The End Of Alice
by A.M. Homes
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Read in May, 2001
A. M. Homes, The End of Alice (Scribner's, 1996)
It's not often one finds a book about pedophilia with "The National Bestseller" across the top of its cover. I was intrigued. By the end, I was disgusted (and the pedophilia angle was actualyl the least disgusting of the novel's many perversities), horrified, repelled, and completely in love with A. M. Homes.
The book centers around a narrator (nameless), an inmate in a facility for the criminally insane, and his correspondent, a ninet...more
It's not often one finds a book about pedophilia with "The National Bestseller" across the top of its cover. I was intrigued. By the end, I was disgusted (and the pedophilia angle was actualyl the least disgusting of the novel's many perversities), horrified, repelled, and completely in love with A. M. Homes.
The book centers around a narrator (nameless), an inmate in a facility for the criminally insane, and his correspondent, a ninet...more
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If you read the description of this novel and go ahead and read it and then you are shocked and filled with regret and disgust and you have nightmares about it and feel like you have to go on a toxic-cleanse diet and increase the number of times per week you see your therapist and maybe lay down your credit card for a retreat in Esalen for the rest of the summer, then maybe you have a much, much larger issue than having read a difficult, grim novel. Maybe this is about setting boundaries for you...more
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Read in October, 2007
I picked this book up for two reasons. (1) I read AM Holmes' novel This Book Will Save Your Life and really liked it. (2) I read her book This Book Will Save Your Life and didnt believe that this same author would be capable of writing a book about a male convicted pedophile penpalling with a 19 year old that shares his same obsession. I thought this book would be too weird and too creepy to come from the same authors mind....
Well, I have to say that the book did carry a very similar writin...more
Well, I have to say that the book did carry a very similar writin...more
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Read in December, 2007
This book brought up a lot of interesting thoughts in my head:
For one, how predators were often once the prey, and how, while we might be inclined to feel bad about that, it is still no excuse at all for what they've done.
Another, that we are all made into victims by our fears of others. One character here makes a solid effort to be a victimizer as a response to years of being over-watched by a protective society. She fails in many ways, because she is not really a predator.
The third thi...more
For one, how predators were often once the prey, and how, while we might be inclined to feel bad about that, it is still no excuse at all for what they've done.
Another, that we are all made into victims by our fears of others. One character here makes a solid effort to be a victimizer as a response to years of being over-watched by a protective society. She fails in many ways, because she is not really a predator.
The third thi...more
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recommended to Matt by:
No one.
recommends it for: No one.
recommends it for: No one.
Okay. I just need to get this review out of the way. I just can't ignore this book. Believe me when I say that within this review, I am not exaggerating or dramatizing my feelings of this book.
There has never been a book to make me feel this way. To put it lightly, it f'ed my sh*t up. I read it two years ago and even now I feel like I need to take a shower to wash it off. Let me make this clear -- I did not give this book one star because I hated it. I gave it one star because I hate ...more
There has never been a book to make me feel this way. To put it lightly, it f'ed my sh*t up. I read it two years ago and even now I feel like I need to take a shower to wash it off. Let me make this clear -- I did not give this book one star because I hated it. I gave it one star because I hate ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in June, 2008
I've always enjoyed A.M. Homes' essays and stories in the NYT and the New Yorker, so I thought I'd give one of her novels a try. "The End of Alice" chronicles the experiences of two pedophiles, mostly through their correspondence with each other: one is a 50+ dude who's been in prison for his crimes, the other is a 19 year old girl from Scarsdale who has a thing for twelve-year-old boys. I'm embarrassed by how quickly I read this book-- I breezed through it in just a couple days. An...more
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Ok, I get Lolita. I get American Psycho (even think it might be a work of genius). I don't get this one. Yet another exploration of the mindset of a truly sick fuck. Sections of this book are just gross beyond belief. Ok, it's well described (but I can't even say the prose uplifts or illuminates or sheds understanding in any way -- nor does anything stick because it's a phrase that just had to be written). The content though -- if you're looking for something that sickens you to the stomach,...more
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Read in May, 1995
recommends it for:
those who can take it
This woman's got lots of balls to write from the point of view of a middle-aged pedophile in jail for murdering and raping (there's a reason why this goes after murdering) the twelve-year-old Alice. It starts out with said prisoner and his correspondence with a 19 year old college girl who's got her sights set on a prepubescent boy in her neighborhood. As it unfolds, the relationship between the prisoner and girl escalate, and so does the one between the girl and her prospective 12-year-old l...more
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Read in November, 2007
i don't really understand why this book has so many glowing reviews on this sight. sure, homes has written this well (hence the second star),but... i just don't buy it. it seems to me that she just really, REALLY wanted to shock you out of your cozy, middle-class, suburban old navy socks with this one. she tried excruciatingly hard to crawl under your skin and blow your mind with the depravity of her imagination. well, i'll tell you what -it's just too obvious that that was her mission. i mean, ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Certainly the most shocking/repulsive book I've read. Prompted me to question whether or not there was a point to the filth, and (after deciding there was a point) whether or not I was open to the point. I did not always feel great about my responses to this book.
Aside from filth issues: I really enjoyed the author's control over her characters' writing styles. She has her convict protagonist do a fair amount of subtly obnoxious writing (extended alliteration and other obfuscatory wordpl...more
Aside from filth issues: I really enjoyed the author's control over her characters' writing styles. She has her convict protagonist do a fair amount of subtly obnoxious writing (extended alliteration and other obfuscatory wordpl...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Nabokov fans with tough stomachs
AM Homes is mind-blowingly talented. Her word-play, tone-on-tone descriptions, and tripping prose is simply incredible. To say that this book is Nabokovian is an extreme understatement. In style, tone, and subject matter, The End of Alice is practically an homage to old Vladamir. A word of warning though: While the writing is as fine as it gets, the plot is not for the faint of heart. It is very disturbing--extremely disturbing, in fact. I would compare it to Brett Easton Ellis, but Homes is in ...more
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I read this book a number of years ago but there are parts that I still think about today. It's really disturbing and to be honest I have a hard time saying that I liked it because it was so troubling but then again the fact that I still think about this book today tells you just how powerful it was. That said it's definitely not a book for everyone.
The book tells the story of the correspondence between a 19 year old college student and an imprisoned pedophile and murderer. The story alte...more
The book tells the story of the correspondence between a 19 year old college student and an imprisoned pedophile and murderer. The story alte...more
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recommends it for:
transgressive fictionistas and people who like fisting in their stories
I couldn't put this book down. It's a gripping story about a convicted child molester up for parole who has a 19-year-old female college student pen pal who has it bad for a 12-year-old boy. The only thing that kept it from being five stars is that it reminded me a little too much of Lolita, with the molester dude being really smart and self-aggrandizing. But the Lolita similarities end there, because this guy is definitely more perverse; or at least unwilling to keep his perversion hidden under...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
autodidact pederasts
I read most of this novel figuratively hiding my eyes behind my hands, to peek out every once in a while to shriek or wince, and hide again. Well, it wasn't that drastic, but the level of description in this kind-of update of Lolita is staggering, other words that come to mind are dizzying, sickening...It arm-wrestles the term "heavy handed" into submission. Hey, I quite like that.
The end-scene is almost hilarious in its dogged envelope-pushing. From a text-message I sent to my ...more
The end-scene is almost hilarious in its dogged envelope-pushing. From a text-message I sent to my ...more
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No one need ever question the versatility of Homes. She can write as male or female, child or adult, outcast or everyman. And, in the case of "The End of Alice," she writes as the unthinkable: a murderous pedophile. The book is a challenge at times, the more in depth Homes goes into the mind of the mentally-ill incarcerated character as well as the copycat perpetrator as well. She is a fearless writer, undoubtedly, but one wonders at the conclusion: what is the point? There is lit...more
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Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
anyone with a strong stomach
A. N. Homes wrote one of the most disturbing novels, I think, of all time-- one that takes you into the mind of two pedophiles and shows you their world and strange, sick logic. It is not for the faint of heart, not for the weak of spirit, and not for those who want to see a pedophile condemned.
It isn't five stars sheerly for the subject matter, and that's the same reason I write this review -- to warn those who might read this, not knowing what they're going to get into. I don't really feel...more
It isn't five stars sheerly for the subject matter, and that's the same reason I write this review -- to warn those who might read this, not knowing what they're going to get into. I don't really feel...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
pedophiles and those who love CSI
the story of the teenage female protagonist was disturbing in a somewhat titillating way. but her correspondence with the child molester/murderer was not for me. partly because i failed to see a real connection between them beyond the fact that both had obsessions with sex with younger members of the opposite sex. Their stories just didn't line up, and having them in the same novel almost trivializes the traits that Homes seems to want to investigate or problematize. I would never accuse her of ...more
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Read in January, 1998
This book is very well-written and was an excellent read but was VERY disturbing. I read this book a long time ago. I hesitate to recommend this book to others unless I know they can stomach the subject-matter. It's about a
pedophile who is in prison for killing a little girl and his odd correspondance with a 19 year old girl who is attracted to a very young boy and is on her way to becoming a pedophile herself. The details about the plot escape me, but it is a good book if you can stomach it....more
pedophile who is in prison for killing a little girl and his odd correspondance with a 19 year old girl who is attracted to a very young boy and is on her way to becoming a pedophile herself. The details about the plot escape me, but it is a good book if you can stomach it....more
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Read in January, 2007
Oh lord. Even having read the warnings, I wasn't prepared for this one. Which leads me to believe that I'm just particularly inclined to enjoy reading first person narratives about pedophiles. Go figure. Some of the scenes really affected me, which is something, I suppose. If all I can say is that the book made me feel terrible, Homes either didn't succeed in conveying what she wanted, or she's a sadist. "This Book Will Save Your Life" reads like an episode of Friends compared to...more
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Read in May, 2008
I can only give this book three stars because, while it was engrossing and totally absorbing, it was also the most disturbing thing I have ever read. Told from the perspective of an incarcerated pedophile, The End of Alice is the story of the pedophile's life in prison, his correspondence with a girl who flirts with the idea of pedophilia and his doomed relationship with Alice, a 12-year-old girl he ends up killing. I love A.M. Homes - her book "Music for Torching" is incredible - but ...more
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