Alice Adams

by Booth Tarkington

Alice Adams, the daughter of middle-class parents, wants desperately to belong with the people of "high society" who live in her town. Ultimately, her ambitions are tempered by the realities of her situation, which she learns to accept with grace and style. Alice's resiliency of spirit makes her one of Booth Tarkington's most compelling characters. A fascinating story that won the Pulitzer Prize. This publication from Boomer Books is specially designed and typeset for comfortable reading.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, American, Audiobook, Literature, Literary Fiction

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction/Novel more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike and Colson Whitehead. Although he is little read now, in the 1910s and 1920s he was considered America's greatest living author.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel put me in mind of Edith Wharton and her tales of class mobility, or the lack thereof, in the society of the 1920s. Tarkington has addressed a similar situation here, a young girl who is just enough below the status of her peers to have a hard time keeping up and fitting in. Her mother is a disagreeable creature and her father doesn’t seem to understand the ramifications or difficulties of the position Alice is in. For him, she is his lovely daughter, why would anyone mistreat her; wouldn’t everyone love her?

I felt quite sorry for the father, Virgil Adams. He is a consummately decent man, who is forced into a questionable position by a nagging wife who wants status for her children and his love for a daughter, who no doubt is worthy of more than she is getting. The thing that struck me most about Alice was that she might have been perfectly happy if someone had simply given her to permission to be herself and belong to the upper middle class life that she is born into.

At times, she recognizes the false face she finds herself putting forward and despises it.

Almost everything she had said to him was upon spontaneous impulse, springing to her lips on the instant; yet it all seemed to have been founded upon a careful design, as if some hidden self kept such designs in stock and handed them up to her, ready-made, to be used for its own purpose. What appeared to be the desired result was a false-coloured image in Russell’s mind; but if he liked that image he wouldn’t be like Alice Adams; nor would anything he thought about the image be a thought about her.

The story is well-written and left me with a lot to think about regarding what really matters in life and how easily people actually do misunderstand one another. Not all of the very wealthy are painted as inhumane, although they are often clueless, and the divide between Alice and the other girls is understandable, since we tend to gravitate to those who share our lives and experiences.

By this time most of “the other girls,” her contemporaries, were away at school or college, and when they came home to stay, they “came out”--that feeble revival of an ancient custom offering the maiden to the ceremonial inspection of the tribe. Alice neither went away nor “came out”, and, in contrast with those who did, she may have seemed to lack freshness of lustre--jewels are richest when revealed all new in a white velvet box.

Like in any real tragedy, this train is headed for disaster, destiny is the engineer, and everytime the train stops and those who want to avoid being involved in the crash might disembark, they refuse to.

Sadly, this novel has a glaring drawback and one that I cannot help but acknowledge. There is, threaded throughout the book, a use of racial slurs and stereotypes that make the reader wince. I am fairly deft at placing a book within its historical context and allowing for the differences in that time and this, but this book went beyond the pale for me. I think what made it so egregious was that these people and their attitudes had nothing to do with the story being told, they added nothing to the understanding of the events, and they could have been left out without ever being missed. Race was not at issue here, nor was a single black character an actual mover of plot or meaning. Having just recently read Strange Fruit, it was simply impossible to gloss over these passages as if they were not there, and this alone kept me from giving this book a 5-star rating. I would encourage anyone who reads it to be prepared for some discomfort in this regard.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently read Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Amberson's, I was constantly struck by the similarities and differences between Alice Adams and TMA. Alice Adams is an excellent read. TMAs was a cut above in terms of a reading experience. It was a fun read, while Alice Adams is more serious in tone. But that doesn't make it a lesser book. Each book has similar themes regarding the financial disintegration of a family, the importance of social class and financial standing and the importance of appearances. Both books are set in the same small Midwestern town, Midlands. The main protagonists in both novels are in their late teens. The former novel was more fun to read because the narrator was deeply ironic and, therefore, very funny. Alice Adams is more serious in tone and reading it was like watching a slow moving train wreck. Tarkingon's ability to create living and breathing characters was evident in both novels, though we get to know each of the family members in Alice Adams much more deeply. We know their inner thoughts, we cringe at their attempts to put on airs and feel empathy for their shame at feeling lesser than the richer people in town. What teenager doesn't compare themselves to their friends? This book may take you back to your teen years. . The arcs of both novels are similar to the extent that Tarkington puts his main characters in social and financial situations in which they will fail and then find a way to grow up, change and redeem themselves.

Alice Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1922, while The Magnificent Ambersons won in 1919. There have been only 3 other writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fictions twice, William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead.

A movie was made of this novel starring Katherine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray. It's excellent though the ending was changed.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, the fourth Pulitzer winner, and the second winner by Booth Tarkington, is the tale of the ambitious Alice Adams who tries to use good humor and honesty to rise above her modest station in life. Unfortunately, she blossoms too early and due primarily to circumstances (both social and familial) beyond her control, had a long and uncertain road before her. She is bright and funny, but not monied which is what counts in the midwestern town in which the novel is set.

What I found interesting about the novel is what it said about the United States before WWI in terms of the strengthening of the feminist movement, the impact of industrialization and capital on the fabric of daily life, and the sad specter of racism which taints Tarkington's text in several places ("darkies" and other stereotypical depictions and terms). The struggle for a woman's place in society is the primary driver for Alice and yet as she pines for acceptance into the world of the bourgeoisie in her small town, she has to come to terms with the male-dominated society of strict gender roles around her.

My rating of all the Pulitzer Winners: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

cross-posted at http://themocentricuniverse.blogspot....

i wished after reading alice adams that my younger self had discovered it, ideally the version of me who was besotted with pride & prejudice and identified with the impudent, winsome miss elizabeth bennet. i doubt the young maureen would have identified with alice adams at first but it's hard not to see the parallels between elizabeth and alice: both have deep affection for their fathers, and somewhat difficult relationships with their simpering, preening mothers. both have siblings that embarrass them and make their lives difficult. and both novels feature cringe-worthy scenes of social distress. both girls are pretty; both girls are relatively poor in relation to the class of people with whom they associate. we all know how elizabeth's story ends; my heart sang each time i read the ending of pride & prejudice for many years. it wasn't just happiness for elizabeth that i was feeling -- the novel assured the young maureen that if you stayed true to yourself you would be rewarded in time. a reading of alice adams at just that point might have tamped my optimism in that quarter somewhat and better prepared me for my future.

alice adams lives in an age between me and elizabeth bennet. i live in a culture that aspires to meritocracy where miss bennet's was severely stratified and class rules were firmly established. alice adams lives in an era that shows a transition point between these two societies. the novel is set after the first world war and before the great depression. it is an era of change, where horse and wagon is being replaced by the early automobile, where local robber barons have firmly established their wealth and watched those with lesser acumen assist them, struggle along, or be subsumed. alice adams is the daughter of a lesser businessman in the employ of the "great J.A. Lamb" the local leading light. (i would love to discuss this character with somebody who's read this novel. he plays a small but pivotal role and i am fascinated by what he represents here... is lamb benevolent? do i doubt him because of my modern sensibility?)

alice, feted in her first bloom, socialized with the "better" part of society but now, at twenty-three, she is already losing her social status, being cut from acquaintance, partly because her family never got as rich as the others, partly because she has not made an advantageous marriage, she is perceived as grasping to those who have it all, and alice is only just beginning to perceive she has never had enough. still, she wrangles an invitation to one last ball, and there she meets a young man, arthur russell, apparently affianced to the giver of the ball, his cousin mildred palmer, in the time-tested fashion of bringing two families and their fortunes even closer together. but mr. russell isn't as sure of his engagement as the rest of society is, and he begins to call on miss adams, sitting outside her house on the porch. and as we know, two attractive young people sitting under the stars and talking stuff and nonsense can't help but be romantical.*

i won't relate any more of the plot turns in alice adams -- there is certainly more to the novel that readers should discover for themselves. she does not face a tragic end, even if she does not get the happily ever after that cinderbennet gets. rather, alice adams gets to become a modern girl, one who has to face up to her own future and her own survival. she has overcome her own pride & prejudice and comes to find that the world might still have brightness to it despite all the things she lacks. the novel ends in a way that solidifies its importance. this book is a tonic to peel away romantic illusions and face a little reality.

a few words as to why i gave this novel only four stars: true to the other tarkington books i've read, there is a peppering of racism here. i would suggest that in the case of this novel, it's plays better than it does in the unfortunate penrod, which not only reflected the racism of the age and failed to contribute to the plot of the novel, but also needlessly wedged in racism wherever possible -- feel free to check out that review if you require more detail: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... here at least, we find alice's brother walter (who could very well be an older version of penrod) loves jazz, and as a consequence of that, and his penchant for shooting craps, socializes with black people and respects them even if he uses racially provocative epithets to describe them. the other people who are horrified by these associations are just plain racist in that smug condescending way, that was unchallenged in that era. still, it bears remembering that tarking probably did mean for his readers to respect walter's character even if he is perhaps more sympathetic to modern eyes, and i can't even get started on the other gross portrayals of serving staff: as usual i think tarkington has done both his writing and humanity a disservice by indulging in slur.

beyond the racism is *my disinterest in the romance between alice and russell. i didn't like her talk when she was wooing and he just seemed like a pretty moron. every conversation they had i thought, how can either of them imagine wanting to spend another moment together, let alone another hour having a stupid conversation like this? this romance didn't have the interest tarkington imbued into his other celebrated novel, the magnificent ambersons. given the necessity of this connection to the book, i wish it had sparked more. still, i think this is a very instructive novel, and one i will definitely prescribe as a romantic palliative in future. :)

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book club selection about a young woman, Alice, and her family in midtown America in the 1930’s. Alice is trying to find love, but finds it difficult to compete with the other girls in town, whose families are much wealthier. Surprisingly, she does happen to catch the eye of a handsome, wealthy young man at one of the parties. Things seem to be going well, despite the many stories Alice spins to give the impression she’s on equal footing with the other wealthier girls in town. Things come to a head when Alice’s mother decides the young man should be invited over for dinner to meet the family.

At the same time, Alice’s mother is pressuring her husband to leave his job of many years to start his own business manufacturing glue. This is a touchy proposition because while the formula was researched and developed by her husband and his partner, it was done while they were working for the husband’s current employer, who paid for their R&D. Alice’s father eventually succumbs to his wife’s constant harping, and moves forward with the business. Sparks fly when his employer gets wind of it, and when gossip about the new venture reaches the ears of Alice’s new boyfriend.

I wasn’t sure if I’d like the book given the time period it was written, but it did turn out to be a pretty good story…minus the overt bigotry woven into the story. While that might have been a product of the times, it’s shocking to read those type of references today.

I also watched the movie, with a very young Katherine Hepburn playing the role of Alice…wow! The plot tracked pretty close to the book, right up until the end, where the storyline of the movie went completely off the rails. I much preferred the ending in the book.

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize, this satire of social manners and class climbing tells of the Adams family, a middle-class working couple with two late-teen or twenty-something children, Alice and Walter. Alice tries hard to ingratiate herself into the higher echelons of the town’s society, but is repeatedly rebuffed. Browbeaten by his wife, the elder Adams finally decides to go into business for himself, leaving his long-time employer to whom he is pathetically loyal. This sets into motion both downfall and redemption, as the scandal causes a wealthy man previously interested in Alice to turn away but allows Alice to finally accept her status.

It’s a fascinating and telling look at how Americans spoke and acted in the nineteen-teens; it’s also a document of how people reacted to their charging world (for instance, the coal dust throughout the town, and the inability to see the stars – if Tarkington were resurrected today and brought to a major metropolis, he’d probably drop dead again immediately). Tarkington masterfully turns Alice from an unappealing social climber to a very admirable, self-assured woman, and does not hand out an artificial happy ending. It’s beautifully written and at times even moving – Tarkington has a deep understanding of human nature, and his descriptions of how Alice puts on airs, such as pretending to be holding a seat for a nonexistent escort at a dance, are unflinchingly real.

[library ghost (farheen) · Rating 3 out of 5]

really quite glad at Alice's realisation that men aren't worth shit and it's much better to have a career instead!!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Adams is my least favorite Booth Tarkington. It is four stars, mostly for the clever, low speed turn around ending. Tarkington continues to remind us that: “the familiar coating of smoke and grime... Yet here was not fault of housewifery; the curse could not be lifted, as the ingrained smudges permanent on the once white woodwork proved. The grime was perpetually renewed; scrubbing only ground it in.” is also the soot of wealth. So maybe 3.5 stars but rounded up because of the plot rather than the writing or the characters.

The Adams family, with only 1 ‘d’ so no Lurch the butler or sword play, had been running with the upper class if only the upper class as it existed in a small mid-western industrial location. The same kind of town that played host for the Magnificent Ambersons Trilogy. For a while, Mr. Adams had been an up and comer but somewhere that ceased to be true. He is now an older man, recovering slowly but still loyally looked after by his well to do employer.

His wife is on him constantly about his failure to take the one bold step that would have kept them in with the social set. His daughter is a nice girl, but has become adept at the little lies and self-delusions that allow her to push herself into that social class wherein she hopes to land a husband. Very early on we are told that she has no marketable skills and the one out for her, secretarial school is a dark place where losers go to accept their status as losers.

Into this once happy and now slowly and not gracefully aging house comes hope in the form of Arthur Russell. A nice man, with money and good looks. He is from out of town and so knows little about the Miss Alice or her family. The immediate problem is her ability to win her man before he learns too much.

This is the surface problem. For the reader the real issues are: who is the reader to believe? Just how far will the family go for their daughter? Tarkington will ask us to evaluate and reevaluate almost every character in the book. That is where his plotting lifts this book to that fourth star.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dated and racially insensitive, but an interesting bit of social history. The industrial boom that followed WWI brought economic growth but left some behind, especially those whose skills did not match the needs of the growth industries. In an odd way, a feminist book, in that our heroine's sad fate may be redeeemed through economic independence -- freeing her from the tyrrany of courtship rituals where economic status undermines her. There wasn't a single major character whom I found appealing, save perhaps old Mr Lamb who makes little more than a cameo. The disastrous dinner party scene toward the end was nicely theatrical, but the details were sparse and the writing there seemed hurried. How much funnier Dickens would have made it.

[Jennifer Ochoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this 1921 Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the dangers of social-climbing and ambition without merit. The pacing of this book was excellent. I finished it rather quickly because I just couldn't put it down.

The character of Alice Adams could have been one-dimensional--and honestly I made the mistake of judging her as just that in the first few pages--but Tarkington slowly unfurls her complex, and sometimes sympathetic, personality in such a way that I found myself actually liking her. As her personality emerges, you become more aware of the reason Alice is the way she is and start to pity her, even though she lies and obsesses and seems to have no grasp of reality.

Alice's mother, who seems innocuous at first, is the real villain in the book. Surely Tarkington had MacBeth in mind when writing Alice Adams. Industry replaces monarchy. Mr. Adams' imagined smell of glue is Lady MacBeth's blood spot, guilt manifest as hallucination. The novel is a less violent, more domestic version of MacBeth obviously, with Mr. Adams not even capable enough to be a successful MacBeth. It's a morality tale about what happens to children in an environment that preaches entitlement.

Great novel that I think that most people would enjoy. My only complaint is that a few of his sentences were unwieldy to the point I had to re-read them a couple times. There was one sentence in particular I gave up on as it was such a overwrought mess of clauses and unnecessarily formal word choices.

The racist perspectives were difficult too, but I honestly found the hypocrisy fitting, in the way the characters treated African Americans and how they lamented supposedly being treated by the upper classes. It fit their self-absorbed ignorance.

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Booth Tarkington is one of only four repeat winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. "Alice Adams" was the second of Tarkington's Pulitzer winning novels. There is a kind of easy style to Tarkington's writing that might justify winning the award, but I can't help thinking that the two novels ("The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Alice Adams") just really aren't "great" literature. And they aren't really pleasant or redeeming stories, even though I think they are intended as such. They are really both reflective of the underbelly of modernizing capitalism contrasted with a fading aristocratic sensibility. And the human vanity that emerges in these novels is actually kind of ugly to watch emerge.

The heroine of this particular novel, Alice Adams, is not a very likable or nice person; and though we are supposed to accept her redemption at the end of the novel as something that makes her nice, I still didn't buy it. I have come to think that Tarkington's heroes are really symbols of an old order - or conventional way of thinking - that are themselves "mean" behind the facade of "high society culture," but symbols also of a truer beauty that comes out of the decay of this culture. I just don't think that what comes out of this decay is necessarily better. The old order and that which is replacing it both seem rather pathetic and crass.

But I do think what's good about these themes that pepper all of Tarkington's work in some way is that it's a commentary on industrialization such that the dirtiness of it isn't really compensated by the advances it produced.

Decent writing, but definitely a period piece that doesn't have much durability beyond the historical moment it represents.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, pleasant, entertaining, engaging, coming of age novel about a young middle class woman, Alice Adams. Alice and her mother try to fit in with upper class society, but struggle to do so due to a lack of money. Alice’s mother puts pressure on her husband to make more money. Mr. Adams had been very content with his boss of many years and did not want to leave his job. Meanwhile Alice’s brother, Walter, exhibits no pretentiousness, being more comfortable mixing with lower class people.

1922 Pulitzer Prize winner.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1922 making its author, Booth Tarkington a two-time winner. It is a satire of social manners and classism. We enter the story of a middle-class couple and their young adult (or teen?) children, Alice and Walter. Alice is trying to climb the social ranks in her town but is finding herself reject and rebuffed. She finally meets a wealthy man who seems to be looking to a future with her when Alice's father leaves his employer and begins a business. He has sat upon a recipe for glue for many years while his wife nagged him to start a business and advance them financially and socially. Unfortunately the new business endeavor sets in motion a downfall that causes the man in Alice's life to turn away. I am not sure whether it is good or bad, but Tarkington gives us redemption. It felt a bit too perfect and I found myself disappointed.

The book feels a bit dated, and definitely reflects the racial prejudices of the time, so that too works against it. However it is a really smart look at life 100 years ago. The industrial boom is in full swing and this book explores it with vivid descriptions of the coal dust that coats the city and obscures the stars. And his ability to show the changes within Alice is superb. He tells us the story of a self-centered, social-climbing girl who slowly transforms into a self-assured woman who is more accepting of the life she has instead of focussing upon the one she thought she wanted.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely rate a book two stars, so I really want to try to articulate why I felt so frustrated reading this book. I was babbling on about this to my parents at dinner last night and I said: "A person whose early reading life was shaped by L.M. Montgomery looks for two things in a story: 1) A profound sense of place, and 2) Characters to love." For me, this book had neither and so I felt like I was climbing up a steep slope with nothing to grip. I kept sliding back and skinning my knees.

A lack of sense of place bothered me immensely in Dickens' novel Hard Times, too. Hard Times is set in a made up industrial town in a made up industrial county in England. Alice Adams is set in a good-sized industrial town in a never-named state. The town is big enough to have its own sort of aristocracy in the form of some wealthy families who have many business interests. We get a very clear (and unpleasant) sense of the house that the Adams' family lives in. But beyond that, there is very little to identify the physical space that the characters inhabit. This groundlessness created an active feeling of discomfort in me. My favorite reads do the opposite. The novels I love best ground me in a specific place in the world and bring to life the natural world and the humanity that makes that place unique. The world feels spacious instead of closed in.

I also felt closed in with characters I disliked and had no way to escape from. The behavior of my two least favorite characters led steadily to crisis within their family and there was no sense that they knew this or were willing to examine their own behavior. I am very used to British novels that address classism, class mobility, and the pain of not being in a higher class. But this is a less common theme in the American literature I've read and so to encounter a story of class in this novel that is set in no-man's-land, America, where I wouldn't expect to find an Undine Spragg-like mother and daughter ruthlessness to move into a higher class was very odd. Mr. Adams has had the same job at Lamb and Co (doing what? we never know) for decades, which means his salary has always been comparatively the same. And yet Mrs. Adams and Alice are constantly harping on Mr. Adams to make more money so that he can support Alice in the lavish lifestyle she sees her "friends" living. Mrs. Adams and Alice's expectations of Mr. Adams and the lifestyle they think Alice should be living are so unreasonable as to be absurd. Though Alice is more likable than her mother (she's not a nagging wife to the decent Mr Adams), she's still complicit in a deliberate lie to her promising young suitor Arthur Russell to make him think that her family is better off and better thought of than they really are. To what end??

I think that's my other deeply felt issue with this book. There is no sense at all that Mrs. Adams and Alice's machinations are going to lead to anything other than exposure and ruin. If they were aiming at something that seemed achievable, I could understand some machinations. But it was all absurd. This isn't a full-on tragedy so it ends with a hopeful paragraph. (The last paragraph was my favorite in the whole book.) But there are so many small tragedies without any redeeming characters or humor or excellent prose that I was filled with a growing impatience and frustration each time I picked up the book to read. I think it's Alice and Mrs. Adams' lack of emotional sensitivity and lack of awareness of the harm of their actions that bothers me too. Alice does experience some redemption in this towards the end of the novel, but Mrs. Adams is as densely unredeemed as a Mrs. Gibson or a Mr. Tulliver at the novel's end.

Well, I think I've vented most of my spleen. This book won a Pulitzer so I hold these views humbly and recognize that though this isn't the book for me, it still has merit on its own and for other readers.

[erigibbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Booth Tarkington con Alice Adams ha vinto nel 1922 il suo secondo Premio Pulitzer (il primo lo ha vinto qualche anno prima, nel 1919, con la sua celebre opera I magnifici Amberson).

Alice Adams è la giovane protagonista di questa storia. La ragazza ha una madre ambiziosa che desidera per i propri figli la miglior vita possibile; un fratello scapestrato che non sembra mai pronto a mettere la testa a posto e tantomeno a comportarsi come si confà nella società altolocata, che lui stesso odia; e un padre che non è in grado di risollevare economicamente la famiglia.

Alice aspira all’alta società, aspira ad essere accettata e inclusa, e le cose sembrano andare proprio nella direzione giusta quando la giovane fa la conoscenza del benestante Arthur Russell.

Sebbene i due siano chiaramente innamorati, Alice è sempre più convinta che non appena Arthur si renderà conto della sua vera vita, una vita ben lontana dagli sfarzi a cui lui stesso è abituato, l’uomo la abbandonerà senza troppi problemi.

Il giovane sembra invece convinto dei suoi sentimenti, e continua a ripetere, più e più volte, ad Alice che non ci sarà mai nulla che gli potrà far cambiare idea né su di lei né sui sentimenti che prova nei suoi confronti.

«[…] A volte vedi che pensare a qualcosa è solo una tortura sterile, eppure continui a torturarti!»

Questo romanzo mi ha ricordato vagamente L’età dell’innocenza di Edith Wharton, sarà che tra i protagonisti abbiamo quella stessa società dell’alta borghesia ipocrita di cui l’autrice ha parlato nel suo libro vincitore del Pulitzer l’anno precedente.

La grande differenza tra i due è il tono. Fin dall’inizio sono stata accolta nella famiglia Adams con toni allegri, da una ragazza che non si arrende mai, che fa di tutto per far affiorare un sorriso al padre malato e alla madre costantemente preoccupata. Una ragazza che si dà da fare a pulire fino all’ultimo minuto prima dell’arrivo del proprio ospite o che cerca di sistemare con l’aggiunta di stoffe e lustrini un vecchio vestito pur di partecipare a un ballo.

Alice Adams mi ha divertito. Non quel divertimento da grasse risate, ma è stata quel tipo di lettura che affronti con un sorriso sulle labbra, lo stesso sorriso che la giovane procura ai suoi genitori. E mi è dispiaciuto vedere come nel giro di qualche pagina il tono sia completamente cambiato. Mi fa pensare a come anche nella vita basti così poco per farci rovinare una giornata o il futuro più prossimo.

Se andiamo però un po’ più a fondo, ci renderemo conto che il tono sbarazzino è stato sostituito da un tono più intenso, così come la freschezza – e forse anche la superficialità di Alice – è stata sostituita dall’accettazione di sé e della propria condizione. Accettazione che rende Alice in un attimo più consapevole e più matura, pronta a prendere in mano la propria vita, imparando qualcosa di nuovo e cercando un lavoro, mettendo da parte non solo la dipendenza dai genitori, ma anche da quella società a cui non potrà probabilmente mai appartenere.

«Ecco, quindi che senso ha parlare di “finire” da qualche parte? Continuiamo a guardare al futuro aspettandoci che qualcosa finisca ma, quando arriviamo dove volevamo, capiamo che le cose non finiscono affatto. Sono solo parte di un processo. […]»

Il finale non è stato del tutto inaspettato: quell’insegna – chi ha letto il libro capirà – aveva attirato fin da subito l’attenzione di Alice, e immaginavo sarebbe stata un punto centrale del libro. Quello che mi ha stupito, e mi ha fatto male, è stato il comportamento di Arthur, quello sì che è stato qualcosa di totalmente inaspettato.

Alice Adams di Booth Tarkington è un altro di quei libri che senza questo progetto sui Pulitzer non avrei probabilmente mai letto. Si è rivelata invece una bella lettura, un libro che ho divorato dall’inizio alla fine, e che sono davvero felice di aver affrontato.

«A cosa pensate?» chiese Russell.

Lei si poggiò allo schienale della sedia e per un po’ non rispose.

Poi disse: «Non saprei; forse non stavo pensando a niente. Mi sembra di no. immagino che stessi solo assaporando una sorta di amara felicità.»

«Davvero? Cosa c’è di tanto amaro?»

«Non capite?» chiese lei. «Credo che solo i bambini possano essere pienamente felici. Quando diventiamo adulti i nostri momenti più felici sono come quello che ho appena descritto: è come se vi percepissimo l’eco di una melodia in chiave minore – dolcissima, certo! Ma tanto triste.»

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some reviewers have removed stars on "Alice Adams" because of racist remarks and depiction of African Americans. While I agree that those portions were difficult to read and were, frankly, cringe-inducing, they were a pretty accurate portrait of how many white Americans viewed some of their neighbors in the 1920s.

For me, the book didn't seem Pulitzer- or 5-star-worthy because the moral was driven home too forcefully. It's hard to believe that anyone acted as hysterical as Mrs. Adams, as false as Alice, or as odd as brother Adams; had these elements of character been refined, the morality play wouldn't have felt quite so ham-fisted. I also think Arthur Russell's character was like a cardboard cutout, but that may have been intentional as I reflect further. With that said, Booth Tarkington is an author that is somewhat overlooked today despite the genius of "The Magnificent Ambersons" and flashes throughout "Alice Adams" and is worth reading. There were portions of the book that were practically tactile due to his nuanced descriptions.

Another reviewer drew an interesting comparison between "Pride and Prejudice" and "Alice Adams." If I can find it again, I'll link it in to properly credit then. However, I believe there are more differences than similarities. Elizabeth Bennett may have been embarrassed by her loony family at times, but she loved them and didn't pretend to be something she was not. In fact, what makes her live and breathe just over 200 years later is that she is always Lizzie, whether making flawed judgements or not. Alice, too, shares many similarities with real people I've known who wish to move in higher circles, but who wish to get there off of others' efforts. From that perspective, she's quite real. And what woman hasn't flirted audaciously at least once in her life, which it seems Alice could not help. Lizzie actually comes from an upper echelon family, whereas Alice is firmly lower middle class. But, both women were constrained by the limited opportunities for women to advance on their own, although Alice did have the possibility of business college for a likely future as a secretary open to her. Also, the romance between Alice and Arthur is tenuous versus true love between Lizzie and Mr. Darcy.

Perhaps Alice, despite being very Midwestern, is more like Scarlett O'Hara; she wants what she cannot have and is ultimately punished for it. Although the very ending of "Alice Adams" had a religious feel, one gets the sense that Alice may find happiness. However, it almost seems like Alice has to join a cloister given her severe dress, so we aren't sure that she'll ever find the right man for her.

I kept having déjà vu while reading the book and finally looked for a movie version. Indeed, there is a 1935 adaptation starring Katherine Hepburn and a young Fred MacMurray that I must have seen and will rewatch as soon as it shows up.

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review of the 1935 movie sums the book up nicely so I'll use it--

Based on Booth Tarkington’s 1922 novel, Alice Adams centers on a factory worker’s daughter and her desperate attempts to rise through the ranks of small-town society. Hepburn’s nervous mannerisms suit Alice like a second skin, as she flutters frantically through the local country-club ball in her shopworn gown, clutching a poesy of purloined violets picked from a nearby garden. There she meets the well-heeled Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray), who is charmed by her gaiety even as he glimpses the tender, fearful girl beneath the facade. MacMurray is not given an awful lot to do, and he does it beautifully. Like all of Hepburn’s best leading men, he stays solidly rooted to the ground as she flies and frets around him. (He’s also a seriously underappreciated hottie.)

Turns out the movie has a different ending than the book on further reading. But if you have any doubt, here's Katherine again--



This won a Pulitzer Prize, the second for Tarkington. It has the most cringe-worthy situation of a girl trying to look comfortable at a dance when No One Asks her...and even the old lady she sits next to, so she looks "with" someone just gets up and leaves her! Some comments about the hired help remind the reader that some things have (thankfully) changed.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Alice. She is a heroine to be remembered. The ending of the book was so powerful. I admired Alice's courage and her willingness to face reality, take responsibility for her life and move forward. Booth Tarkington examined his characters choices and the ethical consequences. He exposes the shallowness of the well to do when they think their money, clothes, business success make them better than others less fortunate. He also reveals a desperation in those trying to climb the ladder to acceptance. Life is hard and I believe Alice eventually faced this reality and took accountibility for her life.

[Bookslut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's hard to say with this one. I didn't think it was any good, but it was very readable, even though it is 100 years old. I appreciate that, and breezing through some of these dud Pulitzers is such a nice option compared to the ones where I hated every minute. But again, this was a weak novel, the mother character is insufferable, the anti-heroine is pretty nearly insufferable, and Mr. Tarkington is very, very bad at writing dialogue. There was one strong scene, which was not only much higher in quality than the rest of the book, but also better than Booth Tarkington's writing in general. I deduce that it was directly ripped off from The Age of Innocence, where there is a strikingly similar scene executed with infinitely more finesse, and which was published with great fanfare two years before this.

[JoAnn Hallum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good, it was really sad to read the racial slurs that were threaded causally along the way, but I suppose we can’t sponge out the sins of our fathers and still be honest. And this book is pretty honest, in a heartbreaking way. A cautionary tale against ambition.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, though basically insubstantial in the end. The real villain of the book, it seems to me, is Mrs Adams, who is silly and shallow, whose values are wrong in every point, who makes everything worse, who is manipulative and selfish (under the guise of maternal devotion), who never really learns from her mistakes. Settling the blame on her in this way rather loads the deck, it seems to me. The real culprit is much bigger, an entire culture whose values are seriously askew, but Tarkington never opens up his lens to consider wider social structures (of class and gender, for example, or the pathology of families), so we're stuck with the merely personal.

The casual incidental racism is very much of its time, but no less distasteful for that.

[Miles Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tarkington' versatility is on full display in this Pulitzer winning novel. It's entirely different from his other great work, the Magnificent Ambersons. This work explores the social dynamics that continue to typify American life into the 21st-century. Alice Adams is a more explicitly religious novel than Tarkington other works. What it lacks subtlety it makes up for in moral and social clarity. Another transcendently marvelous work but one of the United States' greatest and perhaps most underappreciated novelists.

[Chrissie]

*********************

*Penrod 4 stars
*The Magnificent Ambersons 3 stars
*Alice Adams TBR

[Roberta Lehrman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was on my list of Pulitzer Prize winners and I never read anything by Booth Tarkington before. I liked it, and found it much like one of those 1950s movies. It is an interesting reflection of its times, and certainly shows that mother doesn't always know what's best.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, with an engaging mc and a fascinating view of the emerging post-WWI middle class. Reminded me of the style of a favorite author, Theodore Dreiser.

[Daniel Villines · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of life for the typical laborer and his family at the turn of the 20th Century was filled with hardship and strife. The middle class were a select few at this point in history and for the most part, the population consisted of those with wealth and those without much of anything beyond the subsistence provided by their work. By the middle of this same century, unions and government had affected remarkable changes in the structure of society: the unskilled laborer was largely able to achieve an equitable share of comfort and security for his family and the wealthy were (somehow) still wealthy.

Alice Adams is a novel that checks in on the middle class transformation as it existed in the 1920s. It examines the struggles of a newly emerging middle class and the difficulties experienced by those that asserted their presence among the old guard of capitalism: the upper class. Due to her father’s tireless work and servitude to a wealthy store owner, Alice Adams feels her potential to achieve upper class acceptance. Her mother, who is mildly manic towards this possibility, relentlessly pushes Alice towards this goal and relentlessly pushes Alice’s father to achieve more towards this end.

On the opposing side of the story, there is the upper class. The capitalists who reward servitude and loyalty based solely upon their own perception of fairness. For them, the question of compensation is one of incremental losses, and the minimizing of losses is seen as a principal duty. They will exert a disproportional amount of energy simply to keep crumbs from being taken from their many loaves of bread. And these same perceptions and efforts work to keep the people of the upper class in-step with these traditions.

Alice provides a point of light during this struggle. She is endearing because she is aware of the circumstances of her family’s struggles even while participating in them. She anticipates the nature of the resistance to be applied towards her from those that are already at the top of the social ladder, and she also knows the consequences of failure. She is a realist; an active fighter that refuses to be a victim and by the end of the book, I felt a sense of pride for her. The book is appropriately titled.

I enjoy books that focus on class struggles. I think that the society we have today and the luxuries that are at the command of the middle class are a result of efforts exerted by those that have faded from prominence and life itself. Alice Adams gives a voice to this struggle and Alice Adams the character serves as a model of the type of person that is largely responsible for what the middle class was ultimately to become.

[kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the Pulitzer Prize winner in 1922 and although the language is dated and definitely not politically correct the story itself stands the test of time. I could imagine Alice living in modern times and trying to make her life come out right exactly in the same ways Alice did then, although the customs of dating/relationships have were much more constrained than they are today.
Alice's family hasn't kept up successfully or financially with the better families in their town, families whose daughters were once her friends but she's slowly being dropped by them and all the young men as her family's reduced circumstances become more obvious. Their house is somewhat shabby and not in the best part of town.
Alice's mother nags her ailing father constantly do something to better them,in particular for Alice, who has a new young man who returns her growing affection. When her father reluctantly finally agrees, all the pieces are set in place for the coming disappointments.
Alice, for her part, colors the truth about herself, trying to make things appear better than they are and makes herself vivacious and charming through constant conscious thought of what to say and how to behave. I can see a young woman of twenty two behaving the same way today.
I was deeply touched by Alice and her family and wanted so much for all to come out right for her while knowing that the possibility of that happening seemed small.
I'd recommend this book but with a word of warning about some of the old-fashioned language. It was a little shocking to think that normal middle class people used some of the expressions they did without thinking anything of it, expressions that make us cringe today but it is the way people spoke in that time.

[Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find that anytime I am reading a novel by an author I have never previously read I begin reading about the author partway through the novel. I think I am trying to understand the context around the novel. When it was written and the time it was set in are important as is who the story is written by. Sometimes understanding the author adds more depth to the story, and sometimes is doesn’t.

Booth Tarkington won a couple of major awards for his work. Alice Adams won him the Pulitzer Prize. His novels were very popular during his time. It is not a period of American history that I am as familiar with as others, that is the late 1800s, early 1900s. I haven’t seen a lot of interest in Booth Tarkington’s works compared to other authors of the same period. After reading Alice Adams I am a bit surprised at the lack of attention he gets. He certainly knew his craft. He tells a good story, and he addresses the class struggles that are becoming apparent during that period. Alice does not have the same advantages as some of her friends and acquaintances, both because she is female and because of what her parents simply aren’t able to provide. I like that Booth Tarkington treats these issues honestly, with compassion but also realistically. I think the reason that Booth Tarkington may be a little ignored today is because the issues of middle class and lower middle class are not that dramatic and therefore don’t draw our attention as much as other times and events. His writing also comes across as a bit dated; some of this is how he treats race, but I imagine his descriptions and characters probably reflect the times accurately. I imagine I will read more of Booth Tarkington, but for the reasons stated I am drawn more strongly to other authors.

[Scott Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of Booth Tarkington: "It is a pity that the man who writes better prose than any other living American was brought up in a generation that considered it a crime to tell the truth" (1922 review of “Gentle Julia”). I cannot fully critique Fitzgerald's assessment, however I find it interesting that the novel "Alice Adams" is all about telling the truth. At one point Alice Adams laments, "But why had it been her instinct to show him an Alice Adams who didn't exist? . . . What makes me tell such lies?" (p.64). The theme of this novel is about the desire of those lower in (white) society trying to be something they are not, in other words: social climbers. I found the deceit and need for social status to be cloying. However I also found it interesting that Tarkington did not vilify the rich (a theme which captivated Fitzgerald), nor did he sanctify the poor. Rather he ended his story on a note of reconciliation, and a sort of redemption. That powerful two-fold theme is probably what earned Tarkington his second Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1922 for “Alice Adams” (his first was for "The Magnificent Ambersons"). I readily concur with the Pulitzer being awarded for this novel. Yet I am still pondering F. Scott Fitzgerald’s indictment that Tarkington avoided telling the truth about society's darker side via his novels. At least one character (Walter) seemed to personify debauchery. However Walter's character and reprobation was not as fully developed as that of personal truth and contentment with life's station – which I found to be much more interesting!

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,25 Mr Adams got in quite a sticky situation with the glue business, didn't he?
(I was then shot 57 times)

Libro molto scorrevole e interessante di una famiglia che cerca di essere quello che non è. Alice è considerata troppo vecchia per eventuali pretendenti e rimane esclusa dal suo vecchio circolo sociale; Virgil lavora per il suo capo da venti anni, sempre con lo stesso salario, e mi sa che l'inflazione non è una scoperta moderna; Mrs Adams prova a fare del suo meglio per la famiglia, sentendosi in colpa per non poter offrire ai figli un futuro migliore. Walter invece sta nel chill, relazionandosi con persone nere come esseri umani (non possiamo dire lo stesso del resto dei personaggi); il fatto che debba scappare dal paese a causa dei suoi debiti è solo un quirk.

Per quanto possano sembrare banali, ho apprezzato questi personaggi nei loro dubbi e nelle loro ansie: Alice può sembrare la classica ragazza giovane e frivola, ma mi sono sentita molto vicina a lei quand'era sola alla festa e inventava scuse; la signora Adams può essere vista come l'archetipo della moglie pressante, ma vuole solo il meglio per la sua famiglia e non è che in quell'epoca è libera di trovarsi un lavoro; e come posso non amare Virgil quando inizia a lottare contro il suo capo?

"The matron seemed unaccustomed to so much vivacity, and responded but dryly, whereupon Alice was more vivacious than ever; for she meant now to present the picture of a jolly girl too much interested in these wise older women to bother about every foolish young man who asked her for a dance.
Her matron was constrained to go so far as to supply a tolerant nod, now and then, in complement to the girl's animation, and Alice was grateful for the nods."

Se l'azienda in cui lavori dice che siete come una famiglia, vorrei ricordare che la stessa cosa vale per Crono e i suoi figli. Il signor Lamb ha distrutto i sogni di Virgil di creare un futuro per la sua famiglia non perché ne avrebbe perso di capitale l'azienda, ma perché doveva punirlo per averlo abbandonato. Dopo aver lavorato al suo servizio per una vita intera. Il giorno in cui apprezzerò i capitalisti sparatemi dritto in fronte.

" "Maybe I AM crazy!" he cried, his voice breaking and quavering. "Maybe I am, but I wouldn't stand there and taunt a man with it if I'd done to him what you've done to me! Just look at me: I worked all my life for you, and what I did when I quit never harmed you--it didn't make two cents' worth o' difference in your life and it looked like it'd mean all the difference in the world to my family--and now look what you've DONE to me for it! I tell you, Mr. Lamb, there never was a man looked up to another man the way I looked up to you the whole o' my life, but I don't look up to you any more! You think you got a fine day of it now, riding up in your automobile to look at that sign--and then over here at my poor little works that you've ruined. But listen to me just this one last time!" The cracking voice broke into falsetto, and the gesticulating hands fluttered uncontrollably. "Just you listen!" he panted. "You think I did you a bad turn, and now you got me ruined for it, and you got my works ruined, and my family ruined; and if anybody'd 'a' told me this time last year I'd ever say such a thing to you I'd called him a dang liar, but I DO say it: I say you've acted toward me like--like a--a doggone mean--man!""...poesia

Per quanto possa appr zzarela scrittura e la caratterizzazione di Booth, mai come ora ho desiderato che un autore fosse di un'altra epoca, perché, come dice la regola aurea di un classico, "meno minoranze ci sono, meglio è". Oltre a essere un autore niente male, Tarkington era un grande razzista: da slur inserite come se piovesse, a personaggi neri descritti come scansafatiche o ludopatici, a uno dei personaggi principali che, passando troppo tempo con queste brutte influenze, è diventato un criminale (Walter resterai sempre nei miei pensieri).

Per quanto riguarda i personaggi femminili, però, Booth mi ha piacevolmente stupito (magari aveva scelto di attaccare una minoranza per volta): Alice vuole essere così disperatamente accettata che si ritrova a mentire e ad essere ossessionata di come può apparire agli occhi degli altri, ma nel finale capisce che fingere è inutile e l'unica cosa su cui serve concentrarsi è il presente, per ottenere un futuro migliore.

""Not I!" Alice laughed shortly, shaking her head. "I've quit dressing at them, and if they saw me they wouldn't think what you want 'em to. It's funny; but we don't often make people think what we want 'em to, mama. You do thus and so; and you tell yourself, 'Now, seeing me do thus and so, people will naturally think this and that'; but they don't. They think something else--usually just what you DON'T want 'em to. I suppose about the only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.""

Russell, profondo come un foglio di carta ma sottone come la fossa delle Marianne, sembra rappresentare la società di quell'epoca: superficiale e passeggero, si mostra innamorato di Alice, ma un semplice dubbio rovina per sempre la loro relazione. Mostra in sé come potrebbe essere facile l'amore o l'amicizia se decidessimo di mentire per offrire all'interlocutore solo quello che vogliono sentire; ma quanto può resistere una relazione costruita su di un castello di carte?

"What appeared to be the desired result was a false-coloured image in Russell's mind; but if he liked that image he wouldn't be liking Alice Adams; nor would anything he thought about the image be a thought about her."

Perché l'ho scelto per Aprile? E un libro di scoperta e di rinascita spirituale. E sai chi altro è rinato in questo mese?

Lo consiglierei? Sì ma con molte precauzioni. Lo stile l'ho trovato davvero scorrevole e vicino al presente, ma sfortunatamente il razzismo c'è. E pure tanto.

"while in hospitals the patients murmured querulously against the heat, and perhaps against some noisy motorist who strove to feel the air by splitting it, not troubled by any fore- boding that he, too, that hour next week, might need quiet near a hospital"
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