Review of
Instaread Summary of I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan
Four out of five stars
The book of
this summary can be described by the simple phrase “realistic romance.” There
are two reasons for this, the first is that there is no wild romantic fantasy
that is fulfilled. The second and the most important is that the main character
is experiencing what nearly every person over fifty faces.
Terry McMillan
is an African American optometrist that has just reached her mid-fifties. Like
so many people, reaching that age causes her to engage in some retrospective
thinking about the previous loves in her life. The trigger mechanism is when
she learns that her first love died five years ago. This causes her to begin
searching for the men in her life, where they are, what they have done and to
relive why she split with them. Since this is a nearly universal mental state
as one passes over the fifty hump, the plot is something that all over fifty
can relate to. Although it is mentioned in the summary that this is more a book
for women, the men tend to be token characters used to allow Terry to express
her feelings.
Terry also
plans to sell her house and make more dramatic life changes. Nearly all of the
encounters with the former men in her life are more an exercise in catching up
and letting go rather than rekindling any residual passion. Terry has children
and they are part of the retrospective, yet from the summary it is clear that
the focus is on Terry.
From the
summary, it appears that Terry is very much an ordinary woman with two
ex-husbands and one daughter by each. She is facing a bit of a midlife crisis
that is fueled by what has become a very routine existence. There appears to be
no significant sexual action expressed in the book, from the summary it appears
to be focused on feelings.
If you are
interested in the depiction of a female that is getting up in years and
stepping in the same worn path markers, then this summary will convince you to
read the book. While she is African American, that ethnic point seems relegated
to a minor, if not insignificant plot device.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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