top ten bestseller. She went on to publish six more novels as Madeleine Wickham: A Desirable Residence (1996), Swimming Pool Sunday (1997), The Gatecrasher (1998), The Wedding Girl (1999), Cocktails for Three (2000), and Sleeping Arrangements (2001).
Her first novel under the pseudonym Sophie Kinsella (taken from her middle name and her mother's maiden name) was submitted to her existing publishers anonymously and was enthusiastically received. She revealed her real identity for the first time when Can You Keep a Secret? was published in 2005.
Sophie Kinsella is best known for writing the Shopaholic novels series, which focus on the misadventures of Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist who cannot manage her own finances. The series focuses on her obsession with shopping and its resulting complications for her life. The first two Shopaholic books—Confessions of a Shopaholic (2000) and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (2001) were adapted into a film in February 2009, with Isla Fisher playing an American Becky and Hugh Dancy as Luke Brandon. The latest addition to the Shopaholic series, Mini shopaholic came out in 2010.
Can you Keep a Secret (2004), was also published under the name Sophie Kinsella, as were The Undomestic Goddess (2006), Remember Me (2008), Twenties Girl (2009), I've Got Your Number (2012), and Wedding Night (2013). All are stand-alone novels (not part of the Shopaholic series).
A new musical adaptation by Chris Burgess of her 2001 novel Sleeping Arrangements premiered in 2013 in London at The Landor Theatre.
Personal life
Wickham lives in London with her husband, Henry Wickham (whom she met in Oxford), the headmaster of a boys' preparatory school. They have been married for 17 years and have five children. She is the sister of fellow writer, Gemma Townley. (From Wikipedia.)
Extras
Excerpts from a 2004 Barnes & Noble interview:
• "I am a serial house mover: I have moved house five times in the last eight years! But I'm hoping I might stay put in this latest one for a while.
• "I've never written a children's book, but when people meet me for the first time and I say I write books, they invariably reply, 'Children's books?' Maybe it's something about my face. Or maybe they think I'm J. K. Rowling!
• "If my writing comes to a halt, I head to the shops: I find them very inspirational. And if I get into real trouble with my plot, I go out for a pizza with my husband. We order a pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea and start talking—and basically keep drinking and talking till we've figured the glitch out. Never fails!"
• Favorite leisure pursuits: a nice hot bath, watching The Simpsons, playing table tennis after dinner, shopping, playing the piano, sitting on the floor with my two small boys, and playing building blocks and Legos.
• Least favorite leisure pursuit: tidying away the building blocks and Legos.
• When asked what book most influenced her career as a writer, here is her answer:
My earliest, most impactful encounter with a book was when I was seven and awoke early on Christmas morning to find Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in my stocking. I had never been so excited by the sight of a book—and have possibly never been since! I switched on the light and read the whole thing before the rest of my family even woke up. I think that's when my love affair with books began. (Interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
Lexi's doctor tells her she has retrograde amnesia: She's woken up to a life she doesn't know—and as a person she doesn't know either. Luckily, Kinsella knows exactly who Lexi is, was and will be. And Lexi is just the sort of gal you want to hang out with for nearly 400 pages.... You'll spend the book rooting for this likable character and her search for love.
Debra Leithauser - Washington Post
A delicious page-turner, filled with both hearty chuckles and heartache.... [Kinsella] finds a way to make losing one's memory seem refreshingly funny.
USA Today
Shopaholic powerhouse Kinsella delights again with her latest, a winning if unoriginal tale of amnesia striking an ambitious shrew and changing her life for the better. After taking a nasty bump on the head, Lexi Smart awakens in a hospital convinced that it's 2004 and that she's just missed her father's funeral. It's actually three years later, and she no longer has crooked teeth, frizzy hair and a loser boyfriend. Initially wowed by what she's become—a gorgeous, cut-throat businesswoman—Lexi soon finds herself attempting to figure out how it happened. As her personality change and lost memory threaten her job, Lexi tries to dredge up some chemistry with her handsome albeit priggish husband, Eric, though the effort is unnecessary with Eric's colleague Jon, who tells Lexi that she was about to leave Eric for him. Amnesia tales may be old hat, but Kinsella keeps things fresh and frothy with workplace politicking, romantic intrigue and a vibrant (though sometimes caricatured) cast. Though the happy ending won't come as a surprise, readers will be rooting for Lexi all along.
Publishers Weekly
In the same tradition of Kinsella's other stand-alone works, Can You Keep a Secret? and The Undomestic Goddess, this light novel will entice readers with 28-year-old Lexi Smart as an empathetic character who wakes up in the hospital with amnesia. She is informed that she arrived at the hospital five days ago, but she can't seem to remember the last three years of her life or, more important, who she has become within these past years. The once affectionately called Snaggletooth is now a glamorous and toned woman with perfect teeth. In what is both awkward and humorous, Lexi meets her gorgeous husband, sees their impressively hi-tech loft, and learns of all her successes as a corporate bigwig who wears a tight chignon and a neutral-colored wardrobe. As Lexi adjusts to this life, she can't shake the feeling that something is missing and that this life is just not as perfect as it seems. Though the scenario is rather far-fetched and there is mild language use, the situations that arise are truly entertaining and humorous. Recommended for all popular fiction collections. —Anne Miskewitch, Chicago P.L.
Library Journal
Buoyed by Kinsella’s breezy prose, this winning offering boasts a likable heroine and an involving story. —Kristine Huntley
Booklist
From Kinsella (Shopaholic & Baby, 2007, etc.), a rags-to-riches fable with a twist. Self-proclaimed "sucker" Lexi Smart has a thankless job and a boyfriend known as "Loser Dave." When the book opens, our plucky-in-spite-of-it-all heroine is wrapping up a night out with gal pals in London. Struggling to find a taxi in the rain to take her home, Lexi slips on the slick pavement and...wakes up with retrograde amnesia three years later. Seems Lexi has been busy in recent years-too bad she remembers none of it. When she opens her eyes, she's in a first-class hospital room, the victim, doctors say, of a car wreck in her Mercedes. No longer a working-class drone, Lexi now has a Louis Vuitton handbag, and her previously humdrum body is toned and tanned. As she switches into freak-out mode, her sister notifies Lexi that she is also married—to a square-jawed, hunky millionaire. Talk about getting lucky! Hilarity ensues as Lexi attempts to reclaim her past and negotiate her dazzling present, while contemplating an even more wondrous romance with a black-jeans-clad architect. That Lexi discovers that her transformation from worker to boss turned her from good buddy to bitch adds a bit of morality-tale vinegar to this sugar-shock tale. Cute.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What were your theories about what had happened to Lexi? How did your first guesses change when you learned more about the aftermath of her father’s funeral?
2. What were the best and worst parts of Lexi’s life before she broke up with Loser Dave?
3. If you were to go through an experience like Lexi’s, waking up in the midst of your own life but not recalling anything about it, what quirks or secrets might you encounter? What would an Eric-style manual to your life look like?
4. Would you have been willing to stay with Eric in order to live in such a state-of-the art residence, with high-end clothing, sporty cars, and other status symbols? Would you have resorted to Lexi’s turnaround in order to save your mother from financial ruin?
5. What are the plusses and minuses of having a fabulous body like Lexi’s? Were her carb-free ways worth it?
6. What does Remember Me? say about healthy versus destructive ambition? What separates those who would use the entertainment system’s disco feature every night and those who (like Eric) would see it as an absurd waste of time?
7. What accounts for the insensitive behavior of Lexi’s mother? Is her personality the result or the cause of Lexi’s father’s wild side? If you had been Lexi’s mother, would you have withheld the truth from your daughter?
8. How does Lexi interact with her feisty younger sister, Amy?
9. Give Lexi a pop-science medical diagnosis. Why was she unable to recall anything that happened between the night she fell while hailing a taxi and the day she woke up? What was significant about the novel’s opening scene? Why might her mind have rejected all events that occurred afterward?
10. Discuss the comments made by Lexi’s friends after she tried to make amends, when they admitted that they respected her even though she was a tough boss. Who are the best bosses? What is the ideal way to motivate co-workers? Could you stand it if your best friend became your boss?
11. Would you have trusted Jon? Did he handle the situation well, or did he badger Lexi to the point of seeming dodgy?
12. How did your opinion of Lexi’s father shift as you read to the end? Did he have any heroic traits? Was his materialism worse than Eric’s?
13. What does Lexi’s plan for the carpeting coup prove about getting ahead in business? Which traits will get you better returns: creativity or financial sense? Ingenuity or ruthlessness?
14. Discuss the closing scene on the terrace. What is your best memory or fantasy of a secret code that would unite you and a lover? What do you predict for Jon and Lexi’s future? What will become of Eric?
15. What would the characters in Sophie Kinsella’s other novels think of Lexi Smart and her predicament? What refreshing outlook on life do all of Kinsella’s heroines share?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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