The End of Alice

by A.M. Homes

Book Overview

From the 2013 Orange Prize-winning author of May We Be Forgiven.

Only a work of such searing, meticulously controlled brilliance could provoke such a wide range of visceral responses. Here is the incredible story of an imprisoned pedophile who is drawn into an erotically charged correspondence with a nineteen-year-old suburban coed. As the two reveal--and revel in--their obsessive desires, Homes creates in The End of Alice...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684827107
• ISBN13: 9780684827100
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Eh

While reading this I found myself asking why would someone write something like this but I bought and read it so I guess I have no room to talk. However by the end I'm still not really sure what the point was. The ending is kind of abrupt. The narrator doesn't learn anything or change it just ends. Felt kind of pointless to me. It was an okay read I guess but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Not for me.

This book has to be the most disgusting book i have ever bought. I will say the main characters narrative was intense but it took me a long time to finally get through this one. Just was not my cup of tea.

A Skilled Seduction

A.M. Homes has accomplished something remarkable here. She has unflinchingly examined the dual taboos of pedophilia and childhood sexuality without ever bringing her hand to our eyes to block out these truths: An adult might seduce a willing child. A child might seduce a hesitant adult. Without passing judgment, this recognition of the odd fantastical world of prepubescent sexuality is stunning. Ms. Homes does not deal in stereotypes and caricatures here; she creates complex, fully-fashioned individuals, each with their own quirks and reasons, each with a unique psychology driving them. The End of Alice may be the most horrifying not in its final and bloody depiction of the title, but in its success in allowing the reader to sympathize - even momentarily - with a creature as sickening as a pedophile. It is hard to read about a sociopath as a whole person. It is hard to get into the grey areas of the world, to slide from the easy black and white of wrong and right. But here you have it: the monster as man, the monster as teenage girl, the monster as someone you smile at on the street. The monster in you. After multiple reads over the past five years, this book still holds me fascinated - by its subject, by its skill, and by the poetry in Homes' language. This isn't exactly a pleasant read, but it will shake you in a way you may not have been shaken before - and it is worth it.

Yuck, this is brilliant!

This was easily the most disgusting book I've ever read. That said, the narrative ability of A.M. Homes, the ability to get inside the head of her characters, is unbelievable. I have read few authors able to do what Homes is able to do. Her pedophile is so real, I could see him, sense him. I had nightmares the two nights during which I read this book. The interesting facet of the book to me was less the unbelievably frank, explicit sexuality and violence; that was what it was. What interested me was the pedophile's claim that he is inside each of our heads. I shrugged that off immediately, since I am far from a pedophile. However, as I found myself going through the gamut of emotions - repulsed, angry, confused, saddened - I also found myself at moments aroused. What does that say about me? What does that say about our society? This book is certainly worth a read, for readers with an open mind, a curiosity, and a strong stomach.

Disgusting, but impossible to forget

I read this 1996 novel by A.M. Homes when it was first published, but just thinking about it still gives me the shivers. It's a scary book, mostly because it forces the reader's mind to think in a sick and grotesque way.The narrator is a 54-year old pervert who serving time in Sing Sing for the rape and murder of a 12-year old girl. He has served 23 years already when he receives a letter from a 19-year old girl who is planning to seduce a 12-year old boy. A correspondence follows which forces the pedophile's memory to reveal the most shocking and lurid details of his crimes.This was easily one of the most disgusting books I ever read. The act of reading it made me nauseous, but yet I applaud the author for her courage to write it and do recommend it to the few brave souls who are willing to experience its horrific roller coaster ride.But be forewarned: the disgust and revulsion last long after the book is finished, and its essence is impossible to forget.

Delightfully Wicked Work

I just read Homes' ground breaking work for the third time, and still come away from it feeling sick and stirred. Having read Lolita, one of the best novels ever put to paper, I apporached Alice skeptical the topic of pedophilia, moreover the topic of one human being controling another, could be put into as graceful a prose as Nabokav managed with his timeless tale of nymph love. BUT, Homes enters the realms of obsessive and forbidden love with eyes wide open, and arms ready to embrace the complexitites of self-obsession and that all to unattainable "perfect love". She gives the reader a symphony of perversion and conducts it with broad strokes of perfectly timed prose.