The Memo by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling
If you were offered a do-over, not limited to clothing, hair or make-up, rather an opportunity to erase the past 15 years of your life history for a chance to relive your past, would you make that choice? There would be strict rules, terms and conditions as part of this Faustian bargain. You would need to follow explicit directions precisely as dictated without wavering.
Consider the consequences: family members, people you know and love (or merely tolerate or dislike), your job, interests, home; everything down to your toothbrush and favorite sweater might vanish forever. The replacements would be supplied according to detailed guidelines found in The Memo which is now determining your future. However, you would have wealth and influence beyond your wildest dreams by following this tailor-made blueprint for success.
Jenny Green — if you feel your life isn’t as good as it should be and you don’t measure up to your closest friends when you make comparisons — this exclusive, one-time-only, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rewrite your life story is coming soon but won’t last long.
Alternative Reality Romantic Comedy
Collaborators, former work colleagues and good friends Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling, both established writers and editors, dreamed up The Memo during Covid lockdown while remotely juggling work and educating their children at home. This innovative, darkly humorous novel is a unique blend of alternative reality/quasi-sci-fi and romantic comedy that coincidentally has debuted in time for their own 25th college reunions. The authors ask, “Why are class reunions so terrifying?”
Their protagonist and narrator Jenny Green is certainly dreading her own upcoming 15th reunion. She managed to avoid her 10th but Geeta and Leigh, her two extremely successful best friends, are pressuring her to attend and will not take no for an answer. She is convinced all of her former classmates are “living their absolute best lives” while she is hanging on, a hairsbreadth away from living in her car.
Reality is not much worse than her nightmares as “home” for the past year has been a spacious but shabby loft in downtown Pittsburgh lent by a friend of her gorgeous but serially cheating boyfriend Hal. It keeps the weather out but their vegan fitness instructor neighbor may be doing more than blending morning smoothies for easy-going Hal after Jenny leaves for work.
Jenny had been a top student in her elite private university with a passion for learning and a considerable talent for baking. She graduated from college with honors as well as secured a prestigious culinary fellowship that began with a summer paid internship in a historic, 150-year-old artisanal bread bakery in a small town in Italy.
It was a heavenly learning experience complete with a romance with one of the local hunks until through carelessness she caused the bakery to burn down to the ground. Her dreams of being the youngest baker to receive a James Beard Foundation Award were effectively shattered. Worse yet, the employees were left jobless, the townspeople were without their bread and her culinary arts scholarship was cancelled. Making her disgrace complete, she even had to pay her own airfare home. After these humiliations, Jenny doubted she could ever get a job in the fast food industry let alone a gourmet restaurant or upscale bakery.
Only recently has Jenny begun baking for friends and co-workers. Her job provided little satisfaction as she was a self-described professional beggar; the key relationship officer for the philanthropic feminist-oriented Aurora Foundation whose mission was to provide grants to support girls’ clubs and women entrepreneurs throughout the United States.
The Executive Director, Alice, was an independently wealthy alumnus of the same college, a couple of years older than Jenny. The work had initially seemed worthwhile with a strong purpose and essential objectives but it didn’t take her long to realize Alice used donor’s funds for questionable pet causes and personal extravagances such as fetes, concerts, dinners and travel all ostensibly in the cause of fundraising, of course. The highlight of the week was Tuesday night when Jenny met up with a fun-loving group of a capella singers called “Looney Tunes” in Desmond’s Tavern. Singing and getting to know Gabe, a sweet recently divorced dad was also a pleasant anticipation.
College Reunion and Mysterious Messages
Not long after arriving on campus for the reunion weekend, Jenny began to receive odd text messages and emails giving her a second chance at The Memo which mysteriously was not delivered the first time it was sent before college graduation. Curious and jealous of the presumably fabulous lives other alumnae are leading, Jenny clicks and opens succeeding apps to reveal her revised past and future possibilities.
The Scientific Consortium has taken her on as an experiment and assigned the task of bringing her into the fold to Desiree LeBlanc, a former university career counselor, to be guide and mentor. The next few weeks are devoted to demonstrating the benefits of joining the sisterhood of The Memo recipients. Jenny wasn’t sure if she was peering out of a rapidly swirling kaleidoscope or stepping onto the uneven flooring of a carnival funhouse. Time shifted rapidly from present to past and future, back and forth in a thrilling maelstrom occurring in unfamiliar surroundings. Clear yet vastly different scenarios played out including some known friends and entirely different situations that would or could be Jenny’s revised life as she struggled to keep up with the participants who were all experts in the game.
The glitz, glamor, and trappings of an A-List celebrity influencer could hardly compete with the splendor she witnessed. Some of the luxurious objects such as art, fashions, cars and mansions might have been a tad pretentious and certainly all food was fussy, barely recognizable as food and gluten-free. The choice for this formerly down-to-earth woman who loved to sing and lived to bake was hers to make. With friends and fellow adherents gathered in a Sante Fe hotel to celebrate, the lever would be pulled on the “wayback machine” at the exact moment Jenny’s 36th birthday dawned. She was dressed in austere white robes as a novitiate and was poised to permanently alter the space-time continuum.
Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling have crafted a must-read novel exploring what truly matters in life: family, friendships, home and heart providing their readers a hilarious and joy-filled experience. The Memo is keenly intelligent and insightful as well as humorous. Let us set aside the “what-ifs” by accepting, embracing and celebrating what we have and our own personal awakenings.
About the Authors:
Rachel Dodes (right) is a freelance culture writer. She’s a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, and her work has also appeared in Town & Country, ELLE, Esquire, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
Her first novel, The Memo—co-written with her friend Lauren Mechling (left)—was published by Harper Perennial in June 2024. (You can order it here.) Named a “Best of Summer” book by Vogue, Esquire, Town & Country, Elle and Vanity Fair–as well as “lowbrow and brilliant” by New York Magazine–it’s currently being developed for television. Rachel and Lauren’s collaboration continues: they recently started a Substack called Funny Girls.
Dodes previously was a staff writer at The Wall Street Journal where she covered the fashion and film industries. Starting in 2017, she co-hosted a weekly independent news/comedy podcast called “Nope,” until the news became so unfunny she had to go on hiatus. She lives in New York with her husband, son and dog.
(Photo Credit: Katja Hentschel)
