If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare? That’s the question at the heart of this charming 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 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.
"Hey there," I said, "your old friend Jenny Green here. You remember me, the eco-chic econ major, raging against the machine, writing papers on Engels while dreaming of becoming America's favorite artisanal baker?" I paused and thought about what to reveal next. "You probably read about how I burned down an Italian bakery right after college. Not just any Italian bakery-an official UNESCO cultural heritage site. Impressive, am I right?
More recently, I moved, perhaps against my better judgment, from New York to Pittsburgh with my boyfriend, who is annoyingly good-looking and used to organize the most fantastic exotic vacations for the two of us but now seems to be busy drooling over one of our new neighbors. So that's cool. And what am I doing? I am now working as a professional groveler at a non-profit organization that none of you has ever heard of. I have two friends in the city: a coworker who isn't old enough to rent a car and a man I met in my a cappella troupe, the Looney Tunes, who is awkward as they come and currently estranged from his wife. And yes, I am still baking! But my boyfriend has sworn off gluten, so I eat everything I bake and as a result no longer fit into most of my clothes. But on the plus side, he just texted me a picture of his dick that I think was intended for that neighbor girlie. Don't be too jealous!"
"Hey there," I said, "your old friend Jenny Green here. You remember me, the eco-chic econ major, raging against the machine, writing papers on Engels while dreaming of becoming America's favorite artisanal baker?" I paused and thought about what to reveal next. "You probably read about how I burned down an Italian bakery right after college. Not just any Italian bakery-an official UNESCO cultural heritage site. Impressive, am I right?
More recently, I moved, perhaps against my better judgment, from New York to Pittsburgh with my boyfriend, who is annoyingly good-looking and used to organize the most fantastic exotic vacations for the two of us but now seems to be busy drooling over one of our new neighbors. So that's cool. And what am I doing? I am now working as a professional groveler at a non-profit organization that none of you has ever heard of. I have two friends in the city: a coworker who isn't old enough to rent a car and a man I met in my a cappella troupe, the Looney Tunes, who is awkward as they come and currently estranged from his wife. And yes, I am still baking! But my boyfriend has sworn off gluten, so I eat everything I bake and as a result no longer fit into most of my clothes. But on the plus side, he just texted me a picture of his dick that I think was intended for that neighbor girlie. Don't be too jealous!"
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