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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
A novel that shines a flashlight under the bed of suburban perversity. A.M. Homes, whom the N.Y. Times Book Review calls "exhilaratingly perverse", lures us into a Nabokovian world where characters both repellent and seductive conduct forays into the dark depths of their obsessions.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"* 'A.M. Homes never plays it safe and it begins to look as if she can do almost anything' Michael Cunningham * 'If the first major literary marker of the American dream of aspiration, potential and never-ending youth was F. Scott Fitzgerald's lyrical piece of doomed yearning, The Great Gatsby, its postmodern flipside [is] A.M. Homes's The End of Alice, whose paired literary voices made a grotesque harmony of two yearners after the dream of youth' Ali Smith, Guardian * 'A.M. Homes instructs us about ourselves and shows us what we are blighted with and cringe from, our compulsions, repressions, longings, glimpses of madness' Ruth Rendell * 'Undeniably shocking... Superbly achieved by a writer who is a true artist in words' Vogue"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The most riveting, seductive book that I have ever read...and hesitate to recommend to others. Homes is an amazing writer. The inner world she creates inside the pedophile's head weaves it's own spell upon the reader, drawing one into a maze of logic unto its own *reality*. The reader is seduced into a point of view that warps the truth and charms in a perverse and oddly mesmerizing way. What bravery in tackling such repulsive subjectmatter. I recently read an interview with Homes, and she spoke of the anger that the book has evoked in people. Well dear reader, be warned. If you are able to face the shadow in your own self, and endure a little squirming in your *safe* little seat...read this dangerous and dark insightful tale. I myself will order her newest novel with great anticipation, " Music for Torching".
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not a book for the lily-livered. Bold, courageous and confrontational, The End of Alice is most disturbing. It is also very, very good. There is absolutely nothing engaging or delightful in this story which relates, through correspondence, the exploits of an imprisoned paedophile and his young, wild prototype. It is uncomfortable reading: repulsive and gripping in almost equal measure. Deliberately shocking, Homes forces unpleasant questions, at each and every turn of the page judging perfectly how readers are likely to react, catching them in their own doubts with scary precision. The erotic correspondence, delicious to the letter writers, works well in revealing how a paedophile, imprisoned twenty three years ago, is also witty and intelligent, manipulative and guiltily complicit. Turning the final page comes as a relief: can't imagine anyone actually enjoying reading this novel but it is rewarding in its own way. A unforgettable literary questioning of liberalism and modernity, it deserves attention.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The most shocking content in The End of Alice is not the pedophilia, which to sophisticated readers is by now familiar if not exactly comfortable. What is novel and potentially breathtaking is the coming-of-age story of a young woman whose own twisted fate leads her to correspond w/ an imprisoned killer/pedophile during a pivotal summer of sexual exploration.
The writing is good; the reading, engaging; the book, ultimately unsatisfying. In addition to the coming-of-age story, there is the convict's own story, and there is the story of his murder victim. Too many stories for a short novel, and the occasional post-modern cuteness w/ reader and characters' identities doesn't make the exposition any deeper or more profound. The novel ends with what is surely a self-conscious imitation of Lolita's travelogue -- but so what? I have the feeling i must have missed something big -- but then, apparently so does the author, who has now published an "Appendix" to the novel (which I have not seen). I would be happy to receive enlightening comments.
The writing is good; the reading, engaging; the book, ultimately unsatisfying. In addition to the coming-of-age story, there is the convict's own story, and there is the story of his murder victim. Too many stories for a short novel, and the occasional post-modern cuteness w/ reader and characters' identities doesn't make the exposition any deeper or more profound. The novel ends with what is surely a self-conscious imitation of Lolita's travelogue -- but so what? I have the feeling i must have missed something big -- but then, apparently so does the author, who has now published an "Appendix" to the novel (which I have not seen). I would be happy to receive enlightening comments.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not that great
Unfortunately this book is just not a particularly great example of any of the literary genre it attempts to straddle. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Jenny Wong
Enjoyable but not in the conventional way
The only reason I came across The End of Alice was by my friend who was studying English Literature and Journalism at university and this was on her reading list. Read more
Published 20 months ago by N. McCusker
A.M. Homes - The End of Alice
I can't say I've read this book. I read thirty pages and put it aside. An awful, awful idea for a book. Read more
Published on 27 Mar 2010 by RachelWalker
Profoundly uncomfortable
It is difficult to know what to say about this book. By turns I was revolted, amazed, made extremely uncomfortable, and found myself aghast at the vision that created it. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Uncomfortable
After reading the reviews I was somewhat hesitant about reading this book. It did, as pointed out by other reviewers, leave you asking yourself some awkward questions, and... Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2008 by I. S. Thompson
Bold and brave
I approached this book with caution, wondering what horrific things it contained, but was won over by the reviews on the back, and I'm glad I picked it up. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2007 by NB
Yeuch!
Thought I could handle it. Read reviews carefully and decided to brave it. Prefer 'darker' works on the whole. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2007 by Double
Is the author as clever as she seems?
Some aspects of this novel impressed me, such as the narrator's highfalutin language and the deft handling of flashback sequences. Read more
Published on 3 July 2007 by Rusty
a poor intellectualisation of a difficult subject
I have no problem in principle with the presentation of a difficult, apparently taboo subject in literature. We can all take it or leave it, cant we? Read more
Published on 19 May 2007 by S. Butler
Extreme and Challenging
'The End of Alice' centres around the correspondence between two paedophiles; one older man who is awaiting parole in prison and a nineteen year old girl who is trying to seduce a... Read more
Published on 28 April 2007 by Sarah Durston
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