Customer Reviews

Another Life Altogether: A Novel

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Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. -- Anna Karenina --

I thought of that legendary opening sentence when Elaine Beale raised the curtain of Another Life Altogether with this inaugural humdinger:
The day after my mother was admitted to the mental hospital, I told everyone at school that she had entered a competition on the back of a Corn Flakes box and won a cruise around the world.
The narrator is Jesse Bennett, a thoughtful, intelligent, introspective thirteen year old girl struggling to find her identity, her place. It's the 1970's. Yorkshire, England. Bay City Rollers, etc.
Jesse's an only child, trying to fit in and be accepted amongst her peers, and it doesn't help matters that her mother has serious psychological problems that keep landing her in Delapole, the local loony bin! Her optimistic father deals with the debilitated home situation by pretending things are not as bad as they really are, but [as one might imagine] the toll on a daughter in such a scenario can be devastating. Jesse resents the fact that she must excuse her mother's actions, and continually protect her from herself.
The Bennetts move to the country, to a remote community in order to make a new start of things. Here Jesse encounters the same struggle for acceptance but eventually strikes a friendship with Tracey, a bit of a rotten-apple of a kid. Influenced by her allegiance to Tracey, Jesse struggles to be true to herself and her own capabilities and desires. Fitting in is everything -- and meanwhile, her mother gets loonier and loonier.
Jesse has a secret known only to herself, and expressed only in the unsent letters she has hidden away in a cookie-tin, kept in the closet. If her secret gets out, she feels it would spell the end of her life as she knows it. The shame would be too great. Life, this life, or any other worth living, would be over.
Little does she know that the very release of that secret may be the only way she can experience real freedom. Real life. Truly, another life altogether.

Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Indeed. And this is the story of a uniquely unhappy family that found a way to overcome tremendous obstacles to happiness. In many ways, this novel is a testament to the merits of staying together for the sake of love. There are dozens of memorable characters I have not mentioned. Themes and threads I have not remotely touched upon. Suffice it to say that this is a deeply resonant, often times hilarious, heart-rending story. An unflaky look at flakiness. A searing, worthwhile, five-star-of-five al dente feast of a meal.

Another Life Altogether: A Novel This subtle book meets the test of literature: it is a luminous and beautiful story centered around a compelling and complex character, and the sentences themselves are gorgeous. I read the book in a weekend and could not put it down. For anyone who has faced alienation and lonesomeness, for anyone who has struggled between doing what is right and doing what wins social acceptance, this book will resonate for you. Warm, humane, and compassionate, the book also exposes the complexities and shortcomings of the human being struggling with conditions within the family and the social hazing of schools. The book is set within the context of surviving bullying, but because the main character, Jesse, is so ambivalent between her fierce longing to be accepted and her fierce need to be true to herself, tension and suspense filled the book: what will Jesse ultimately do? Other characters demonstrate how being an outsider or alienated, even within one's own family, can originate from multiple causes: poverty, mental illness, family violence, and homophobia.

But mostly, I loved it because I felt it; the main character, her mother, her father, the girl with whom she fell in love, and the antagonist all generated passions within me. I was lost in Jesse's world while reading this book; I fell in love with the book, which is exactly what any grand piece of literature really and truly does. So read it to relate to it, read it to get validated in political viewpoints, but mostly, just read it because it will make you feel, and ultimately, in these days of challenge for all of us to be true, it will make you feel a little less alone; it will make you feel good.

This is probably not a book I would have picked up but it caught my attention after I saw a very positive review. And I'm very glad I did get it because I really loved it. In fact, I stayed up waaayyy too late finishing it. The story is set in Britain in the 1970s and is about a young woman struggling to come to terms with herself (she's not exactly popular at school) and a family which, while pretty out there, seems very real. It's filled with really vivid characters and some very darkly funny scenes observed by a the main character who manages to be be witty and real and incredibly charming. (If you like that wry British wit, you'll be particularly appreciative of the humor here.) I felt so much for the heroine's struggles, but at the same time I laughed out loud many times. This is a book that I felt worked on lots of levels -- a great narrative voice, a compelling plot that pulls together astoundingly well, a set of very vivid characters, and a story that has enormous emotional resonance. While I couldn't help rooting for the heroine, she's far from perfect--which ultimately makes her a lot more likeable. This was an immensely satisfying read. I felt transported and I also felt really enriched by this novel--which is a great combo, I think.

Just when I thought I had read every literary tome of quirky family dynamics, along comes...well, another story altogether. Elaine Beale's intimate tale of self discovery against all odds is a breath of fresh air for those of us who like a damn good story that just happens to be brilliantly written. Her characters are honest and edgy; her scene-setting palette is flawless. Jessie Bennet's character is touchingly vulnerable while her wry take on a world not of her own making is clever and insightful.

On the surface this book is about a young girl's attempt to deal with her mother's mental illness and her own questions about her sexuality. But beneath the surface it is about so much more. First of all, it is a finely nuanced portrait of a young teen who is trying to find a way to balance her need for acceptance with her desire to be herself. She is beginning to question and explore her sexual identity even though she knows that she might end up becoming an outcast. She is also struggling with her need for a normal family life and with how to accept her family as it is. The normal conflicts between a teen-age girl and her mother are exacerbated by her mother's illness, with Jesse left feeling that she doesn't have a mother at all. (This is mirrored by her mother's extreme reaction to her own mother's "abandonment.")

On another level this is about the dilemma that all LGBT people face: whether to hide in hopes of societal acceptance or come out and run the risk of becoming an outcast. Jesse is lucky in a way that she has to come to terms with this decision at an early age. She discovers that being accepted by the "in" crowd doesn't make you feel "in" if you can't be yourself. By the end of the novel we see a young lady who has taken a huge step toward living her life authentically.

This book is also about homophobia and the extremes to which some members of society will go to punish homosexuals. It's also about the bravery of those who take a stand against homophobia, along with their empathy and sense of justice.

Perhaps because Jesse is trying so hard to fit in during the first half of the novel, her personality is somewhat subdued. But as events unfold that threaten to destroy the life she is attempting to make for herself, she becomes more fully-fleshed-out as a character and I found myself fully engrossed in her struggles to make sense of the life she really lives.

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I found this book totally engaging. The characters are vivid, the plot works really well, and I felt really drawn in from the very beginning. A positive and interesting main character who really carries the story and an interesting setting. I'd really recommend this to anyone who likes to read a good story written well.

The first few lines of this book drew me in... and the lovely way the author uses description, dialogue and her creation of funny and fascinating characters has kept me turning the pages! I had the wonderful opportunity to see Ms. Beale read from her book tonight in Oakland and I can't wait to get into the rest of the story! (By the way, after now reading the first three chapters, an added side benefit of Another Life Altogether is learning a lot more about British culture - I have been cracking up here and there translating some of the Brit references/descriptions of things into my Americana 1970's experience... it's an excellent read with a cultural journey as a bonus!) My bet to play Jesse in the movie would be Kristen Stewart (a la Into the Wild and not Twilight).

Elaine Beale's characters are both recognizable and unique. When i am reading her dialog, i hear them speaking. Nuanced, pained, passionate. Jesse is resilient --but not without doubts and misteps-- and finds her own solid ground outside her mother's shadow.

I loved loved loved this book. It was about coming of age, bullying, acceptance, mental illness and just about anything you can think of that a young girl growing up might possibly have to work through. The writing is fabulous, I was so engrossed the entire time I could not put it down. I laughed with Jesse, cried, got embarrassed and felt all of her feelings and emotions. Elaine Beale is fantastic and this book is something I highly highly recommend.

Elaine Beale is a talented writer who has crafted a very read-able book about issues that are very relevant to many teens. Her protagonist, a thirteen year old shoolgirl, has two secrets to hide: her budding attraction to women and her mother's mental illness. As time goes by, and both secrets become public knowledge, she has to make some hard choices.