Dreamhouse [Hardcover]

Alison Habens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

Planning her engagement party years before meeting the man she is to marry, Celia Small finds her childhood dream threatened by her hated housemates, who are planning a party on the same evening, and by her radical feminist future in-laws.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This clever first novel mutates elements from Lewis Carroll's Alice books into a hip, highly charged, ultramodern coming-of-age tale. Celia (an anagram for Alice) lives uneasily with three other 20-something housemates in London: Cath, a hippy; Phoebe, a beautiful but frightening feminist; and quiet, mysterious Dodge. Celia's recent engagement to boring banker Kenneth (whom she barely knows) allows her to finally throw the engagement party she has always obsessed about. As the novel opens, the party is set for the following evening in her room. But, in classic farce fashion, each of the housemates-they barely speak to one another-has planned a party. Which turns out to be lucky for Celia: when she finds herself muddling everything at her own soiree, she steps out for a breather and gets lured to Cath's room by a trail of raspberry tarts (later revealed to be jam-packed with marijuana). There, she finds people are dressed as characters from the Alice books. Celia's long blonde hair and sky-blue dress gain her instant respect, and Habens hilariously conveys her disorientation. Later, Celia switches clothes with a closet transvestite, which leads to a case of mistaken identity. Events grow even more dramatically surreal, but ultimately Celia admits she doesn't want to marry a man she doesn't love and literally disappears from the "dreamhouse." Throughout, Habens's prose is taut with wit and wordplay, and she maintains a happily hallucinogenic light touch.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

High on energetic wordplay if a bit low on substance, this British debut somersaults its characters into the topsy-turvy world of Wonderland. Prim and prissy Celia Small wants to get married. In fact, it has been the primary impulse of her life, dating back to the early entries of her scrapbook, her girlish hand spelling out domestic bliss. Everything has been planned, right down to the pale blue silk of her engagement dress. Only the groom is missing--that last, least predictable aspect--but when mousy Ken proposes, Celia knows her real life can begin. Her engagement party, having been planned so far in advance, should go off without a hitch, but Celia's adolescent outlines didn't take into account her now much hated housemates: gloomy Phoebe and hippie Cath, who's throwing a Wonderland party that not only requires everyone to show up in character but makes them stick to their roles and keep to their lines. A series of small in-laws disasters sends Celia from her room in tears--and down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, where she ingests quite a few psychedelic jam tarts before being mistaken as the Alice of the party. Things get curiouser and curiouser as plotting from the classic comes to life and Celia wanders into her reclusive housemate Dodge's rooms. His odd behavior makes Celia think he secretly loves her, and in his way he does--though what he really wants is to be her. Donning a long blond wig and Celia's dress, Dodge becomes Celia/Alice while Celia rummages through his closet for a new personality, abandoning her engagement party for good. With mistaken identities all around, attempted rapes, murder, and even an appearance by Glenda Jackson, the story hip-hops in and out of chaos as Celia tries to find the real Celia. Clever and imaginative by turns, Habens's debut relies so heavily on allusions and devices that in the end it fails to create any concern for the characters. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Picador USA; First Edition/First Printing (stated) edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749317663
• ISBN-13: 978-0749317669
• ASIN: 031214086X
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,870,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Jammy New Twist on the Twisted Lewis Carroll Classic, February 1, 2001

By 

"lady_go_diva17" (Las Cruces, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamhouse (Paperback)

Celia Small, the prissy Alice-wannabe protagonist, dreams only of her upcoming wedding which she has planned to every neurotic detail. However, events unfolding around her engagement dinner party explode in her face and backfire most miserably.

She shares a house with freaky, free-spirited roommates: Cath, in particular, has baked up a batch of sinfully psycho-tropic jam tarts and is also hosting THE ultimate dress-up theme party- WONDERLAND.

Celia, distressed at the failure of her dinner, escapes to the kitchen and is lured into Cath's world of jam tarts and altered reality. As Celia breaks through barriers by breaking her staid rules of living, she discovers a life worth living, all her own.

Allison Habens tells this "Alice" tale in a fresh, immediate perspective, at times as poetic as Carroll himself albeit not quite as convoluted. The plot, however, does turn as much as a turnstile, but always stylishly and with plenty of character description and dialogue to back it up.

With witty insights into modern, if fanciful relationships, "Dreamhouse" makes for a wonderful find...over tarts and tea...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new favorite for me!, June 26, 2006

By 

Jennifer Weeks (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreamhouse (Paperback)

I was recommended this book by a friend and, being a fan of both Alice in Wonderland and the pastiche form, I ordered it. I have to say that I'm delighted that I did. The novel had so much to chew on, yet was so fast-moving that I devoured the entire thing in one night.

Some users have complained about the novel's "alternative" content, but the fact is that drug use, the transvestism, feminism, etc contribute a perfect structure to the novel's themes of transformation, surreality, and maturation. This is Alice for grownups, and I'm utterly smitten.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, but falls a bit short on its ending, September 28, 2004

By 

Dara - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamhouse (Paperback)

I'd love to give this book 5 stars, but the ending kills it for me. (no spoilers here, rest assured)

The story is beautifully crafted; Habens is so creative with her wordplay. It's rare to find a writer with such a tight grasp on double entendre; her wordplay is as entertaining as her plotline.

This might not be the best book for people who are strongly opposed to drug use, alternative lifestyles, and roleplaying parties; it takes an open mind to appreciate this novel. Being a fan of Lewis Carroll's work helps immensely; Habens' take on the classic is clever and amusing.

But for me, the ending fell short. It's in keeping with the surreal tone of the story, and it does not ruin the book...but it could've been handled better. Habens did such an incredible job with the entire story, yet the last 5 pages or so feel like a cop-out...I was more than a bit disappointed. All in all, though, a fun read.