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The Memo

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

""The perfect summer read: a novel both quick and funny."" Airmail

"A total joyride of a novel. The Memo is a funny, fascinating exploration of love, friendship, ambition and what it truly means to live a good life. I loved it."—J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Commencement, Maine, and Friends and Strangers

If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare? That's the question at the heart of this funny, sharp and propulsive debut novel about love, life, and a woman finding herself and what it means to be happy and successful.

Do you ever feel like your life doesn't measure up to everyone else's—and wonder if you just didn't get the memo helping you make the right choices?

Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn't the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did?

As it turns out, she didn't!

When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number.

"Jenny Green: please collect your memo."

Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success.

The first time around, Jenny didn't receive hers. Now, she's being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price?

Smart, addictive, bittersweet, and ultimately triumphant, The Memo will enchant readers of In Five Years and Cassandra in Reverse as well as fans of Emma Straub and Maria Semple.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 8, 2024
      Debut author Dodes and Mechling (How Could She) spin a fanciful and moving Sliding Doors–esque tale. Jenny Green, 35, is overworked and underappreciated by her narcissistic boss, Alice, and suspects that her boyfriend, Hal, is cheating on her. Meanwhile, her best friends Geeta and Leigh seem to have their lives together, and Jenny starts to wonder if the successful women around her all got the same memo that she missed. Color her surprised when a woman from her past, college career counselor Desiree LeBlanc, reappears in her life to deliver just that. The memo turns out to be a set of instructions for reliving life’s turning points, and making different decisions. Using it, Jenny rewrites her life. Now she’s dating Alex, the wealthy, art-collecting lawyer with whom she previously missed her chance at connection, and running her own vegan meal-delivery service. But alternative choices have unexpected consequences and in changing her history, Jenny may inadvertently impact the life of someone she cares for deeply. The authors make it easy to suspend disbelief by keeping the focus squarely on Jenny’s emotional journey, and they expertly capture her fear and ambivalence in the face of risky life decisions. This well-told tale will leave readers wanting more.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Anna Caputo brings both joy and melancholy into her narration of Jenny Green's failure at life as she has watched her friends succeed. At her college reunion, she is given a chance to make amends by a secret consortium of women who give out memos for success. Now Jenny travels back to key moments in her life, guided by her memo, which dictates what choices to make to succeed this time. Caputo wrings the right amount of empathy out of this story; she is the voice of every woman who has longed for a second chance. Never whining but ever hopeful, Caputo is captivating. As she brings forth Jenny's self-actualization, listeners will question the definition of success and the repercussions of choices. L.M.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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