Customer Reviews

Alice Adams

5 star:		(6)
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3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
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The growing pangs experienced by the United States during the first couple decades of the twentieth century provided the literary fodder for a whole new school of American authors. William Dean Howells, Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Poole, Theodore Dreiser and Henry James all added their comments regarding the dissolution of traditional American values by the rise of industrialization, capital accumulation, and the strengthening of a caste system based on wealth rather than on family name. Booth Tarkington treated this subject in his The Magnificent Ambersons, but added an interesting twist: the scene of this novel was not set in the large industrial and financial cities of the East, but in a mid-sized Midwestern city as if to demonstrate the pervasiveness of this social and cultural revolution.

With this novel, Tarkington takes his demonstration one step further by writing about a middle class household in that same mid-sized Midwestern city. The Adams family, although comfortable enough, is excluded from the exclusivity shared by those families that are bound together by either name or wealth. Alice Adams is particularly chagrinned by this fact and atempts to imitate the actions and tastes of this exclusive group but can only act out daydreams in which she achieves the happiness and love that she desperately seeks. When she finally meets Arthur Russell, an elibible bachelor who belongs to that exlusive group, and futhermore, has a genuine affection for Alice, she can only fabricate lies in which she hopes to raise her own social station in his eyes. It is these pitiful, but humorous, attempts that give the novel much of its life and brilliance.

Tarkington does a fine job in developing his characters: the romantic yet incorrigible Alice; her scheming and henpecking mother, who although acting for what she sees as Alice's own betterment, brings the family to ruin; her henpecked father who falls prey to his own duplicity and fanciful ambitions; and her brother who has sense enough to see through the banality of what Alice is trying to do, only to fall victim to his own weaknesses. Although this novel won Takington his second Pulitzer Prize, it is not as well known as The Magnificent Ambersons; however, it is in every way the earlier novel's equal. His depiction of middle class society during the 1920's is judicious, balancing satire with the author's own sympathetic treatment of character. The major highlight of the novel is Tarkington's brilliant description of the dinner at which the Adams family attempts to impress Arthur Russell, a scene which makes the reader simultaneously squirm and laugh out loud.

Without giving away the ending, let it be said that the 1940s Hollywood film of the novel did Tarkington an injustice in that the filmmakers, intent on pleasing a movie audience, completely missed the point of the novel.

One of the better Tarkington tales I've read. An upbeat and at times humorous story about a middle class family and their two early 20-year-old children ( one boy and one girl ). The girl, Alice Adams, is the focus of the story, as she struggles to be liked by the town's society folks. She doesn't have the social prestige nor the money to attract many beaus.

This leads to turmoil, and Mrs. Adams tells her husband to leave the mediocre paying job he's had all his life to start his own company so they can be rich and pay their children "advantages". He does this, after many trepidations, but the basis of his newfound business is a stolen glue formula from his previous employer. This ultimately leads to his demise.

There is a bit more to this story, but all in all, it is a story of class envy, snobbery, and greed. Tarkington's main point, however, seems to be that every dark tunnel of life ultimately has some other exit that inevatibly lead to light -- as even in the Adams's darkest hour their was hope yet.

The Magnificent Ambersons introduced me to the non-Penrose side of Tarkington. "Alice" is a timeless novel of American middle-class youth striving to be something different and their infatuation with wealth and popularity. Brilliant description of how this clouds judgment and leads to self-deception. Another theme is that the daughter achieves a more mature self-awareness when the parents especially the mother release their own self-deceptions. Excellent portrait of growing up in middle class America, the pitfalls and the optimism; still relevant for today. Every high school student should read this book; wait to read Anna Karenina for college. As to another reader's criticism, imagine a mother repeating herself; just inconceivable!

I disagree with the Amazon customer who claims there are no heroes in Alice Adams. The hero is of course the heroine herself. Alice is sweet and lively. Yes, she is overly concerned with the typical "girly" things, especially at the beginning of the book, but she shows promising growth and strength of character.

I have read a few other books by Booth Tarkington. I wouldn't put Alice Adams quite on the same level with The Magnificent Ambersons, but I liked it better than The Turmoil, which has an unconvincing happy ending. I got near the end of Alice Adams, and I started to dread the final chapter. I thought that there would either be another sappy, fake, happy ending, or it would be depressing. I was pleasantly surprised- it was neither!

This is an old fashioned book, of course. You can tell it was written in 1921 by the way African-Americans are spoken about. But that is a reality of the times.

Booth Tarkington is one of my favorite authors. Noone captures the spirit of the person better than he does. The way he makes Alice Adams come alive makes me want to be there and meet this wonderful young lady. If an author can make me want to do that, he is excellent in my book.
The movie ending is the opposite of the book ending, which disappointed me, because I wanted it to be true to the book. Nevertheless, I also wanted Alice to have her dreams come true. If you really absorb yourself in the book, however, you will see that her dream DOES come true, just not necessarily the way you want it to.
There is also the beautiful way he paints the whole family into the book. I won't give it away, but you will see the intricacies woven in.
I found myself totally absorbed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.
Please read this book! You will love it!

Social-climber Alice Adams is ridiculous, but one can't help but feel for her. Booth Tarkington is one of America's underappreciated authors and Alice Adams is his best. (Note: The movie version starring Katherine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray is excellent, too -- even though a "Hollywood ending" has been tacked on!)

In this story by Booth Tarkington, there are no particularly likeable characters. Whether it is Alice's meddling mother, Alice's malleable father, or the manipulative Alice, each character brought with it a disagreeability that wasn't even benefited by a dose of reality.

Compared to Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, Alice Adams falls short. The story is interesting enough to keep one reading it, but the characters beg for a more complete picture, a better portrait so that we can actually have an opinion on what we would like to see happen to them.

The best part of Alice Adams is of course Tarkington's writing. While the story and characters are not addictive, the author's words still find a way to evoke emotion (if not empathy). The following is my favorite excerpt, perhaps alone reason enough to read the book.

________________________
She was silent again, and he said nothing, but looked at her, seeming to be intent with looking. Her attitude was one only a graceful person should assume, but she was graceful; and, in the wan light, which made a prettily shaped mist of her, she had beauty. Perhaps it was beauty of the hour, of the love scene almost made into form by what they had both just said, but she had it; and though beauty of the hour passes, he who sees it will long remember it and the hour when it came.

"What are you thinking of?" he asked.

She leaned back in her chair and did not answer at once. Then she said:

"I don't know. I doubt if I was thinking of anything. It seems to me I wasn't. I think I was just sort of sadly happy just then."

"Were you? Was it 'sadly,' too?"

"Don't you know?" she said. "It seems to me that only little children can be just happily happy. I think when we get older our happiest moments are like the one I had just then: it's as if we heard strains of minor music running through them - oh, so sweet, but oh, so sad!"

I have thought about Alice Adams a lot these two weeks after reading it, and the thought brings a smile to my face.
First published in 1920, Alice Adams is a fresh, timeless story because we can see ourselves in it. The characters are what people call "good people," ordinary people who are characterized by pride, greed, deception and revenge. Half way through the book the reader can see what is coming, but Booth Tarkington had a knack for a happy ending, or at least one that leaves the reader satisfied (just as we learned in The Magnificent Ambersons that George was made of the right stuff after all). Booth Tarkington liked people. That shows in his books. He understood human nature, but he liked people.
Some demographics might help you evaluate my view of Alice Adams. I am a man who has been a small-town attorney for forty-two years, and I like people.

One of the great novels about failed ambition in an attempt to rise above the ordinary. Alice Adams is a dreamer who wants the things her struggling middle-class existence can't provide her, especially college and high-ranking prospects in the romance department. When the wealthy Arthur Russell comes within her sights, she fabricates a web of lies to impress him; but when he attends a family dinner at Alice's home he learns the truth about her real life and her posturing; the results are disastrous for Alice. To make matters even worse, her father is having his own humility issues involving a glue factory he owns and her brother has just stolen $300 from his employer to go gambling with. Alice loses Russell, but also her affectations, and the novel ends with her grimly entering Frincke's Business College.

This is Tarkington's best novel, and Alice is certainly his greatest fictional character. She is realistically drawn, and because she is so realistic we sympathize with her and feel every discomfort she experiences along with her. We wish we could get her to stop her pretending, but we know we can't, and sit by helplessly as she destroys all her dreams. We know her behavior is reprehensible and she gets what she deserves, but we can't help but feel sorry for her. It's an engaging novel, and can be read often without ever becoming dull.

The story is very boring. A middle class family has high aspirations for obtaining upper class status and this `class consciousness' controls everything they think and do. Despite their foolishness, one can't help but feel sorry for each character (with the exception of the mother) who continually finds failure and disappointment. The characters are not developed to the point that I usually enjoy, and there are quite a large number of characters. An interesting thing about the characters is, none of them are `good.' Probably the closest thing to a good character is Virgil's Boss, Mr. Lamb. But even he is a business monger, ultimately concerned with his own business. This reflection on man is insightful. In real life, are there any people without flaws? Major flaws? Even the Bible presents the heroes of the faith as people with big problems (King Solomon was a womanizer, David was a murderer, Peter was a coward, etc.). In general, people are selfish. Our motives are selfish, and our own desires drive everything we do. However, often fiction reflects one or two main characters who are flawless. In an attempt to make characters likable- reality is bypassed. This doesn't happen here in Alice Adams.

I believe this book is about expectations. The Adams' family lives in the false hope of a brighter future, all the while neglecting the life they are currently living. I feel that this is the same discontenting experience that Westerners face. Maybe this is even a reflection of the way the author wrote the book- seemingly slow, but with flashes of brilliant foreshadowing which gives hope to the reader that something more grand is on the horizon.

The story is interesting because of the absolute stupidity of this family, and the fact that it probably is a very real experience for many. The story, though slow, is written very well, and was very easy for me to read (a plus for me, I am a bit slow). It is also interesting because even though the story takes place in America- it seems a different culture. This different culture was interesting. I think the difference came in that the story is supposed to have taken place in the South (a foreign country as far as I am concerned), and it probably took place in the very early part of the 20th century. One aspect of Tarkington's writing that I appreciated was the way he foreshadowed things. Maybe I appreciated the subtle foreshadowing hints because of the drudgery of the story, but whatever the reason- I think he did an excellent job.