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Biography & Autobiography. Family & Relationships. Nonfiction. HTML:In Calvin Trillin�??s antic tales of family life, she was portrayed as the wife who had �??a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day�?� and the mother who thought that if you didn�??t go to every performance of your child�??s school play, �??the county would come and take the child.�?� Now, five years after her death, her husband offers this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page�??an educator who was equally at home teaching at a university or a drug treatment center, a gifted writer, a stunningly beautiful and thoroughly engaged woman who, in the words of a friend, �??managed to navigate the tricky waters between living a life you could be proud of and still delighting in the many things there are to take pleasure in.�?� Though it deals with devastating loss, About Alice is also a love story, chronicling a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Calvin Trillin desperately tried to impress a young woman who �??seemed to glow.�?� �??You have never again been as funny as you were that night,�?� Alice would say, twenty or thirty years later. �??You mean I peaked in December of 1963?�?� �??I�??m afraid so.�?� But he never quit trying to impress her. In his writing, she was sometimes his subject and always his muse. The dedication of the first book he published after her death read, �??I wrote this for Alice. Actually, I wrote everything for Alice.�?� In that spirit, Calvin Trillin has, with About Alic… (more)
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About Alice has all those elements but it is, at heart, a profound love
One of my favorite parts is when he talks about what it is like to be with an extremely attractive woman, to watch the way other men react to her. I have plenty of personal experience with this and he helped me see things that I "knew" but had never been able to articulate.
Any man interested in really knowing about love ought take this book to heart.
The book isn't very long. It clocks in at a mere 78 pages but he said all he had to say in that period. The book is in kind of a free form format, where Trillin goes into how they met, how they came to be married and what their lives were like in the early days. He also plays amateur psychologist and tries to analyze Alice's personality via her father's business failings etc. But he also skips around raising specifics about Alice, her deeds, her love of her kids, and her personality. It is at once touching and warm. It makes me yearn for a love like this between two people who have the intelligence and warmth to realize that this relationship of theirs is uncommon and to appreciate each other as seemingly no other has before.
Brief Summary: Trillin's wife Alice made frequent appearances in his writing, and it was obvious he loved her fully and deeply. This little book, written five years after her death from cancer, chronicles their love story, paints a portrait of a talented and generous woman, and
Brief Thoughts: Touching and often amusing (as Trillin often is), this book is a lovely tribute to a special woman and a tender look at a strong marriage between soul mates. If only all of us could be so lucky to be loved and adored like Alice obviously was.
This is a slim volume. The Audiobook was only 1hr 17mins long. A quick read.
About Alice is part memoir, part tribute and all love story. Trillin met his future wife at a party and instantly fell in love. Friends claimed that they were George Burns and Gracie Allen, with Alice playing George. These two opposites proved to be the perfect compliment. Not only was Alice a talented writer as well, but also a dedicated teacher. Their happiness was threatened in 1976 when Alice was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 38 and given only two years to live. Amazingly, she survived another 25 years before succumbing to heart disease--her heart being damaged by the radiation treatment that saved her life years before.
It is obvious how much of a hole Alice's death has left in Trillin's life. Not only was she his wife, but he also depended on her to proofread, edit, and critique his many works. In the dedication of the first book published after her death, Trillin writes "I wrote this for Alice. Actually, I wrote everything for Alice." Many women would be envious to have a husband who could write so eloquently about his love for his wife.
After reading About Alice, I'm impressed enough with both Trillin's writing and Alice that I plan to read some of his other works including Travels with Alice, and Alice, Let's Eat.
This is a heartwarming paean of love and gratitude to his wife, who had died five years earlier.
It's not sad or depressing, it is an uplifting and inspirational celebration of her as wife, mother, and very much as her own wonderful self.
Count your blessings and enjoy everything,
Now, five years after her death, her husband offers this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page, an educator who was equally at home teaching at a university or a drug treatment center, a gifted writer, a stunningly beautiful and