The Passion of Alice [Hardcover]

Stephanie Grant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1995

It's 1984. Alice Forrester is a twenty-three-year-old anorexic who has just experienced heart failure when she is taken to the emergency room of Seaview hospital - renowned for its eating disorders clinic. There, family and friends, in league with staff and doctors, intently try to steer her toward recovery. But it's not that simple. She passes time at the clinic waiting to find out the thing that is wrong with her. What happened. When and how the damage was done. Along the way, Alice encounters a fascinating array of oddballs and misfits - Dr. Paul, the physician who monitors this disparate group of afflicted young women; the psychiatric support staff whose treatment for anorexia revolves around a chillingly familiar Twelve Step program; wraithlike, flaxen-haired Gwen, whose anorexia ultimately turns into tragedy; and finally Maeve, raucous, vulgar, tender, and kind, who shakes up Alice's life and opens up her eyes. Shot through with wry wit and poignancy, The Passion of Alice is a re

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The suppression (and awakening) of many different appetites and hungers is the theme of this edgy and intense first novel whose protagonist is a 25-year-old anorexic. Almost six feet tall and weighing 94 pounds, Alice Forrester is sent to the Seaview clinic in Massachusetts after suffering a heart attack. The methods used to cure her aversion to food?ranging from 12-step programs to neofeminist rationalizations?are at first powerless against Alice's stubborn need to impose her will on every situation. Meanwhile, she views herself and others with clear-sighted candor. "Being a feminist and a Catholic... I could hold two opposing views in my head at the same time," she says. All of the patients at Seaview have eating disorders. Grant draws their portraits with a stiletto pen: the ageing "Queen" Victoria; the frail, beautiful Gwen, whose eventual fate is both horrifying and macabre; the disruptive, bulimic Maeve. Alice's brittle parents are sharply delineated, as are the counselors who confess to these girls and women that there is nothing for them to look forward to in life but controlling their appetites. And appetite has a lot to do with Alice's attraction to Maeve. Smoking, puking in her purse and having sex in the bathrooms, Maeve is like Alice's heavier twin, someone who devours but never consumes. The first-person narration is expressive without being wordy, and Alice's voice?the dry wit, the outsider's observations?adds a level of credibility to this chronicle of young women who are female versions of Kafka's hunger artist: they're anorexic because they haven't yet tasted a food they like. The story of how Alice finds that food and renounces her feeling of emptiness is convincing and, in the end, quite moving, proving Grant a writer in cool command of her talent.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA?After suffering a heart attack, 25-year-old anorexic Alice is committed?more or less voluntarily?to a private rehabilitation center. Proud of being thin, she is scornful of the therapists, the therapy, and most of her fellow patients, describing with biting humor their often bizarre compulsions. Then Maeve, a voluptuous, worldly, bulimic manipulator, enters the picture. Both emotionally and physically attracted to the newcomer, Alice willingly allows herself to be used by Maeve in her war with the world. In the end, Alice begins to emerge from her illness, despite rather than because of Maeve's friendship. Grant's book is well worth reading, especially for teens who may be falling into the anorexic trap. As a novel, though, it has a couple of serious flaws. First, the detail is great, but readers can take only so much description of life in a rehab center, and Grant goes too far. Second, the key to Alice is her self-described "emptiness"; unfortunately, the author does too good a job of conveying that trait, and Alice is therefore too passive a character to maintain readers' interest or sympathy. Nevertheless, recommend this book for its unusual, inside depiction of eating disorders.?Chip Barnett, Rockbridge Regional Library, Lexington, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; First Printing edition (September 12, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395755182
• ISBN-13: 978-0395755181
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,274,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book by a new author, September 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Passion of Alice (Paperback)

This book is terrific. The sex scenes were appropriate and well-written. If you want to learn about anorexia, I would hope that you would not choose to do so from a novel (in response to the reviews below). And if you are afraid of encountering lesbianism without warning, perhaps reading literature is too dangerous for you (perhaps you shouldn't even leave your house...).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inventive and fabulous......, July 5, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Maynardville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Passion of Alice (Paperback)

Stephanie Grant, I eagerly await your second novel. I read this book....at the public library more than a year ago. I admit that when I picked the book...I picked it because of its title and that I was looking for as much erotica as one can find at the public library. I was suprised then...by the heavy topic of anorexia...it really hit home with me...because I have borderline personality disorder...and at times have been anorexic myself...though I tend to act out my disease in different ways. I loved Alice's dark humor...her intelligence and her journey of self-discovery. I was not at all disturbed by her journey leading her to discover that she is a lesbian. I felt that the tie between suffering and desire was superb. A well-written novel. I bought it a couple of months ago from amazon...and I have read it many times since then. Each time I discover something new...in Alice and in myself. Excellent literature---it makes you laugh, cry, and think. Again, I eagerly await Ms. Grant's next novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewer: A reader from ECU, February 22, 2000

By 

Ashley Whitaker (Greenville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Passion of Alice (Paperback)

What a book! I have never been exposed to a book like this. The author's brillance is seen at the turn of every page. She offers a detailed insight into each character which allows the reader to become really involved. Alice's perception and cynical character makes the book great. The more you get to know Alice the easier it is to see and fully understand her constant battle. The two extremes Grant uses, Maeve and Syd, to show what Alice idealizes in each is phenomenal. I completely understand Grant's purpose in having lesbianism part of the story. Yes the sex scenes were shocking, but deal with it! They were necessary. The ending is very intriguing. I feel it leaves the reader with many answers, and the promise of a bright future.