Alice Adams
by Booth Tarkington
Because of the writing style, I had the incorrect notion in my head that Booth Tarkington was a woman’s pen name. Alice Adams is so uniquely feminine, and so accurate of the female thinking, actions, goals, dreams, disappointments, and mannerisms, I found it impossible to believe a woman didn’t write it. After finding out Tarkington was a man, I was filled with a mixture of admiration and upset. How dare a man infiltrate our private world and record it so accurately? How dare he write perhaps the most feminine book and character I’ve ever read?
The title character is a twenty-two-year-old girl who longs for love to sweep her away from her poor surroundings. Her father is bedridden and recovering from his latest alcoholic bout, while his boss patiently holds his job for him and the family ekes by with very little money. Her mother constantly nags her father about getting a better job when he’s well, so Alice will have a better chance at a respectable future, but Alice doesn’t understand her mother’s motivations; she thinks her mother picks needless fights and always takes her dad’s side. The mother-daughter interactions are quite tragic. As is the ingratitude personified by Alice’s no-good brother, and Alice’s loveliness that gets squashed every time her peers snub her.
If you read the first chapter and find the story unrelatable, put it down and find something else. This book won’t speak to you. As it was, reading this book felt like someone chronicled my life, so it obviously spoke to me. This book is more than a summer where a borderline spinster tries for one last chance at happiness, it captures that time in every girl’s life when a party invitation gives her dreams of everlasting change and happiness. I will issue one fair warning that I wish I’d had: the wonderful 1935 film adaptation changed the ending of the book, and therefore the entire message. While Tarkington’s prose is beautiful and accurate, I’ll stick to the movie from now on.
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of the 1935 film adaptation of Alice Adams here!
The title character is a twenty-two-year-old girl who longs for love to sweep her away from her poor surroundings. Her father is bedridden and recovering from his latest alcoholic bout, while his boss patiently holds his job for him and the family ekes by with very little money. Her mother constantly nags her father about getting a better job when he’s well, so Alice will have a better chance at a respectable future, but Alice doesn’t understand her mother’s motivations; she thinks her mother picks needless fights and always takes her dad’s side. The mother-daughter interactions are quite tragic. As is the ingratitude personified by Alice’s no-good brother, and Alice’s loveliness that gets squashed every time her peers snub her.
If you read the first chapter and find the story unrelatable, put it down and find something else. This book won’t speak to you. As it was, reading this book felt like someone chronicled my life, so it obviously spoke to me. This book is more than a summer where a borderline spinster tries for one last chance at happiness, it captures that time in every girl’s life when a party invitation gives her dreams of everlasting change and happiness. I will issue one fair warning that I wish I’d had: the wonderful 1935 film adaptation changed the ending of the book, and therefore the entire message. While Tarkington’s prose is beautiful and accurate, I’ll stick to the movie from now on.
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of the 1935 film adaptation of Alice Adams here!