Reviews

• This Pulitzer Prize winner from 1921 reads almost like a Jane Austen novel, except for its mildly feminist theme. Alice is the daughter of Virgil Adams, a man of middling means with no hope of rising above his post at the firm where he has always worked. His wife nags him constantly to quit his job and find something that will provide his daughter with enough wealth to secure her future. The family lives in decaying house with outdated furniture, in a neighborhood where coal dust covers everything. As the author puts it, “the ‘hard-wood’ floor had become uneven; and in a corner the walls apparently failed of solidity, where the wall-paper had declined to accompany some staggers of the plaster beneath it.” Alice and her mother struggle to keep up appearances by performing household chores in lieu of the maid they cannot afford. Still, Alice does her best to appear sought-after, to the point of picking violets for her own bouquet at a formal dance. She has no suitors to fill her dance card until Arthur Russell, a new arrival in town, begins to court her. Being admired for her personality alone is a new experience for Alice, and she tries to make the most of it. Things take a dramatic turn when Virgil attempts to start a glue factory to appease his wife. Meanwhile their son entangles himself with seedy characters, bringing disgrace upon the family. Ultimately, Alice must make a choice that will determine the course of her future. Despite occasional derogatory references to black Americans, there is much to admire in this novel, particularly the comically cruel dance scene in which Alice struggles to achieve acceptance. Failing, she dreams of other paths to fulfillment. “Beautiful things happen to other people,” she reflects. “Why should I be the only one they never <i>can</i> happen to?” Dutifully, she subjugates her ambitions to the needs of her ailing father and strives to promote peace between her parents. <i>Alice Adams</i> is a well-crafted novel with a well-developed main character. A hundred years after its debut, it remains compelling and satisfying.

• 5 stars!

• Wonderful writing- great characters. Real insight and story telling.

• Alice Adams is about a somewhat flighty and superficial, but ambitious, young woman trying to maintain a moneyed air to the world, even though her family, though not impoverished, are not prosperous. Alice wants to climb the social ladder, but is inhibited by her family's status. Alice's father, Virgil, who is home sick when the novel opens, has worked his entire life for another businessman but has not received any substantial promotions or raises and pay, much to the dismay of Alice's mother. Alice's mother is a hen-pecking sort convinced that Alice's father has a way to make them all rich. Alice's mother harps continually on what Alex's father could do to improve their situation, because she wants to see her children be equal in society with children from more fashionable and rich families. Virgil eventually capitulates, with horrendous results. In the meantime, Alice gains the attention of a well-off young man, Arthur Russell, who is a cousin of her "best friend" Mildred Palmer. I put "best friend" in quotes because while this is Alice's view, Mildred does little more than tolerate Alice and doesn't want her at her parties. Alice's life is a string of lies, one told after another, lies told to cover up other lies, in the vain hope of camaflouging her real situation in order to gain elevation in society and to win over Arthur. In fact, Alice continually tells Arthur "not to believe what other people say about her" and requests he not bring up her name around Mildred or any other members of the upper crust because she didn't want Arthur to hear "the lies they would tell about her". In the end, the courtship does proceed and Alice's mother insists that Arthur must come to dinner at the family's home. All during the courtship, Arthur has never been inside Alice's home so Alice is reluctant to have him to dinner. She doesn't want Arthur to see the inside of their house or the fact that they don't have servants. The day ends up being an extremely hot one, Alice's mother has chosen too heavy a menu, and has hired servants that are not only unmanageable but rude. Virgil looks terrible in his suit that is too big and is in obvious need of mending. The entire evening ends up being a huge embarrassment to Alice; however, what she doesn't know is that Arthur, for the first time that day, did hear her name and her father's name in conversation. Earlier, Arthur had been speaking with his cousin Mildred and her parents and Alice's father came up in the conversation in a negative way. His scheme to earn more money involved appropriating a recipe for liquid glue from his employer and putting it in production on his own. Mildred's mother had nothing good to say about Alice and said she was a "pushy, pushing sort of girl." Arthur was shocked to hear the news about Alice's family, that they were not rich, that Alice's father was not a successful businessman, and in fact was trying to set up business with his employer's stolen formula, and that Alice was not as she had presented herself to be. Alice perceived the difference in Arthur during the ill-fated dinner and knew by the end of the evening the courtship would not continue. Virgil's ex-boss, JA Lamb, decides to open a mammoth factory right next to Vergil's so that Virgil can't possibly compete. Virgil and Lamb finally have words about Virgil taking the glue formula, but during the conversation, Virgil once again collapses and his boss has him taken home to bed. JA Lamb offers to buy Virgil out for an amount that will pay off his debts and his mortgage. Virgil remains sick through the end of the book and Alice's mother begins to take in borders to help with the expenses. Alice, at the end, decides she needs to look into going to a business school which before, she considered would drag her down to "hideous obscurity". I liked this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for an insight into lower middle-class and upper class mentality in a small midwestern town at a time between WWI and WW2. It was infuriating sometimes watching Alice dig herself in deeper and deeper rather than just telling the truth; however, there weren't many options for women at that time and the best option was to secure a rich or well-off husband, so that puts some (only some) of Alice's actions into perspective. As a reader, though, you could see that it wasn't going to work out well and that Alice was her own worst enemy. By the end of the book, I believe Alice had made a significant shift in her ideas about herself and her perceptions. Deciding to take an action (going to the business school), which she had previously found unconscionable, showed development beyond who she was at the start of the book, and her last, chance meeting with Arthur demonstrated that she had gained aplomb and poise, perhaps a little more confidence, and was able to accept and be pleased with the fact that the relationship was over.

• This edition is riddled with mistakes. I got through a couple of pages with some effort and had to leave it. It's a question of syntax, not even simple spelling mistakes; it reads as if it's been badly copy/pasted. A real shame, as the original was a Pulitzer Prize winner and something I'd really like to read. Not in this edition, though.

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