Customer Reviews

Finding Alice

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It's almost as Alice lived my life of two psychosis. Yet? There are some differences. I cried through it, laughed through it, and got anxious as she often does through it. Do you want to KNOW what going through a mental disorder can do to you? READ THIS BOOK AND WALK THOUGH ALICE'S ORDEAL! In fact Alice had it WAY better than I did! She's only now a senior in college. I am fifty years old now and was 19 and 23 when my illnesses were full blown. Thank you Melody Carlson for letting me escape some of my terrible past and reaffirm the spiritual healing that God can bring to me besides my psychologist = (talk therapy)and psychiatrist = (medication check-up)!

This book is about a young woman, Alice, who struggles with schizophrenia. At first, her mother's church tries exorcising the demons out. When that didn't work, she is dragged to a horrible mental hospital where she is doped up. She then escapes to the streets, until she is led to a kind woman (Faye) who takes her and her cat in. She then finds help at the Golden House through Faye's nephew, Simon.

This book is very thoroughly researched, with different treatment approaches presented, from the tradition approach, used at Forest Hills, to a more progressive approach, used at the Golden House. Carlson talks about all the different symptoms and things people with schizophrenia deals with. I've visited some of the websites listed in the back of Carlson's book and have found that what she has in her book is in line with what is on the website.

Carlson also talks about the view that some churches hold on mental illnesses. Some churches believe that mental illnesses are caused by sin problems. Unfortunately, that point of view is not helpful to the person with the mental illness and that is brought out in this book.

I also liked how Carlson told the book from the first person perspective. This gave the reader an idea of what all Alice was going through, her feelings, fears, and how she perceived the world. All this gives an accurate description of what a schizophrenic goes through.

And I wish we had more treatment places such as the Golden House for people who are mentally ill. Patients are treated with so much respect and dignity, as opposed to some of the traditional mental institutions where patients are treated more like animals than humans.

For some, the frightening descent into full-blown paranoid schizophrenia is rapid. Alice Laxton, an intelligent and seemingly "normal" senior at an Oregon university, finds her life spinning out of control after a break-up from her boyfriend triggers the beginning of a long list of eerie symptoms. First, Alice begins hearing the insistent voice of "Amelia." Then she begins to suspect that everyone is plotting to hurt her. Finally, the cruel tricks that schizophrenia plays on her mind take her places she never imagined...back to the confines of her strict fundamentalist Christian home, to the streets, and to strange places of healing that Alice never believed she'd find.

Carlson has done a masterful job crafting this novel about schizophrenia. The first person narration works perfectly, giving Alice's voice a poignancy it would not have had otherwise. As Alice narrates her story with the perfect mixture of realism and intelligent eloquence, readers will feel as if they are living through schizophrenia along with her-fighting to figure out what is real and what is merely a part of a diseased imagination, wondering if a broken life can ever be truly repaired, and sometimes being forced to accept kindness from unlikely sources. And speaking of those unlikely sources of kindness, the supporting characters in this novel (in typical Carlson fashion) are well-drawn and unique. But beyond being a novel that is easy to get lost in, "Finding Alice" is also an enlightening look at mental illness in the context of a Christian worldview and a brave exploration of a subject that seems to be rarely addressed in Christian fiction. Kudos to Carlson for choosing to forgo the cliched "Western frontier" settings and instead writing about a fresh subject with universal relevance. If you enjoyed "Looking For Cassandra Jane," you will definitely find this genuine, hope-filled story equally satisfying.

i completely loved this book. as usual melody carlson's writing captured me from the first page. the book is like a deeper and more wholesome "bell Jar" or "girl interupted". this is a book that is totally worth buying

'finding alice' is a wonderful journey so wonderfully laid out by melody carlson. aboard this ship i felt a strong connection with alice and began to learn certain subtle meanings in life and what it brings daily. this is by far one of the best quests i have ever been brave enough to take through a novel. thank you, melody.

I sat down with this book at noon today and told myself I'd only read a chapter while I ate. Despite imminent deadlines and work stacked up forever, I finished the book at five-thirty. I don't even know what I ate for lunch.

Alice tells her story with such immediacy and disarming transparency that I feel as if I walked with her through hospitals, under the bridge, in the home of the cat lady and on toward a not-so-fragile state of wellness.

Besides the page-turning story, Carlson offers us an interesting comparison-- that of an abusive, dysfunctional, legalistic church contrasted against everyday Christians working out their faith by simply trying to live as Christ lived.

As an aside: I'm an Alice in Wonderland enthusiast and I usually cringe at the way contemporary books draw on the classic. In 1932 G.K. Chesterton worried that the delightful story of Alice had fallen under the "heavy hands" of didactic scholars. "She has not only been caught and made to do lessons, but she has been forced to inflict lessons on others." I think both Charles Dodgson and Chesterton would have been pleased to see the way Carroll's Alice lent a framework to Carlson's Alice.

Finding Alice is such a story of hope-- through the near-constant din of haranguing voices, we catch the wonder of that still small voice that changes lives.

I highly recommend this book. It's a great story but it's so much more. I'm buying copies for our local library and our church library.

Alice Laxton's life starts to unravel in her senior year of college, and she soon begins a descent into the black hole of mental illness --- a world in which she hears voices and imagines bizarre incidents. Convinced by her legalistic church that her daughter is demon-possessed, Alice's mother relies on their pastor to heal Alice. When that fails, Alice ends up in an institution, escapes, and takes to the streets.

Through a couple of homeless gay guys, Tweedle Dweeb and Tweedle Dumb, Alice meets a semi-eccentric woman named Faye, a "cat lady" who has agreed to help nurse her newfound pet, Cheshire, back to health. But she proves to be much more than a healer of felines --- she becomes the means by which Alice has the greatest hope of finding her own healing.

Yes, the Alice in Wonderland references are intentional, and Melody Carlson handles them skillfully. Even more impressive is her deft handling of Alice's mental state ---her vacillation between lucidity and paranoia, her resistance to medication and other forms of treatment, her brilliant insights and delusional "knowledge." Everything rings true here; Carlson's peek into the mind of a schizophrenic is eminently believable. Christians who have suffered from mental illness, or whose loved ones have, will find much here that resonates with their own experiences.

With this book, Carlson has established herself as an author with genuine crossover potential. Her characters come across as living, breathing people --- quite an achievement in any genre. Alice is an intelligent but otherwise fairly ordinary person, so unlike the typical female protagonists (you know the kind --- beautiful, headstrong young women with emerald-green eyes) who populate many CBA novels. As the most fully developed example of authentic Christlikeness in the book, Faye is wonderfully different from the cardboard Christian role models you see in both fiction and nonfiction. Simon, Faye's nephew, is neither ruggedly handsome nor strong and silent --- he's just a guy, a caring and giving guy, but a guy nonetheless. And that makes him all the more appealing. Like Anne Tyler, Carlson knows that ordinary people become extraordinary when you take the time to examine their lives.

FINDING ALICE is a truly remarkable book for a CBA publisher. WaterBrook deserves a great deal of credit for publishing it. Carlson, with 90 books and numerous awards to her credit, could easily have bailed on the CBA had she not found a willing Christian publisher.

I could quibble about a few details, and in fact will. Quibble number one: When Alice gets high for the first time and is found out by her mother and some finger-pointing church ladies, she suddenly finds the inner resolve to stand up to them. Now, I'm not saying where I got this insight from, but as I understand it, grass doesn't exactly make a person assertive --- goofily defiant maybe, but not imbued with steely determination like Alice is. Number two: The key to understanding the "golden key" that Alice believes God has set before her becomes obvious too soon, in a scene in which she has been invited to help decorate for a Christmas party. Number three: Toward the end, starting with a chapter titled "Waking," there's a subtle shift in the way Carlson tells the story that causes it to lose some of its immediacy.

Number four is a bit more than a quibble for me, but I suspect it won't be a problem for many, if not most, readers. It's the way one storyline ends. The problem --- and I can't be more specific here --- arises in the last three pages, in which something predictable happens despite all indications to the contrary and Carlson's efforts to make the reader think it can't happen. But I could feel it coming and I was hoping it wouldn't. It tied up one sub-story a bit too neatly, which was disappointing, though I do think many readers will love it. And to Carlson's credit, she did leave a few ends dangling, most notably Alice's complicated relationship with her mother.

The bottom line is that FINDING ALICE is one of those rare finds in the Christian market, a novel that is satisfying on so many levels. To name a few, there's authenticity, plotline, characterization and --- the trickiest element of all, it seems, for most CBA authors --- dialogue. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be so enlightening on the subject of mental illness. We as Christians tend to ignore this problem. Even if you are not a Christian I would still recommend this book. It's not a "religious" book. It really puts you in the "mind" of a mentally ill person. Give it a try!

Finding Alice by Melody Carlson is one of those books that will always remain on my bookshelf. She is one of my favorite authors and am always looking forward to reading more from her. This book is what I call an 'issue book' as in it deals with a certain difficult subject, in this case the issue is paranoid schizophrenia.

The main character in this book is Alice Laxton tells her story through a first person narrative. Alice is a senior in college when she begins her slippery slope into paranoid schizophrenia when she finds herself more stressed than she has ever been. She compares her slide to Alice in Wonderland which provides a great comparison. As the reader, I learn of struggles through various therapies and views that are placed on her. In the end, Will Alice grab hold of reality?

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mental illness, or enjoys a great read. This is a fast paced book, that you will not want to put down.

excellent book! the only part i didn't like was the numerous spelling and grammatical errors!! melody carlson is an amazing author and i love her books, but i do believe she needs someone better to read through her books and correct the spelling and grammatical errors before the book is published!