Alice Adams

By: Booth Tarkington

Narrated by: Traci Svendsgaard

Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Novel, 1922

Plucky and romantic Alice tries to rise above the crudities of her hopelessly shabby background in this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about ambition and self-delusion.

The lower-middle class Adams family faces a slow disintegration in a small Midwestern town. Alice, a social climber, is ashamed of her unsuccessful family and determined to distinguish herself. Lacking the social props she needs to shine in society, Alice attends a dance and lies about her background, hoping to attract a wealthy husband. But in the end, her high aspirations must be tempered by the reality of her situation.

Alice Adams' resiliency of spirit makes her one of Tarkington's most compelling female characters.

Public Domain (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Why is the narrator using a Southern accent???!!!!

A decent, if dated, story about class in early 20th century America. But it's set in the Midwest and the narrator gave everyone Southern accents (and not very good ones). What a mess.

How our castles of deception fall

A brilliant book. The most excellently drawn characters may be Alice's father and his employer. But the deceptions Alice uses to lure a man are haunting and challenging to the reader. Are we not like her, each of us?

Meh

I found the book had too much talk, which just added to could have simply been a short story. Not really my cup of tea.

Dated but a good view of the life of servants

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.

A UNIVERSAL STORY ON A UNIVERSAL THEME

A charmingly written story set in the 1920's in a small city reflecting the optimism and aspirations of the American people as the industrial age spreads across the country. Tarkington presents the Adam's family's dreams of "getting ahead," of rising through the socio-economic levels of the town. His descriptions of the parents, a tired, aging father who has not risen to the monetary levels his wife longs for and who blames him and carps continually about his missed opportunity; an unhappy, pampered son too coddled by his mother and a daughter upon whom falls the burden of trying to fulfill her mother's dreams are deftly written. The story could easily be set in hundreds of small towns in 2011. A small jewel of writing.