2012: Midnight at Spanish Gardens by: Alm Alexander

What would your life be like if you had made one simple different choice? What if you had the chance to go back and make that choice? Would you or would you choose the same path that leads you to where you are today?

That is the plot that Alma Alexander has set for 2012: Midnight in Spanish Gardens. On December 20,2012 five friends get together at Spanish Gardens, the cafe where they celebrated their college graduation twenty years earlier. They share more than just the famous Irish Coffees and reminisce.

When each one leaves the table to go to the bathroom — only to find that while one has a sign posted ‘out of order’, Ariel, the cafe’s host, assures them that it actually is fine — but gives them clear instructions before entering. You see, it’s not just any bathroom they’re walking into; they’re actually entering alternative lives, the lives they might have had. Each one will have to decide to remain in that life or to return to their table at the Spanish Gardens and continue their lives as they knew them.

I found myself at home at the Spanish Gardens immediately, and I found myself  right in the mix with the five friends. It was easy to identify with them, thinking back to groups of friends I’ve managed to maintain over the years, people with whom I shared my soul years ago and still think of, but I’ve not seen them in person for years due to various circumstances. Like Olivia, who starts the book, I often find myself composing description in type as I walk, thinking about what I might write as I witness my world. I identified with Olivia right from the first word.

While I figured the characters would be just like many of the others I have read lately I found that I had a difficult time putting down the book late at night, and ended up falling asleep with it until the end. Alexander does have one twist, in particular, that surprised  me, and made me love her writing even more..