ALICE Reviewed on NPR
A debut novel that imagines the life of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, was reviewed last night by Maureen Corrigan on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Corrigan says Alice I Have Been, “…occasionally stumbles into melodrama, [but] most of the time it’s a nuanced, moody envisioning of the life of Alice Liddell” (listen to the full review here).
The book explores Lewis Carroll’s relationship with his seven-year-old muse, a relationship Alice’s parents mysteriously and suddenly cut short. It’s presented as less lurid than our modern imaginations might expect but still creepy in a peculiarly Victorian manner; Corrigan says Carroll is portrayed as “… a gentle ancestor of Lolita‘s Humbert Humbert.”
The book was also reviewed in the Washington Post last week.
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Audio; UNABR; Books on Tape; 9780307713469; $90
Audio and eBook available from OverDrive.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Melanie’s book is fantastic, and my guess is that it will be popular with many book groups. Check out her lovely website too. But she admits it’s fiction, and as someone who’s just written a biography of Lewis Carroll (out on 2 February) can I just put in a word for poor Lewis – I mean the REAL Lewis Carroll. He really, really didn’t have an obsession with Alice. He did however have something else in mind about “Alice”. Ever wondered why Alice in the illustrations has long fair hair, whereas little Alice Liddell had short dark hair? There are some interesting stories in the real Lewis Carroll’s life.. My biography relies on documentation, it’s footnoted and could be used for school work, but I really hope it’s readable too, because Lewis Carroll was such an interesting man. The title’s THE MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL. .