Customer Reviews

End of Alice

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I read this 1996 novel by A.M. Homes when it was first published, but just thinking about it still gives me the shivers. It's a scary book, mostly because it forces the reader's mind to think in a sick and grotesque way.

The narrator is a 54-year old pervert who serving time in Sing Sing for the rape and murder of a 12-year old girl. He has served 23 years already when he receives a letter from a 19-year old girl who is planning to seduce a 12-year old boy. A correspondence follows which forces the pedophile's memory to reveal the most shocking and lurid details of his crimes.

This was easily one of the most disgusting books I ever read. The act of reading it made me nauseous, but yet I applaud the author for her courage to write it and do recommend it to the few brave souls who are willing to experience its horrific roller coaster ride.

But be forewarned: the disgust and revulsion last long after the book is finished, and its essence is impossible to forget.

I am tempted to call this a beautiful book in the same way that I feel the movie of "The Loved One," a very black-humored farce about funerals and death, is beautiful: It masterfully accomplishes what it sets out to do.

In rich, imaginative prose, Homes tells a compelling tale with all the fascination of a fatal car wreck and a cobra preparing to strike. If you found Nabokov's _Lolita_ disturbing, if you couldn't stomach Ellis's skillful but satirical and cold _American Psycho_, stay away from this book. It has both the warmth and tenderness of the former, and the in-your-face graphicness of the latter (probably even more in-your-face because of the warmth and tenderness). People have referred to the pedophilia, masturbation, and murder; don't forget homosexual prison sex and rape ... and how do you feel about saving scabs in a drawer for chewing and sucking on later?

Some of the other Amazon reviews here have been utterly hilarious: Homes should include them in splash pages of subsequent editions. There are the usual encomia and expressions of disgust, but "Billy Graham could just as well have written this"? uhum37 also complains that "every character remains profoundly moral" -- another judgment I cannot understand for the life of me, but I will nevertheless respond that the characters are telling their own stories (the 19-year-old's is additionally filtered through the sensibility of the narrator, for the most part -- and of course they are apt to regard themselves as moral.

Reviewers also ask the wrong questions. "Does this story need to be told?" one reader queried on 6/4/97. Of course not. No story "needs" to be told, whether it's Alice In Wonderland or Waiting for Godot. The real question is, does a story compel attention, does it make you think and feel (not necessarily think and feel lovely thoughts!), and does it play fair and maintain a certain plausibility even given its fantastic premises? "sevitt" in Israel wonders whether the narrator's reported flashbacks were true. It doesn't make any difference! He is telling the stories; they present either what he wants to think about himself or what he wants the listener to believe (and the listener is NOT the person who reads the book _The End of Alice_, remember, but a 19-year-old female correspondent who wants to seduce 12-year-old boys).

This is an amazing book. I look forward to reading Homes's other work, past and future.

Before I talk about the subject matter, and why I believe this is an important and courageous book, let me comment on the writing. I found Homes' dreamlike, almost surreal style difficult to follow at first. Some of the diction and sentence structures seemed odd to me, and I was forced to slow down and read carefully to fully understand what was being said. After a while, I grew to love this style. It's strangely engaging, much like to book itself, and it lets you absorb the power of the words you are reading rather than speed through them.

As for the story itself, I was blown away. Homes really gets into the heads of the main characters and accurately (I think) captures the thoughts, emotions and motivations of, in turn, a 19-year old girl bursting with sexuality, a 12-year old boy on the cusp of discovering his own sexuality and a 60-something sex offender struggling with his inner demons. I found all three portrayals to be convincing. And what a story! At various times in the book, I was repelled, confused, aroused, disgusted or amazed, but I was never, ever bored. Some of those scenes will stay with me for many years, I'm sure. It's a challanging and controversal book, to be sure, but it reveals some truths about sexual power and attraction better than any non-fiction book could.

I initially wrote this review on June 19th, 2000 and changed the viewing to private. The memory of the book has lingered, so I decided to again make public my review and update.

"Having always been most intrigued by the shadowy side of the human psyche, I was initially fascinated with the twisted, dark tale unfolding. At times, it was difficult to follow, but the human mind is a complex thing. The 19-year-old's descent into depravity was worth the price of the book. Which, upon finishing the novel, makes me glad I bought it [discounted].... Because by the end, that is about all the book is worth. As an avid collector of books, I will not be saving this one for my library. The final fourth of the book was so very disappointing. I was not shocked, nor repulsed by the final revelations, I was far too annoyed with the story by that point. For all that the book was built up to be, by reviewers and by the initial reading of the first 200 pages, it suddenly spiraled out of control, crashed and burned. A discordant finish with jangling ends to such a rich, darkly disturbing composition. Nabakov, it is not. It stands on it's own, good or bad." KM 06/19/2000

Addendum and Update: 5 years later after reading this book, like the majority of other reviewers, I have been unable to forget it. The disgust and horror remains. This book does have the ability to take you to the darker places of the soul and leave an indelible mark there. Evil is a very human quality, not relegated to the isolate domain of demons and bogeymen.

Frederich Nietzsche said: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

"The End of Alice" is a look into the abyss.
Few books have that lasting effect on the psyche like this one.
You'll either love it or hate it, but you might never forget it.
KM 06/12/2005

I really wonder about some of the other reviewers of this book. One reviewer gives the book a good rating but wonders how such a beautiful woman could have such thoughts. I might ask this individual why they think that being beautiful precludes someone from thinking anything in particular. Another reveiwer sees the book as an "advancement of pedophilia," and that the book can only be interesting to those who are aroused by pedophilia. Uh, no. I enjoy the HBO series "The Sopranos." Does that mean I want to be a mobster?

Yes, the book has some shocking parts, but no more shocking than parts of Thomas Harris's books, or Ellis's "American Psycho" or Palahniuk's short stories (especially "Guts"). There are parts of "The End of Alice" that you might not want to read when you're eating your Corn Flakes. But similar restrictions would apply to many other books.

I think Ms. Homes's goal in writing this book has more to do with creating an item of conversation than anything else. She isn't presenting characters for whom you can feel some sympathy. You're not going to fall in love with any of them. You might have an interest in them, if only in the manner that you have an interest in seeing what's going on behind the ambulance and police cars gathered at the side of the freeway. We want to look, feel we shouldn't, but look anyway. That's life, and that's The End of Alice.

A.M. Homes has accomplished something remarkable here. She has unflinchingly examined the dual taboos of pedophilia and childhood sexuality without ever bringing her hand to our eyes to block out these truths: An adult might seduce a willing child. A child might seduce a hesitant adult. Without passing judgment, this recognition of the odd fantastical world of prepubescent sexuality is stunning. Ms. Homes does not deal in stereotypes and caricatures here; she creates complex, fully-fashioned individuals, each with their own quirks and reasons, each with a unique psychology driving them.

The End of Alice may be the most horrifying not in its final and bloody depiction of the title, but in its success in allowing the reader to sympathize - even momentarily - with a creature as sickening as a pedophile. It is hard to read about a sociopath as a whole person. It is hard to get into the grey areas of the world, to slide from the easy black and white of wrong and right. But here you have it: the monster as man, the monster as teenage girl, the monster as someone you smile at on the street. The monster in you.

After multiple reads over the past five years, this book still holds me fascinated - by its subject, by its skill, and by the poetry in Homes' language. This isn't exactly a pleasant read, but it will shake you in a way you may not have been shaken before - and it is worth it.

If you've read any of the previous reviews of the End of Alice you already know that this book contains a fair share of unpleasantness. Most of it pertains to sexual situations that both main characters find themselves in or create for themselves - mother son incest, consensual and non consensual prison encounters, adult females and underage boys, adult males and underage girls. And yes they are raw, intense and sometimes erotic and often times disgusting. However, unlike other readers I never felt they were "disturbing". I guess all the movies and TV shows I've seen over the years have dulled my senses. I will admit that I've never read another book that deals with pedophilia quite the way this one does, nor have a I read any book that is as graphic as this. So I fully understand from where the other readers come.

The bulk of the story is first hand accounts of current, past and distant past experiences of an aging and jailed male pedophile. Mixed in are letters written to the prisoner from a young female pedophile intent on seducing an underage male from her neighborhood.

Initially the reader is lead to believe that the relationship is one sided - the aspiring pedophile seeks advice from the experienced ped. However, as you read on you begin to question the motivations of each. Are both deriving some form of sick satisfaction from the of the correspondence itself? Additionally, you wonder how much of the girl's correspondence is fact and how much is fabricated by the reader for self-gratification?

Does the book contain plenty of fodder for gasping, gagging, turning away, skipping paragraphs and a general feeling of repulsion? No doubt. Should you read it if your easily nauseated or offended? Nope. Does it provide any valuable insight into the pedophiliac personality? Not especially.

What it does offer is a voyeuristic look inside an absorbing, albeit sick, relationship between two extreme individuals who exist only in life's shadows. And that itself is worth the price of admission. Though you may find a need to skip over some material, you'll find you'll be turning pages as fast as you can to learn what's next.

This was easily the most disgusting book I've ever read. That said, the narrative ability of A.M. Homes, the ability to get inside the head of her characters, is unbelievable. I have read few authors able to do what Homes is able to do. Her pedophile is so real, I could see him, sense him. I had nightmares the two nights during which I read this book. The interesting facet of the book to me was less the unbelievably frank, explicit sexuality and violence; that was what it was. What interested me was the pedophile's claim that he is inside each of our heads. I shrugged that off immediately, since I am far from a pedophile. However, as I found myself going through the gamut of emotions - repulsed, angry, confused, saddened - I also found myself at moments aroused. What does that say about me? What does that say about our society? This book is certainly worth a read, for readers with an open mind, a curiosity, and a strong stomach.

I would have to disagree with most of the other reviewers, who seem to be divided about equally into the "it's shocking, so it must be good" and the "it's shocking, so it must be bad" camps. Instead I would suggest a third "it's kinda but not really shocking, and even if it sometimes is, so what?" camp.

Even on the level of pure prose, an aspect of the book most readers seem to agree is terrific, isn't really. Instead Homes presents an overblown and overwritten first-person narrative (by the killer) written in a silly and juvenile style I wouldn't have thought possible for any serious writer over the age of 20. Homes fails on every level in making the killer credible or believable as a character, especially a male character, yet still focuses on the killer's backstory instead of the much more interesting but disappointingly underdeveloped story of the girl he corresponds with (filtered through his psyche and mostly or entirely imagined by him). The post-modern narrative tricks are distracting and not very illuminating, more clever than smart, and even the ratio of genuine shocks to limp shock-for-its-own-sake ones, which can be credited only to Homes' constant grandstanding, is extremely unfavorable to say the least. The only reason this one gets three stars is because the girl's story really had some merit and (squandered) potential.

I enjoyed this book, but could see how some could find it upsetting or offensive, due to its subject matter and graphic details of sex, pedophilia, incest and violence. I work at a very small town library, and this is the only book we have by this author. I may well be the only one who has ever checked it out, because it doesn't seem it would fare well with most of our patrons.

The End of Alice is very well written and interesting. I read it in one sitting. However, I could never see myself recommending it to anyone I know. It seems to be the kind of novel you must be open-minded to read and enjoy, and not be offended by. But if you are looking for a book with a challenging subject, one that will at times have you wincing as you read it, give it a try. Don't tell them I sent you!