Review: Impossible to Forget

Impossible to Forget by Imogen Clark
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Angie has died and at the reading of the will, Maggie, Leon and Tiger find that she has asked each of them to serve as a guardian to her 18 year old daughter, Romany. Maggie is to guide her in legal affairs being a lawyer, Leon is to advise her and expose her to cultural issues being a musician and reader of books,and Tiger is to guide her in the ways of the world being a world traveler. These three now pushing 50 met each other as 19 year old newbies at Uni. Then there is Hope, she is a good 15 years younger than the others, they do not know her and wonder where she fits in the situation.. She has been asked to advise and guide in the realm of relationships. None of the friends are clear on the roles and not sure they want to accept her request. Romany, herself, does not feel the need for their guidance, especially the footloose Tiger who is charged to move in with her. Yet, out of love for Angie, all agree to try things out for a month and see how it goes.
Through flashbacks that feel absolutely normal, we meet Angie and her friends the first day of uni--she is uninhibited a bit overwhelming but still totally magnetic. The other three are so different from her and each other and yet through her they become life-long friends. Tiger is always somewhere other but comes back into their lives intermittently, Leon goes off to Leeds and has a family, Maggie and Angie stay in York and see each other most frequently. Still Angie is the glue and she reels them in together often, keeping the bonds intact. Now that she is dead their common charge, Romany, continues that glue. As she completes her last year of school before uni herself, we see the affect the friends have on her, but also the changes in them as a result of her presence. It is almost as though Angie is guiding them in death, much as she did in life.

Each of the characters are so well defined they seem real and identifiable to people we all know. I myself think the author channeled me when she created Maggie--lol

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