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Rating: 
Summary: ALICE ADAMS
Review: Booth Tarkington is one of my favorite authors. Noone captures the spirit of the person better than he does. The way he makes Alice Adams come alive makes me want to be there and meet this wonderful young lady. If an author can make me want to do that, he is excellent in my book.
The movie ending is the opposite of the book ending, which disappointed me, because I wanted it to be true to the book. Nevertheless, I also wanted Alice to have her dreams come true. If you really absorb yourself in the book, however, you will see that her dream DOES come true, just not necessarily the way you want it to.
There is also the beautiful way he paints the whole family into the book. I won't give it away, but you will see the intricacies woven in.
I found myself totally absorbed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.
Please read this book! You will love it!
Rating:
Summary: ALICE ADAMS
Review: Booth Tarkington is one of my favorite authors. Noone captures the spirit of the person better than he does. The way he makes Alice Adams come alive makes me want to be there and meet this wonderful young lady. If an author can make me want to do that, he is excellent in my book.
The movie ending is the opposite of the book ending, which disappointed me, because I wanted it to be true to the book. Nevertheless, I also wanted Alice to have her dreams come true. If you really absorb yourself in the book, however, you will see that her dream DOES come true, just not necessarily the way you want it to.
There is also the beautiful way he paints the whole family into the book. I won't give it away, but you will see the intricacies woven in.
I found myself totally absorbed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.
Please read this book! You will love it!
Rating: 
Summary: "Poor little Alice" surprised me
Review: I disagree with the Amazon customer who claims there are no heroes in Alice Adams. The hero is of course the heroine herself. Alice is sweet and lively. Yes, she is overly concerned with the typical "girly" things, especially at the beginning of the book, but she shows promising growth and strength of character. I have read a few other books by Booth Tarkington. I wouldn't put Alice Adams quite on the same level with The Magnificent Ambersons, but I liked it better than The Turmiol, which has an unconvincing happy ending. I got near the end of Alice Adams, and I started to dread the final chapter. I thought that there would either be another sappy, fake, happy ending, or it would be depressing. I was pleasantly surprised- it was neither! This is an old fashioned book, of course. You can tell it was written in 1921 by the way African-Americans are spoken about. But that is a reality of the times.
Rating:
Summary: "Poor little Alice" surprised me
Review: I disagree with the Amazon customer who claims there are no heroes in Alice Adams. The hero is of course the heroine herself. Alice is sweet and lively. Yes, she is overly concerned with the typical "girly" things, especially at the beginning of the book, but she shows promising growth and strength of character. I have read a few other books by Booth Tarkington. I wouldn't put Alice Adams quite on the same level with The Magnificent Ambersons, but I liked it better than The Turmiol, which has an unconvincing happy ending. I got near the end of Alice Adams, and I started to dread the final chapter. I thought that there would either be another sappy, fake, happy ending, or it would be depressing. I was pleasantly surprised- it was neither! This is an old fashioned book, of course. You can tell it was written in 1921 by the way African-Americans are spoken about. But that is a reality of the times.
Rating: 
Summary: No Heroes
Review: In this story by Booth Tarkington, there are no particularly likeable characters. Whether it is Alice's meddling mother, Alice's malleable father, or the manipulative Alice, each character brought with it a disagreeability that wasn't even benefited by a dose of reality. Compared to Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, Alice Adams falls short. The story is interesting enough to keep one reading it, but the characters beg for a more complete picture, a better portrait so that we can actually have an opinion on what we would like to see happen to them. The best part of Alice Adams is of course Tarkington's writing. While the story and characters are not addictive, the author's words still find a way to evoke emotion (if not empathy). The following is my favorite excerpt, perhaps alone reason enough to read the book. ________________________
She was silent again, and he said nothing, but looked at her, seeming to be intent with looking. Her attitude was one only a graceful person should assume, but she was graceful; and, in the wan light, which made a prettily shaped mist of her, she had beauty. Perhaps it was beauty of the hour, of the love scene almost made into form by what they had both just said, but she had it; and though beauty of the hour passes, he who sees it will long remember it and the hour when it came. "What are you thinking of?" he asked. She leaned back in her chair and did not answer at once. Then she said: "I don't know. I doubt if I was thinking of anything. It seems to me I wasn't. I think I was just sort of sadly happy just then." "Were you? Was it 'sadly,' too?" "Don't you know?" she said. "It seems to me that only little children can be just happily happy. I think when we get older our happiest moments are like the one I had just then: it's as if we heard strains of minor music running through them - oh, so sweet, but oh, so sad!"
Rating:
Summary: No Heroes
Review: In this story by Booth Tarkington, there are no particularly likeable characters. Whether it is Alice's meddling mother, Alice's malleable father, or the manipulative Alice, each character brought with it a disagreeability that wasn't even benefited by a dose of reality. Compared to Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, Alice Adams falls short. The story is interesting enough to keep one reading it, but the characters beg for a more complete picture, a better portrait so that we can actually have an opinion on what we would like to see happen to them. The best part of Alice Adams is of course Tarkington's writing. While the story and characters are not addictive, the author's words still find a way to evoke emotion (if not empathy). The following is my favorite excerpt, perhaps alone reason enough to read the book. ________________________
She was silent again, and he said nothing, but looked at her, seeming to be intent with looking. Her attitude was one only a graceful person should assume, but she was graceful; and, in the wan light, which made a prettily shaped mist of her, she had beauty. Perhaps it was beauty of the hour, of the love scene almost made into form by what they had both just said, but she had it; and though beauty of the hour passes, he who sees it will long remember it and the hour when it came. "What are you thinking of?" he asked. She leaned back in her chair and did not answer at once. Then she said: "I don't know. I doubt if I was thinking of anything. It seems to me I wasn't. I think I was just sort of sadly happy just then." "Were you? Was it 'sadly,' too?" "Don't you know?" she said. "It seems to me that only little children can be just happily happy. I think when we get older our happiest moments are like the one I had just then: it's as if we heard strains of minor music running through them - oh, so sweet, but oh, so sad!"
Rating:
Summary: Another obscure gem
Review: The Magnificent Ambersons introduced me to the non-Penrose side of Tarkington. "Alice" is a timeless novel of American middle-class youth striving to be something different and their infatuation with wealth and popularity. Brilliant description of how this clouds judgment and leads to self-deception. Another theme is that the daughter achieves a more mature self-awareness when the parents especially the mother release their own self-deceptions. Excellent portrait of growing up in middle class America, the pitfalls and the optimism; still relevant for today. Every high school student should read this book; wait to read Anna Karenina for college. As to another reader's criticism, imagine a mother repeating herself; just inconceivable!
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