Alamo House: Women Without Men, Men Without Brains

by Sarah Bird

Book Overview

The sorority sisters of Alamo House at the University of Texas may be at comic odds with each other, but at least they have one thing in common: They all hate the fraternity rats across the street,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393023230
• ISBN13: 9780393023237
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 317 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Grad school in a whole new light

What can I say? I loved this book. After reading Bird's The Yokota Officer's Club, I was hooked on her writing style and voice. Her characters are well developed and so fabulously quirky and this novel most certainly delivers. Mary Jo has been living with her boyfriend thinking that she had found her "settled down" life. Unfortunately that included cleaning up his messes which he perpetually left in their house. Fed up, stressed out and preparing to enter grad school, Mary Jo seeks out other living arrangements. As a last ditch effort on her way home from work, she stops at the Alamo House. A Co-op for female graduate students at the University of Texas, Alamo House seemed a little too creepy for her. Then she got home. Shortly there after she was moving into the Alamo House. Filled with the spectrum of people only found on college campuses, Mary Jo comes to be a part of this easily missed community. She meets Collie who teaches her the Axiom and Fayrene, a girl with a photographic memory timid about life in the big city after leaving her very Baptist life in a small Texas town who come to be her inseperable cohorts in crime. From taking down the SUKs from within to their daily swimming ritual, these girls know how to play off of each other's traits and become stronger on their own. I also enjoyed the story line that revolved around her rock star coworker and their time at the LBJ library. Tommy reinvented his band four times just in this one book! His take on Birdiana is hilarious and well worth waiting to read about it. This had a good ending and there was room for more to be told. As with every good book I wish there was more to read but the ending was satisfying. I highly encourage you to read the Reader's Guide in the back. When I read Yokota it was actually an interview with Bird and her sisters. This time it is an essay by Bird reliving her time at the grad school co-op she lived in and it is totally entertaining. I cannot wait to read more books from this author.

a very engaging read

This is a story about being at a crossroads in life, wondering which way to turn or staying in the rut and not bothering at all. It begins with a young woman in a bad relationship who doesn't really want to leave, thereby cutting off the possibility of getting married, but knows she should try something......and ends up at a sad excuse for housing called the Alamo House, which at first glance appears to be full of a bunch of weirdos and losers or as the frat house residents across the street call them - dykes (the ultimate macho jerk insult). These guys harass them unmercifully. As we met the inhabitants of this book and take a closer look, we smile in recognition. By the end of the story we are rooting for Alamo House and plotting the destruction of the frat house right along side the girls. The reader forgets how the characters were first described and see them in a much kinder light. This plot is just the backdrop to the real story of the friendship formed between three girls, our narrator, an overweight girl away for the first time from her bible thumping family and a drama major who is a beautiful whirlwind that dresses up as doomed women (Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Papth, etc.). Their story is the most compelling and emotionally touching. Oh yeah, the concept of feminism from all perspectives is also present in this story. The author delivers all of these themes in one well written novel. Kudos to Sarah Bird. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading other books by this author.

Bird's got it going ON!!!

Bored and browsing the Sam's book aisle, I reluctantly picked up the trade paperback copies of Sarah Bird's titles, "Alamo House" and "The Mommy Club", gave in and bought them, but I didn't open them. Just shelved them for that "mood hits me" time. I guess I didn't think Sarah Bird's writing was up the level I wanted at the time.Well, after a rather serious and great non-fiction read, I went to the shelves and pulled out "Alamo House" and pulled an all-nighter reading this tome. It was like Animal House (the SUKs, appropriate name, eh?) meets the weirdo scholarly dames. And it was/is fun and funny and poignant. I am so glad I met these women and entered into their lives and lived a bit of fictional/autobiographical Bird history of University of Texas Austin, circa the '80's. I will now grab hold of "The Mommy Club" and find the other Bird reads to indulge myself in her clever storytelling.In addition, I will recommend this read to my fellow book clubbers and to my sister Red Hatters, especially those that loved "Ya-ya Sisterhood".I especially enjoyed reading Sarah Bird's "Conversation with the Author" at the book's end. Do yourself a favor and remember the Alamo in this version! No need to go to the movies yet. But wouldn't this book make a fun movie, though?

I wish there were more than 5 Stars

March 14, 2000 I can't believe this book is out of print. it is so well written, so funny, absolutely one of the best books i've ever read. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title

Interesting and Fun to Read

The book was very funny, and I enjoyed it very much. It's not a book for men. The book is one of those great books you only read once in awhile. Any women, teenager, or person of the female gender will like it.