If I Forget You: A Novel

by Thomas Christopher Greene, Kevin Pariseau (Reading)

Two former lovers reconnect in this beautiful and haunting tale of great lost love from the critically acclaimed author of The Headmaster's Wife.

Deeply affecting and compulsively listenable, The Headmaster's Wife was a breakout book for Thomas Christopher Greene. Now Greene returns with a beautifully written, emotional new novel perfect for his growing audience.

Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love.

Told from alternating points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair, complete with the secrets they carry when they find each other for the second time. Written in lyrical prose, If I Forget You is at once a great love story; a novel of marriage, manners, and family; a meditation on the nature of art; and a moving elegy to what it means to love and to lose and how the choices we make can change our lives forever.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, New York, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance

Audio CD

First published June 14, 2016

About the author

Thomas Christopher Greene is the author of 7 books, six critically acclaimed novels including the international bestseller, The Headmaster's Wife, and the collection of tiny true stories, Notes From the Porch. He is the founder of the Vermont College of Fine Arts and served as president for 13 years. His fiction has been translated into thirteen languages. He makes his home in Montpelier, Vermont and can be found online on instagram and facebook @thomaschristophergreene

Reviews

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to write a plot summary to illustrate all the reasons why this book was a waste of time for me, but instead I am just going to offer a couple of suggestions to writers and editors who publish love stories and expect us to care about them.

Suggestion #1: If you're going to write a love story, don't forget to include the love. It's truly amazing how many love stories skimp on providing an actual convincing love relationship. In this case, Margot "loves" Henry because he's smarter and deeper than the shallow rich boys she's used to, and Henry "loves" Margot because she's... beautiful and has a nice body. That was about it as far as I could tell. And don't forget, this isn't supposed to be just a college relationship--these two are supposed to have a love that's spanned the decades. I wasn't feeling it, therefore I could not become invested, and therefore I could not possibly care about the outcome of this half-assed relationship one way or the other.

Suggestion #2: Make sure BOTH halves of the couple are interesting people, or at least recognizably human. In this book, Henry is a person with interests, talents, goals, and an interesting backstory. Margot, on the other hand, has an alleged talent for painting, but has no interest in pursuing it, or anything else for that matter, as a career. As a college student, she has no goals. As an adult, she is possibly the most boring person alive. Honestly, how many times have we seen this in books? The male half of the couple is a well-rounded person, and female half just kind of stands there and looks pretty. What really bothers me about this is that I know for a fact there are all kinds of women working in publishing. Why do they accept these manuscripts without major edits? Women in publishing, when someone sends you an allegedly finished manuscript where the female character barely registers as a person, please, SEND IT BACK and tell the author you don't want to see it again until the woman actually bears some resemblance to a human being someone might know. Please, please, for all of our sakes. You can do this. You can make a difference.

In short, this book was full of tedious, unconvincing stock characters and situations. I can possibly believe Thomas Christopher Greene is capable of writing a book worth reading, but, sadly, for me this was not that book. At all. In fact, if I had a time machine, I would go back and withdraw my entry in the Shelf Awareness giveaway that won me this ARC. I realize that sounds needlessly harsh, but there are so many awesome books out there that I'm depressed I wasted precious reading time on this one. Don't make the same mistake I did!

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A common enough plot, Henry and Margo meet in college, fall in love. Henry is from the working class, Margo from the very wealthy. Something happens and they are forced to separate. Seeing each other twenty years later, many truths come to light. So what happens next?

This book has some beautiful lines, beautiful thoughts. Margo thinks of how well Henry knows her because he knew her when she was young, knew the inside of her not just the façade she presents to others, the façade she uses to get through her days. Other insightful thoughts are littered throughout this story. It is very well told, alternating between the past and the present, between the thoughts of Margo and Henry. So mentally this was a very good book, but I never felt an emotional connection, the heart was missing. The tone almost seemed clinical, matter of fact and I felt as if I was experiencing it from a distance.

So while I enjoyed this story, enjoyed the prose. I just didn't love it like I did The Headmaster's Wife.

ARC from bookbrowse.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

For you, wherever you are.

I was completely captivated by this poetic story of lost love and second chances. Not only is it beautifully written, but the underlying message is a powerful one - go after what makes you happy, don’t just exist in your own life.

Henry and Margot fell desperately in love in college, but circumstances and mistakes ripped them apart. Anyone looking at their lives would assume, they’ve both moved on - marriages to different people, children and the passing of time - 21 years. They’ve both carried this love and regret around for two decades. Can you imagine?

My favorite part of the story was Henry, right from the start. I admired him for the way he looked at the world and of course, his love of the written word. He always seemed so sure about who he was and what he wanted. His collection of poems that he cleverly titled Margaret, made my heart flutter. How romantic and tragic that he wanted to forever capture his time with Margot. It was almost heartbreaking that he wasn’t able to write anything of substance after that.

Each poem is a moment, a day, she recognizes. Each poem is a whispered elegy to the two of them.

Margo fascinated me. At first I couldn’t figure her out. Did she still love Henry? Why did she run? On one hand, I couldn’t believe she waited so long to face him, but on the other, I could understand her trepidation. She had become complacent in her life and in a way, it almost seemed easier to just continue to wallow in her unhappiness. Seeing Henry again after all that time sparked something in her though. She found the strength to tell the truth and go after what she’s always wanted.

My only wish was that the author included an epilogue. I wanted more of Henry and Margot’s story. I wanted a glimpse of what the future held for them.

*Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.*

[Esil · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first, If I Forget You had me yawning. As I read more, it had me agitated and somewhat incredulous. By the end, it has me wondering whether I have read anything other than an old Harlequin romance or one of the most basic unimaginative versions of the Romeo and Juliet plot line -- with lots of overwrought and predictable cliches for good measure. (Normally I would give a spoiler alert or give away less of the plot, but honestly in this case I don't see the point.) Margot is wealthy and from old money. Henry is the poor son of Jewish immigrant parents. Henry goes to a fancy east coast college on a baseball scholarship. Margot's father is some big wig on the board at the college and expects his daughter to stay within the world she was brought up in. Henry is an aspiring poet. Their eyes meet and stay locked at a poetry reading. They fall hard for each other. A few months later, something tragic happens involving Margot's father that tears them apart. Over 20 years later, their paths cross. It turns out that they had never forgotten each other -- in fact, they had remained obsessed with each other -- naturally, Henry is divorced and Margot is in a loveless marriage. They come together. There is a set back. But then the natural order of the universe -- as Margot and Henry see it -- is restored. Yawn, indeed... Why was I agitated? Because what was essentially nothing more than a typical college infatuation is cast as an enduring earth shattering love... There is an immature romantic assumption that the younger versions of Margot and Henry are the truer better versions. To me, that is the stuff of silly romance novels, not what I would expect from what is meant to be more serious fiction. This would have been way more interesting if the romantic nostalgia these characters felt for each other turned out to be an illusion. Thankfully, this is a very short book and also thankfully it eventually became entertaining just by dint of being so predictable and over the top in its cliches. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

But she could never capture the particularity of him in the way he has captured the particularity of her, and later, when this all sinks in, she will come to realize that this might be the greatest gift another person can give you. The very idea that they pay enough attention to notice what makes you singular, and Margot has no idea how she can possibly repay him."

I'm a sucker for a well-written love story, so I jumped at the chance to read an early copy of "If I Forget You". This novel features many familiar themes: star-crossed lovers, a fight against fate, meddling families and more. While Greene is an extraordinarily talented writer, it seemed that he couldn't quite move this novel beyond the standard trope. The plot followed the same script as way too many other stories before it, and I found the emotional apex of the book unworthy of the characters Greene was trying to build. Was it readable? Sure. Even somewhat enjoyable. Memorable? Sadly, no.

3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Marjorie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was described as deeply affecting and emotional, which I was hoping it would be. And it did turn out to be an emotional book for me, although not in the way I was hoping it to be. Instead of finding this book to be touching and possibly heart wrenching as I expected, I found it to be annoying and even brought forth a bit of anger in me that the author would think we forgot what happened in the first three quarters of the book when he wrote the last quarter.

This is a story of star-crossed lovers with the age-old hindrance of having been born on the opposite side of the tracks. Henry is the poor poet and Margot is the rich girl. A most unfortunate incidence tears them apart. Henry makes a life-changing decision that seals their separation. The story is told in alternating time frames - the present day in 2012 and back to 1991. Pretty much a same-old-story type of plot but written in a very readable manner.

The first point of annoyance that I have throughout the present day rendering is the constant reference to how "old" they are. This author must be quite young himself if he feels that his characters' age of early 40's is old. In his eyes, I must be quite ancient.

That annoyance was minor compared to the main problem I have with this book. I completely understand the decisions that both Henry and Margot made due to their youth and the circumstances that they found themselves in at the time. What I don't understand are numerous comments made by each of the characters when they find each other again in their "old age". The past and the present just don't connect at all and left me quite taken back with surprise and irritation. I'd like to get into a discussion about this with someone who has read the book but a review isn't the time or place for that so I'll just leave it with saying that I was baffled by the characters' present day reactions. Why would Henry feel like he did in the present when he knows so well what happened in the past? He should have understood Margot's decision based on the decision he himself had made and what he wrote to Margot. The last quarter of the book just doesn't work for me at all.

On the positive side, the book is beautifully written with a poetic flair. However, it's just not enough to save the book for me. This book has been compared to "The Notebook", which is actually a good comparison since I found the ending of "The Notebook" to be just as unbelievable as this one.

I won this book in a Goodreads contest.

[PorshaJo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book on a giveaway on Goodreads, my first. Thanks to Goodreads and St. Martin's Literary Fiction.

After all that, I'm sorry to say, it was just eh, OK I guess. When I first saw the blurb for this book, I was intrigued. It tells the story of Henry and Margot, two former lovers, who are drawn apart many years before, and how their lives intersect one day again on a street in New York City. The book is told in alternating chapters between Henry and Margot, going back and forth in time. You hear their story, how they met, how they were torn apart, and what happens after that fateful day in New York City. A great love story for the ages. Except....it was boring.

I read quite a number of reviews on this book and that is why I waited so long to read it after winning it. It just didn't seem to have a spark, the writing was very basic, and as I read it, I kept thinking 'I'm reading a Lifetime movie'. It was filled with so many cliches - the poor Jewish boy and very wealthy girl, meet and fall in love, girls parents break them apart, and so on. It didn't really have romance (I'm not really a romance reader but it's nice to read a real love story here and there).

I've heard good things about Mr. Greene's first novel and perhaps one day I might give it a shot. But I'll soon forget that I read this one.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come

[Judy Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thomas Christopher Greene returns following The Headmaster's Wife (2014) with a moving epic love story—IF I FORGET YOU.

Written with lyrical poetic prose-as breathtaking as his fictional character, Henry Gold; Greene, follows a timeless forbidden love, torn apart by family, social class, wealth, lies, and secrets. Love and Loss. Second chances?

At forty-years of age, Henry Gold is not a famous poet though he has won a few awards in his younger years, and has carried over into his teaching career. He is a teacher and has an ear for other’s work; the ability to discern a musicality that certain students posses and is able to nudge them in the right direction.

The only wish he had as a kid, in his neighborhood growing up, in the West End of Providence, RI the son of immigrants-- was to be normal and Catholic like other families. He recalls his mother saying to him, “Henry Gold, don’t ever let anyone tell you: You can’t do something.”

Her words haunt him, for it is the great failing of his life. Many years ago, someone told him how to do things, and he didn’t fight like he should have. He has regrets.

Henry is in New York and sees Margot outside the Time Warner Building. He loves his New York campus. Baseball gave him this gift as a student. In his sophomore year he declares his major as English. His heart was not in baseball; however, the sport gave him the opportunity. He loves assignments, wrestling with words loves playing with structure. Each poem is a tiny puzzle to be solved.

He sees her on the street with the pigeons. She sees him. She flees in a cab, she is gone. He runs after her. The love of his life.

Margot is unhappily married to Chad. He is forty-five years old, well in his prime and still mid-level at Goldman. Her kids are grown. Alex is in third year at Wesleyan University and Emma at boarding school in Connecticut. Emma will be off to a summer camp in Maine. Alex to the city for an internship at a major publisher. Her life is at a turning point.

She comes from a wealthy family and a robust trust fund. Her parents are seasonal New Yorkers with winters in Tucson, Arizona and summers on the Vineyard. Lately Margot considers painting again. Art was the only subject she ever really liked; however, she has harbored her love of painting like a secret. Painting gives her pleasure.

Flashing back and forth from twenty-one years earlier—1991 in college, to the present 2012, we hear from Henry and Margot’s point of view. College at Bannister. Everyone knew Margot Fuller. From different social classes and walks of life. He had never met anyone rich before. Thomas Fuller, the board of trustees, her father. A tragedy. The letter. She had never met anyone like Henry.

Henry had never stopped searching for her. The idea of her, the essential memory of her, has been his one constant truth, like a poem he has committed to memory and holds always in the back of his mind. Has she been under his nose all these years?

He cannot think of anything but her. He knows only one way to love a woman and that is completely. Margot was his love. They straddle two worlds.

Henry decides the following day, he will go to Vermont. He doesn’t have class until after the weekend and the idea of his cabin is what he needs to lift his spirits. Vermont was his Polish father’s place. His mother had been born in Warsaw, grew up in Queens, and lived in Providence. He loved spending summers in the area and purchased a cabin when he turned thirty-four, after his father’s death.

He had married, now divorced after his wife Ruth’s affair. He has a nine-year old daughter, Jess. The life with Margot was cut short. From different social classes, there was an incident twenty-one years earlier. He was forced by her family to end things. He has not seen her since, until the previous day.

Margot can’t stop thinking of Henry. She has to see him. "What she does not like adulthood: every interaction seems to bring with it a history, a context, and nothing is simple."

She will find him and sees his photo on the NYU faculty page. His biography. His debut collection of poetry, Margaret, won the Yale Younger poets prize. Margot (Margaret) – for her, the dedication, “for you, wherever you are.”

Margot has never met anyone like him before. Can they go back? Choices were made. There is hurt, regret, and secrets. Can he forgive her? A weight she has been carrying. Courage to face the past in order to move forward. Is she strong enough to stand up to her family and choose the life she wants?

"If poetry is the search for significance, then the stubbornness of love must be its fullest expression."

Greene writes with passion—with stunning imagery, haunting yet beautiful lyrics; art, and romance. An emotional moving love story, and well developed characters readers will root for.

I loved Henry- he can write me a poem any day of the week! I'll take the cabin in Vermont, as well.

JDCMustReadBooks

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Star crossed lovers torn apart by space and time reunite twenty years later. It felt so real and authentic to me. Very emotional read, loved it.

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is written through the eyes of the two main characters, alternating by chapters between the years 2012, and the past, 1991.

Henry comes from a working class family, Margot from a wealthy one. They meet in college, are forced to go their separate ways, and time passes. One day, Henry decides to walk from NYU, where he, a poet, teaches. It’s a lovely day, and Henry is enjoying the beautiful weather, wants to feel the sun shining, wants to enjoy this moment of Spring instead of taking the A train straight to his apartment.

He sees a woman he thinks he recognizes, pauses and waits for her to turn. He looks into her eyes for recognition, and then she disappears into the crowd. Margot. He’s looked for her periodically through the years, wondering how it is possible for someone to disappear in this day and age where this seems impossible. Wondering how he will ever find her again.

“If I Forget You” is slow paced with occasionally lovely prose, some poetic reflections. It is a love story, a variation on star-crossed lovers, no longer young and foolish, whose paths cross. And then, the thoughts, the feelings that come rushing back to them, neither having forgotten the other, but just to see them, if only for a brief moment. The hunger for the rush of that younger love fuels so much, fills so many hours of thought. The hunger to be seen that way once more.

I can’t compare this to Thomas Christopher Greene’s other books, but the writing elevates it, most of the time. There were sections where I felt Greene invested more emotion into, and others where I felt they were written just to get to a different point in the story. Overall, I liked this book from beginning to end, sometimes a lot, occasionally less. There are moments in “If I Forget You” that are memorable.

Publication Date: 14 June 2016

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley and to the author, Thomas Christopher Greene, for providing me with an advanced copy to read.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel of a passionate young love gone awry is engaging and highly readable. Using dual time frames, the author conveys the intensity and the challenges as well as regrets. Early on, it was clear that this was a book to savor – one of those highs you get when you have many pages remaining!
Henry, an aspiring poet from a blue color working class background, and Margot, born to wealth and privilege, fall madly, passionately in love in college.

Another strain involves the friendship between Margot and her lifetime friend Cricket. Here Margot reflects ruefully on how time has wrought changes, that their bond is not what it used to be.

“They have cried together over heartbreak. They have stood side by side at each other’s weddings. They have held each other’s heads against the cold porcelain of the toilet bowl after youthful nights of overindulgence. And now, somehow, having passed forty, they have grown armor, and the intensity that defined their youth feels like it is gone forever.’
It was well written and cleverly constructed. I couldn’t see what was coming.

[Jenny Belk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance readers' copy from St. Martin's Press. This is my unsolicited review:

Sometimes you meet the love of your life when you are very young. This is the love story of Henry and Margot. Margot is from wealth; the opposite is true of Henry. When they fall in love they experience how society accepts their relationship and discover the differences in their lifestyles. When their love affair suddenly ends Henry is devastated. Margot moves on. Twenty one years later they have a chance encounter in New York. Can they rekindle their relationship?? Have secrets been kept all those years ago? Are they happy or are they missing what they had?
I flew through this book. The author dances you through this book with poetic phrases and lyrical prose. I enjoyed it from page one. I will read his other books. Well done.

[nikkia neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks St. Martin's Press and netgalley for this ARC.

Short and packed with so much emotion, love, and ups and downs. Its awesome the way Greene does this. It's like reading a long novel condescend into just the essence of a good love story.

[Elvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has a Chick Lit vibe about it. Rich entitled girl meets poor struggling son of Jewish immigrants at college. They fall in love. Rich girls daddy does not approve. Heartbreak and threats force the young lovers to split. Twenty years later they meet once again. Cue the violins. A few strings may break along the way but this is the basic plot. This predictable love story is told in alternating viewpoints by poor but magnificent poet Henry and shallow, aimless rich girl Margo.

I haven't read many romance novels written by men. It's a genre which garners little respect in the literary world. The thing is, romance novels are not as easy to write as some might think. To generate the deep emotional bonds needed to elevate a story from ordinary to breathtaking the reader has to understand the hearts and souls of both characters. The authors who succeed in this genre have the ability to write well from both the male and female perspective. Climbing into the brain of the opposite sex and giving those characters an authentic voice takes talent. Two masters of the genre, Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts make it look easy. It's not.

If I Forget You fails to deliver an authentic emotional range for Margo. Henry gets all the feels while Margo is left in her one dimensional bubble. The romantic aspect of this novel suffers as a result. As love stories go, this one lacks the spark to make it special.

ARC received from publisher via NetGalley.

[Allyson Preble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was beautifully written quick read about a couple who fell in love in high school and reconnect 20 years later in NY. Thomas Christopher Greene is a beautiful writer, and the descriptions of the scenery (VT, NY, the Winery, etc) are breath-taking. The way he talks about the couple is equally mesmerizing. You can tell they're in love without them just saying to each other. Outside the writing, however, the book falls flat. The plot feels rushed and doesn't really make sense. It feels like the characters are making choices to move the plot along, rather than because it's something the characters Greene has built would do.

This book is good if you're looking for a quick read to jump in and out of quick and be done with it, but if you're looking to immerse yourself in the characters and the storyline I would pass this one up.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I just might not have been the right audience for this one. To begin, let me say that I am not above reading "chick lit," but to really enjoy that type of genre, the book needs to grab me in a way that is unexpected or make me really connect on an emotional level. And the beginning of this book did. It appeared that it was going to be an elegy to one's youth (in the same vein as the first half of Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies), a youth filled with intense love and burgeoning self-discovery. A contemplative musing from an older person's perspective - told in bittersweet tones. "Maybe it's like that, how fast everything always moves, life like this train, uncontrollable ...."

And then it turned - into a formula as old as time: poor boy meets rich girl, they fall in love, dastardly father pays off boy to go away, tragic parting of the ways. And of course, in true chick lit fashion, they connect again and fall in love. It just felt so rote and predictable.

I'm beginning to grow weary of the alternating voices in books, but I was pleasantly surprised at the insightful meditations of Margot on motherhood and marriage here. "But it's hard for Margot not to feel a twinge of envy in seeing her daughter experience things for the first time, those tentative first steps toward adulthood, when the days seem eternally long, and joy, simple joy, comes without strings or any depth of thought ...." and "There comes a time when you just don't have much to say to each other anymore. There is no one to impress and the things you share, the children are no longer here."

Unfortunately, for all the beautiful truths, there were far too many maddening implausibilities for me. Immediately after a misunderstanding that leads to the father banishing Henry from Margot's life, Henry is kicked out of the house that he has been living in and working from all summer (ostensibly to show the father's influence but he had no financial or social ties to the landlords). Margot confides in her mother how much she is in love with Henry, said mother immediately betrays Margot and when Margot comes back to the house, devastated, and witnesses her mother hang up on Henry as he tries to call her, the mother says "Clarity is important here." A reminder that Margot and Henry are in college, not elementary school. Lastly, Margot's conclusion as to the reason of their forced separation was because Henry was Jewish (although how they even found that out is not explained at all). The time period of this episode is 1991! Lastly, I read the book with a keen and critical eye, took copious notes and thoughtfully composed this review and I still do not understand the title. At all.

I just really wish this book had not had such a crisis of identity and stayed with the themes of lamentations of an older, wiser narrator (both female and male perspectives) on the flash of youth and its fragility and the life-affirming power of art.

"Margot finds herself getting nostalgic for the time of life he is occupying, and part of her hates herself for this, the always looking back, the inability to live now, or for the future ...."

[Belle · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I Forget You by Thomas Christopher Greene is a story that I would've liked more if I hadn't read it a couple of times before.

It all starts with two ex-lovers who meet each other randomly after 20 years since they've last seen each other and it's the moment that makes them recall their young love.

And then we go back in time to their youth: a boy from a poor family meets a wealthy girl, they fall in love, she hides her lover from her parents because they'd disapprove but they find out eventually and things only go down from there - they break up and don't see each other until two decades later.

Doesn't it remind you of something? I've watched The Notebook too many times not to notice the similarities. I'd lie if I said there weren't also many differences in the plot but I just couldn't help not thinking about the famous movie when I read the book (there even was a canoe...). Besides, there's just too many stories where a rich girl falls for a poor boy and their only obstacle are their families, it's all become too predictable. I don't mind authors using a storyline that's been used thousand times before as long as they make it really interesting and outstanding and it didn't happen with this book.

What did I like? The retrospection - it's always a nice way to make a book more interesting (although I wish they showed a different story). Although there were many clichés in the book, I appreciate that the ending wasn't one of them. Moreover, it was a fast book and really nicely written so that's a plus as well.

Unfortunately, this book didn't have that "something" for me and I'll probably forget about it very quickly so I'm giving it only 2,5 stars.

[Bethany Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a love story that would stand the test of time, Henry and Margot were meant for each other and couldn't be happier together. They were each others destiny...until one fateful morning that changed their lives forever or do it?
Henry and Margot met in college at Barrister through a chance night when Henry was reading his poetry and Margot was there for extra credit and couldn't take her eyes off Henry...His words drew her in and she had to find him after the presentation.
The walked together and sat by the lake and became more and more comfortable with each other...then there was a kiss.
After every waking moment together, summer arrived and they would be apart - Henry working at a vineyard in the Finger Lakes region and Margot on Martha's Vineyard with her family.
There time apart broke both their hearts and then Margot made the decision to go see Henry at the vineyard. Everything was truly magical until her father arrived...a scuffle took place and it changed their lives forever.
Fast forward to the present - Margot is married with children and Henry is divorced with a child of his own.
One day Henry was standing in front of a building in Manhattan and who should walk out of the building...His Margot...Could his eyes be deceiving him, is it truly her?
There are so many twists and turns that their lives are led through and you fill as if you are invested in this story and can not put it down till you hear the fate of Henry and Margot. You will not be able to put this book down!

[Jayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting and was mesmerized by the first three quarters of the story. The author wove the past and present together beautifully, drawing me into the lives of two star crossed lovers forced apart in their youth and given a second chance in their middle years. And then the last quarter of the story fell flat, becoming choppy and thin from that point forward. I felt like the author rushed through the remaining chapters, telling me what happened to the characters (briefly) not showing me. The remainder of their story was not fleshed out and felt incomplete. What started out as a rich and fulfilling story, came to an abrupt and unsatisfactory end.

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how this book is written. I feel all the emotions that the characters are going through! When they were happy and how unhappy they are in their current situations. Big plot twist I wasn't expecting. Just Beautiful!

[Bex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Christopher Greene's second novel, If I Forget You, calls to mind the Pascal quotation 'tu ne me chercherais si tu ne m'avais déjà trouvé' (you wouldn't seek me if you hadn't already found me). At an expensive New England liberal arts college in the early 1990s, baseball scholarship student and would-be poet Henry falls in love with wealthy, WASPy Margot. They have a passionate romance that is brought to an untimely end. Two decades later and, still unsatisfied with relationships that never lived up to the excitement and intensity of first love, they both still think about the one that got away. "If poetry is the search for significance," Henry muses, "then the stubbornness of love must be its fullest expression."

Flashbacks told from both characters' perspectives fill in the missing pieces of their pasts, while in present-day New York, Margot and Henry seek each other with an increasing desperation. But will they get a second chance or is the die already cast, Orpheus having ventured too far into the underworld. Greene's prose is elegiac and elegant. Both Margot and Henry are artists — she a painter and he a poet — and Greene captures their diverse modes of thinking and imagining with expert precision as they explore themes of love and loss. If I Forget You isn't the most cheerful of summer reads but it is thoughtful, beautifully written and very different from Greene's debut.

[Sally Koslow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many readers will love IF I FORGET YOU even if the plot is not shockingly original. The book is told as a contemporary story with flashbacks to when Henry Gold, a Jewish poet/professor at New York University, and Margot Fuller, a wealthy WASP housewife and mother with an overbearing father, were in love at an imaginary upstate college that sounds a lot like Colgate. The language is simple but evocative, though I would have loved more passages like this: "And this is the part of love that nobody tells you about: that you can be apart and if you close your eyes and push your face into the pillow, you can reach across time..." and “The words poured out of him in great jumbles that he seeks to tame on the page. Henry loves words. He loves how they fall off his tongue like syrup spiraling off a spoon.” The character of Henry feels more fully satisfying than Margot’s, but this is a poignant, absorbing rumination on what it means to lose a first love.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Christopher Greene wrote one of my favourite books – The Headmaster’s Wife so I’ve been really looking forward to reading this book. I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed it. The novel is told in alternating chapters from Henry and Margot, and also in the past and the present. This couple met and dated at university but were forced apart and they moved on with their lives. Then one day Henry sees Margot in New York and he wants to talk to her, to know what happened in her life. The longing and the missed opportunities in this book makes it such a bittersweet read. I read this in one sitting and I keep thinking about Henry and Margot ever since I finished reading it. I definitely recommend this one!

This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com

[Kate Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margo, daughter of wealthy Connecticut parents and Henry, poet son of Jewish immigrants came from very different backgrounds, but fell in love during their second year at Bannister college. Their love was doomed to fail and for twenty years they have lead separate lives until a chance encounter in a New York street heralds the renewal of their connection and the revelation of a secret that will test their love.

I found this novel to be compulsively readable and at times both beautiful and heartbreaking. Thomas Christopher Greene’s prose is lyrical and evocative including descriptions of nature and the vivid portrayal of the relationship between Henry, the male poet protagonist and Margo, middle-aged Connecticut wife facing the disintegration of her family.

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know what's worse than a bad book? A boring, mediocre book. A book that spans the relationship of a bland cardboard cutout and a vaguely pretentious, bordering on self-insert, poet. A book that tries to pass itself off as a love story, when it can only really be classified as a waste of time. A book where the middle-aged heroine still calls her father "daddy". A book where no one even forgot anyone, so why would you call it that and trick me into thinking this was going to be an emotional amnesia story??? A book I wasted like SIX DAYS on because I didn't want to finish it but borrowed it from the library and felt pressured to read it before my loan period was up!!!!!!!

I don't wanna generalise but maybe we shouldn't let men write romance, idk, don't @ me

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My feelings were all over the place for these college sweethearts. I was back and forth on who hurt who the most. Then both wild cards from the deck are thrown in and the story took on a whole new role and ended with a great finish. The story did go back and forth from college days to present day, so that needs to be taken into consideration, if you have problems with those type of books.

I just know I enjoyed the story, was entertaining and very enjoyable on yet another rainy day here in Cypress and I would certainly recommend it.

Thanks St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

[Kara Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not overly taken with this book~ it had a basic plot of a love story gone wrong. Twenty-one years later this "love story" is resurrected, explored, and again ripped apart. So the story overall was boring; the love, and especially the "resurrected" love between Henry and Margot seemed contrived and forced. And the similes, and the metaphors…they went on and on and on like an endless ocean. I'm being facetious, but they got worse as the book went on~ very cheesy at times. Not a book I would highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love. Love, Love this book. Told with two narrators, Margot and Henry and flashes between 1991 and 2012. After a painful breakup in college, Margot and Henry run into each other 20 years later. Was it love? Is the memory of love enough to rekindle a relationship again?

Poetically written. Heartbreaking. Captures the thrill of falling in love for the first time. Shows the love and pain young adults feel as they grow up and away from their parents and their expectations. Rises above the cliché of a mid-life crisis by allowing space for a person to ask "am I who I thought I would be?"

[Letty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. A story about Margot and Henry who meet in college and fall in love but because of Margot's father, their relationship could not continue. Frankly, I felt Henry wasn't treated fairly at all. Twenty years later, Margot and Henry meet again and you wonder if they will end up together again or once again go their separate ways. Told in alternating points of view from the past and present by Margot and Henry. Beautifully done. Enjoyed the narration in the audio book.