Book Review: I Almost Forgot About You- Terry McMillan

This book was a chip off the old block for Terry, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a good or bad way for that matter. It is a novel about a middle aged single black woman who nostalgically revisits her long list of long lost loves. The list, ever long, and ever predictable, left us readers wondering why all the words, and why all the fluff? Half way through we wanted her to get to the point already! Granted, our group of readers is half the age of the protagonist of this story, meaning, we could more readily relate to the going’s on of Ms. Georgia Young’s daughters and employees. This caused somewhat of a disconnect for many of us, although we did find pleasure imagining our future selves behaving just as badly.

In this novel, McMillan does what she does best, creates a story with characters we can easily envision, relate to, and laugh or cry with. She creates a seamless story that could easily become a TV show or movie that people with flock to see. There’s no doubt about that. But I guess what many of us in the book club were looking for was a new layer of depth, something we could sink our teeth into, something that would stay with us; a game changer, a timeless piece. Perhaps we were expecting too much. Thinking too much. Perhaps our monthly exploits into the world of black novels has left us with a palate that Terry McMillian can no longer satiate. Realistically, during the height of her literary career many of us were adolescents, and now what we crave is altogether something new.

At the end of the day, I Almost Forgot About You¸was no less than forgettable. To many of us, it was reason enough to step away from our busy lives and relish in the life of another, but it did not keep us enthralled. It was not a page turner, and although there were a few pebbles of wisdom sprinkled throughout, it did not move us. This book was average at best, and in the cracks and crevices of this story line, peeking out at us, were undeniable glimpses of Terry’s actual life disguised as fiction. We saw a few characters we felt we had seen before, and the overall honey, sistah, girlfriend relationships are echoes of waiting to exhale. Well. We are no longer waiting to exhale Terry, we are living, breathing, loving and wanting a new narrative.