- Paperback: 210 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0393342751
- ISBN-13: 978-0393342758
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Review
'The writing is subtle and powerful and moves towards a conclusion that's inevitable and shocking' Northern Echo 'An intelligent and well-crafted book, Alice Falling is certainly not for sensitive souls who enjoy romance and happy endings. It is a grim tale of hypocrisy and brutality, written in a raw and forthright style. Much of the subject matter is unsavoury but the haunting eloquence of Wall's prose make it an evocative and compelling read...Wall's strength is that his writing is vivid and disturbing, but never sordidly detailed...Wall's characters are all very real and believable - their psychological torment latent on every page...an excellent debut' Irish News 'His first novel betrays the poet's hand: frequently rich in cadence and image...Wall already displays impressive adeptness with dialogue and with multiple points of view, and it may be anticipated that his future career will find poetry losing him entirely to prose' John Kenny, Irish Times 'A book about emotional damage and the price of freedom' West Lancashire Evening Gazette 'While this book is certainly disturbing, it never seems bleak or oppressive. This is largely due to Wall's poetic handling of words, which suffuses the book with a lyrical rhythm, while at the same time he manages not to slip into lush romanticism.' Time Out 'Alice's life is disfigured by tragedy. As a child she is abused by the local priest and her sister dies in a car crash. To escape her childhood she marries young, only to find a husband who beats her. She knows she should leave him, but her disturbed mind can only think of murder. However, this is not a murder story. Wall deftly draws a tale as complex and as fragile as the characters themselves. A powerful and unsettling read' The Times 'You'll like this book; the themes are not original, but Wall is too pacy a writer to be pompous and heavy-handed' The Tablet 'The haunting eloquence of Wall's prose make it an evocative and compelling read ...an excellent debut' -- Irish News 'Instantly gripping ... A brutal, brilliantly written, deeply unsettling novel' -- Sunday Business Post 'The sort of book that renews your faith in Irish fiction ... a deeply affecting novel' -- Books Ireland 'A powerful and unsettling read' -- The Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Sunday Business Post
'Instantly gripping ... A brutal, brilliantly written, deeply unsettling novel'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
A grey stain on the ceiling. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
A grey stain on the ceiling. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The time-line in Alice Falling runs from Ireland in the mid 1970s to, one has to guess, the mid 1990s. There are three women in the story, all young girls at the start of the book, and each falls prey to Paddy Lynch. Paddy is a brute and a monster, but he is rich, rising with the development of the computer, which he is into at the start, giving him houses, cars and a yacht. Paddy doesn't bother cultivating friends, money is his god. Alice, his wife, has a history of victimhood, and so do his other women, Nora and Sandy, particularly Sandy whom he brutalises with frequent attacks and worse. The novel follows the fate of the three women at Paddy's hands and it is not a pretty story.
The writing is what saves this unlovely novel from being unreadable. Wall's prose is vivid, angry, passionate and lyrical. It is also violent and sometimes driven, it feels, by the desire to shock. There are frequent sexual references and this novel is not for anyone who is easily offended. Yet it is not an obscene novel by any means - the sex is not so much graphic as degrading. Its main failure is a concentration on an idea that victimhood is a way of life, that the women cannot help themselves and that the men are, almost universally, incapable of redemption. The one exception is John, a Philosophy student who has been picked up by Alice on a night out. But Alice is drawn to transgression and was early inducted by a parish priest. There is no hope for Alice and none for the rest either. Almost perverse in its down-beat trajectory, this is a far from comfortable read with an explosively shocking ending.
The writing is what saves this unlovely novel from being unreadable. Wall's prose is vivid, angry, passionate and lyrical. It is also violent and sometimes driven, it feels, by the desire to shock. There are frequent sexual references and this novel is not for anyone who is easily offended. Yet it is not an obscene novel by any means - the sex is not so much graphic as degrading. Its main failure is a concentration on an idea that victimhood is a way of life, that the women cannot help themselves and that the men are, almost universally, incapable of redemption. The one exception is John, a Philosophy student who has been picked up by Alice on a night out. But Alice is drawn to transgression and was early inducted by a parish priest. There is no hope for Alice and none for the rest either. Almost perverse in its down-beat trajectory, this is a far from comfortable read with an explosively shocking ending.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Alice Lynch - I almost feel I know her. I know where she is falling to. Alice Falling is a beautiful painful book and everything it says is true. Power destroys people. The writer is a poet.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Alice the wonder
22 Oct 2000
Format:Hardcover
This is an incredible book. From the second I opened it I couldn't put it down. I actually finished it in one night, but i have to say i didn't sleep too well afterwards. It's the shocking story of a woman who has been used and abused but she has no intention of being beaten. The incredible thing about it is the way it's written. I never read a book like it before. William Wall is in my view the best Irish writer I have read in quite a while and that's saying something. The words are so poetic even though the things he's writing about are horrible and frightening. The ending is shocking and surprising and there's a twist that really changes everything almost in the last page.
Absorbing Alice
20 May 2001
Format:Hardcover
This book had me hooked from the first page. Alice is trapped in a marriage to the bullying Paddy. Because of things that happened in the past she feels that Paddy is the best she deserves. Alice unravels in this book, we glimpse her loveless marriage and abusive husband, her love for gentle John, her relationships with her friends and her family. We learn that although she may be falling, she is certainly not as fragile as what we first perceive.
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